Conviction
by The Struggling Warrior
Summary: They thought that they were ready for any threat. Years of training and preparation made them confident in their power and bonds. As their allies fell and their beliefs are pushed to the limit, though, the half-ghosts quickly learned how wrong they were. Every empire must one day fall, and all that will be left are piles of blood, tears, and ash. (Book 3 in Obsession series)
1. The Test

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Like any man, when he's pushed to his limits, he's capable of anything. When someone strikes at the one's he loves, he will take any steps necessary. He's looking for answers, for the truth. He will stand by his convictions." Unknown

* * *

Third in Obsession series…

First came the proof of existence. Then came the road for forgiveness. Now comes a test of faith and...

 **Conviction**

Chapter 1: "The Test"

 _Many people say that peace is merely the time in between wars that is needed in order to prepare for the next conflict. In my experience, this is the complete and utter truth. After a year of constant conflict and fighting, the Phantom Family was given a time to recover and rest. For once, we were able to stop and enjoy life without the threat of the end of life as we knew it on the horizon._

 _Not to say that there weren't problems and setbacks, of course. Life always has some bumps in the road. In fact, I personally was having some issues with my closest friends. Overall, though, it was the simplest and best time of my life._

 _And it all ended in a blur of flames and blood._

 _Reality came crashing down around us. We were reminded just how difficult life could be. Our peaceful lives came to a crashing halt, and there was no going back. Not only that, it all started in such a terrible way. In an instant, a man's life was forever changed and ruined, a longtime friend was attacked and defeated, and a young girl was corrupted into insanity._

 _I remember that day well. Friday, September 13, 2013. That was the day it all began. It was the single unluckiest day of our lives, and things only got more difficult from there._

 _In a spiral of chaos and terror, our lives began to change forever. Our friendships would be tested. Our morals would be pushed. Who we were would be erased and all that would be left was small traces of what used to be._

 _Even the greatest of empires must someday fall. There are no exceptions throughout history. No one can stay on top forever. Even the Phantom Family would have to someday accept this truth._

 _In the background, our enemies began to plot. Consequences for past actions began to occur. Fate and free choice clashed in the ultimate of struggles. It was the beginning of the end. It was our ultimate trial. It was a test of just how far we were willing to go to stay true to our beliefs._

 _Sadly, none of us were ready for it. The League. The Council of ghosts. Young Justice. We were all caught off guard in the worst possible way. That only made the trials harder as the world came crashing down around us._

 _For the longest time, I tried to forget the events that led to the end of our world. It is so hard to do so, however, when even looking down reminds me of all that I lost. I fought so hard too, yet I failed to save what was most important in the end._

 _In the end, I couldn't stop him from…_

 _How weak I have become? I can't even write about it properly anymore._

 _Everyone…Please forgive me. Forgive this fool who can only document the tortures we went through instead of doing something to make it right. I wish I could do more than read old books of our past deeds and try to bestow a bit of knowledge to the only bit of legacy we have left._

 _If only we found a way. I know that it was impossible considering the circumstances, but we did the impossible before. In the end, I suppose even miracles have a limited amount that be used on one group of people, and we used ours up a long time ago._

 _That was made abundantly clear when_ —

The rest of the page was damaged. Nothing more could be read through the stains of blood.

-From the personal memoirs of Danielle Masters

* * *

(Friday-September 13, 2013)

" _Have you gone senile, old fart?_ " A deep voice sounded out of a futuristic looking white thermos on a pedestal. The voice, while menacing, had a drawing influence that would cause pause to all who were not careful of the being of massive destruction held within the thermos. " _The first time you've talked to me in years, and all you do is talk to me in riddles."_

A floating old man with a purple cloak stood before the thermos. His skin was a frosty blue that would be seen on a man if he was frozen. Pure crimson pools of eyes stared down at the thermos. The man gripped his stopwatch staff close to his chest with the interworking of a grandfather clock in it.

Clockwork sighed. "You are a sad individual. You lack the perception to see the truth when I have just revealed it to you."

" _I get it. Ghosts have sad lives, and then they die. That's how it's always been. The only question is why should I care?_ " The voice boomed from the thermos.

"Because you are a ghost too, Daniel." Clockwork gained a deep frown as his form shifted from an old man to a small child with buck teeth. "That means something."

" _Does it? I came from two different half-ghosts, remember?_ " The voice chuckled.

"I remember everything. I know everything." Clockwork mentioned.

" _Then you know that in the future that I come from, I killed you, right?_ " The sickening glee from the voice was quite audible.

"It didn't stick, though, did it? I am alive for the time being." Clockwork shook his head and aged in a full adult in the prime of his life.

" _Until I escape and kill you, you mean?_ "

"Fool. I said it before, it won't be you that puts an end to my life." Clockwork sighed.

" _You talk like you already have one foot in the grave…I don't like this. What's happening? Why are you even talking to me?_ " The voice demanded.

"The day has come." Clockwork explained. "We are out of time. The future is uncertain to all from this point on, especially me. That means…"

" _What? What is it!?"_ The voice growled. " _This is why I hate you, you know. Talking to you is so frustrating. You're far too sentimental, and you take too long. Not everyone has all the time in the world like you."_

"No…No one has any more time…" Clockwork paused. His domain of clocks and mirrors began to tremble and creak. "Because the end has begun."

The shaking continued to the point that the various clocks and mirrors began to crack and fall. Dark energy began to surge all around Clockwork and the ghost contained in the Thermos. With a wave of his hand, the Master of Time created a shield around them. The green energy bubble stopped the dark energy from getting to them, but explosions began to push against the shield. Their protection would quickly fall against the force of the blows.

" _Answer me, Clockwork!"_ The voice shouted. " _What is happening?!"_

"Remember, Daniel, your existence is in the balance as well." Clockwork grabbed the thermos and lifted it up.

" _My existence?_ "

"I can only hope that I'm not creating an even bigger threat…" Clockwork mentioned. "If this fails…"

" _Clockwork!"_

"Goodbye, Daniel. It is time." Clockwork raised his heads and looked at the explosions that were all around him. They had come for him. If he waited too long, then he would never have a chance. "And it begins…Beware the Phantom…"

With that, Clockwork removed the cap from the thermos and pressed the release button to free one of the most dangerous ghosts in existence.

The test of conviction had begun.

* * *

 **Next update: "Calm Days" on May 25, 2015**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

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	2. Calm Days

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war."

Gerry Adams

* * *

Chapter 2: "Calm Days"

(Friday-September 13, 2013)

Amity Park was a city well-known throughout the world. Like Gotham City and Metropolis, it was famous for its residents. Unlike the other cities, though, Amity Park wasn't famous for the living. No, the city was known for being the most haunted city in the world. Most people would be ashamed of such a title. The people of Amity Park were proud of their fame, however, because the ghosts that haunted their town were not the malevolent kind, far from it in fact.

The ghosts of Amity Park protected the city in which they lived. The city had over a dozen different incredibly powerful ghosts protecting it. Despite the numerous threats that once stood against the city, the ghosts protected the city and defeated every villain that stood in their way. For that reason, super villains had avoided the city for years now. Amity Park even gained the nickname the Hornet's Nest in the underground community.

Despite their fame and power, though, the ghosts were still able to hide easily, though. No one besides their allies new where they lived despite the fact that it was a well-known place. The reason for that was simple. The ghosts had secret identities just like other heroes. There was only a small difference. Four of the ghosts in Amity Park were half-breeds. They were half human and half ghost. The technical term of these hybrids were ghouls, but most of the ghosts and allies of the ghosts often referred to them as halfas.

The halfas's human forms were actually high profile humans. They all lived in the best neighborhood in the city and in the biggest home. Masters Mansion was the place that the halfas called home. It was a large, white estate that was the size of several homes. The size and isolation of the mansion was what allowed all the ghosts to live in peace.

Well, peace was a strong word. The ghosts lived in Masters Mansion. That was the best way to describe it. Peace had nothing to do with the equation. This was especially true in the mornings.

" _Danny, it's time to wake up._ " A computerized female voice sounded through a large room in the mansion. The room was the ten times the size of a regular room. Most parts of the walls were lined with outlines, blueprints, and posters. Scraps of metal and half-finished inventions were spread across several desks that were lined with computer monitors. At the end of the room was a line of couches that faced towards a massive TV. _"Don't make me blare the screamo music again."_

"Gah…" An eighteen year old man with long shaggy black hair stated as he rolled out of his king sized beg. "I'm up. I'm up. You can calm down."

The man named Danny Fenton stood up to his full height of about six feet. Sleeping shirtless, Danny's torso was exposed. His body was lined with muscles that came from years of fighting and training. Surprisingly, he lacked a lot of scars despite his deadly clashes. The only scars that lined his body were ten different finger sized scars. Five appeared over his defined stomach, and five showed on his lower back.

" _If I don't threaten you, you won't get up._ " The A.I. mentioned. Danny had created her in an attempt to help with several different tasks. He decided to give her a familiar personality in order to avoid the A.I. betraying him.

"It was one time, J.A.Z.Z. Over a year and a half ago…" Danny yawned and stretched. As he did this, three duplicates appeared beside him in a blaze of green. These duplicates were almost identical to the man, except that they had a darker skin tone, pure white hair, and glowing green eyes.

These duplicates instantly flew over to the various work stations in the room. As they did this, the original quickly got ready for his day. Knowing that he lacked a lot of time, he didn't spend a whole lot of time relaxing.

Exiting the bathroom once he was done, Danny spoke to the A.I. once more. "Alright…What do I have to do today?"

" _Let's see…Breakfast first. Then you have a meeting at Axion Labs. Then your video conference calls. Oh, and you need to make a public appearance as both Phantom and Fenton today. Also, you're meeting at the Cave today for training. Then you told me to remind you to work on your personal projects again. Plus, there's the box you have to pick up from the store..."_ Jazz spoke out.

"Right…" Danny sighed. "The same as yesterday…How much sleep did I get last night, anyway?"

" _Three hours._ "

Danny groaned as he turned to his duplicates. He was lucky that his powers made it so that he didn't need as much sleep as a normal person. "Beats yesterday's two hours, I guess…"

* * *

"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…" A loud snoring sounded through another room in Masters Mansion. This room had the walls covered as well. Unlike Danny's room, though, it was a bit more colorful and creative. Paintings and drawings were spread everywhere. Dozens of shelves were filled with sculptures and figurines that were all initialed 'DM.'

Along with that, there were dozens of pictures spread across the room. The photos were of several very different and unique people. The framed pictures covered the room's desk, television, and entertainment center.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Crash!

In the corner of the large room, an arm slipped out of the pile of sheets, covers, and pillows. A blast of green energy flashed out of the slim, pale arm and destroyed the alarm clock that sat by the bed. With that done, the arm went slack and a soft feminine groan sounded out from the bed.

"Dani!" A woman's voice sounded from the door. The voice was silky and cunning. "I know you broke your alarm again. You need to get up."

"Mgggggaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh…." A voice moaned from the bed.

"I don't care if you're tired." The woman from behind the door noted. "I'm determined to have everyone at breakfast today, so get up, or I'll be forced to take extreme measures."

"Iwaaaaaaaaaaaaaack…"

"Alright, you asked for that." The woman's voice sighed.

The bed was covered in a purple glow and lifted into the air. Once in the air, the bed tilted to the side and dumped the pile onto the floor. This revealed what appeared to be a teenage girl with long raven hair.

"Noooooo…Five more minutes…"

"Fine. I'll have to be cruel. Cujo, get her."

"Bark!" A green puppy fazed through the closed door. The puppy ghost instantly rushed to the pile and began to lick the teenager's face.

"Gah! Bleck! Fine, I'm up!" Dani Masters sat up from her pile of sheets. Despite her wild hair and disheveled appearance, the girl still had a gorgeous face and piercing blue eyes. Her loose fitting shirt and shorts hung to her to reveal the fourteen year old's distinctly feminine form.

"Good, stay up and get ready. I'll be back in ten minutes to make sure you haven't gone back to sleep." The woman noted as she walked away.

"I hear you, Mom…" Dani picked up the green puppy in her lap and stood. She looked over to her smashed alarm on her nightstand, or more specifically, the picture next to the alarm. The photo held five different children standing outside Masters Mansion. One of them was a younger version of Dani, while the other four were a few old friends. Sighing at the picture from almost three years ago, Dani turned and with a sad look began to get ready for her day. "I hear you…"

* * *

Even the wildest families have oddities. During the mornings, almost every room in the mansion is loud. There were exceptions, though. Some of the rooms and the inhabitants were oddly quiet in the morons. One room was always dead silent because the person that lived in that room was deadly silent.

The inside of the room could be described as somewhat Spartan. Different kinds of weapons were on display throughout the room. This included more ancient weapons such as swords and staffs and newer weapons such as ectoplasmic pistols and bazookas. There were also a few pictures on the walls. Besides that, there was a single bed in the room that was already perfectly made and neat. The reason for that was simple. The person who slept in this room had been awake for hours.

Joel sat on a small mat in the middle of the room. His eyes were closed, and his legs were crossed. The thirteen year old boy had very short, trimmed black hair. His face was calm, but a large scar that stretched from his right eyebrow up into his hair line stole the attention from his face. This boy, while not related to anyone in the family of ghosts dubbed the Phantom Family genetically, had long since been accepted as an important member of the ghosts in Amity Park. He even took Danny's last name and posed as a long lost cousin to the older halfa.

"Gah…" A large creature behind Joel stirred. He was a large werewolf ghost with pitch black hair and green eyes. Green shorts and a green hoody covered the beast ghost named Wulf. "I smell food."

"Good morning, Wulf." Joel Fenton did not open his eyes.

Wulf grunted and got to his feet. "Morning, Joel…"

"Like every morning, I have to ask…Why are you in my room?" Joel questioned. "You have a room of your own."

"Gah…Jaguars." Wulf shrugged. "They keep me up. Your room is the quietest besides Greta's, but it would be weird to sneak into her room, so…"

"Why are there jaguars in your room?" Joel asked.

"Let's just say that it's complicated and leave it at that." Wulf rolled his head.

"But…"

"Hey, I don't tell you how to live your life." Wulf glared at the teen.

"Fine, fine. At least you're quiet." Joel didn't mention that even though the werewolf ghost was silent, Wulf still woke him up every time he entered. The teen had training earlier in his life by the League of Shadows. Thus, he usually very aware of what was happening around him. "But you know…you could just admit that Vision told you to sneak in here."

"What? Psh…Why would she ask me to do that?" Wulf looked sheepish. "It's not like she's worried that the fact that you're a teenager now and that a girl you have a crush on is in the house will cause you and Greta to do something stupid."

"There's nothing between me and Greta." Joel's face was completely calm. His body didn't move. It was the perfect lie, quite unlike the terrible jaguar lie.

"Right, because it's not like I can't smell the hormone changes when you two are together." Wulf snorted.

"If you say so." Joel opened his eyes and turned to Wulf. "By the way…Did you mention that you smelled breakfast?"

"Right! I forgot!" Wulf jumped up and ran out of the room.

Joel waited until he was gone, and then gave a small smile. "And that is how you change the subject…"

* * *

"Good morning!" Danny rushed into the dining room. He wore a lab coat over his normal white shirt with green flame patterns along with his darkened jeans. The man quickly grabbed a plate of food and began to walk away. "Thanks! Running late."

"Danny." A woman dressed in purple robes spoke calmly to the man. Vision had long since forgone her usual purple headdress and veil at home, so her long blond hair and beautiful tan face was freely seen. "Sit. We are having breakfast all together for once."

"But I have work I need to get done." Danny argued. "If I don't start now, I might end up having to work tomorrow."

"Daniel, listen to Vision." A well-dressed man with long white hair pulled into a pony tail spoke to the younger halfa. Vlad Masters' strong chin was covered by a white goatee, and his calculating blue eyes stared at the second eldest halfa. "You're not going to leave on her watch. So, you can either sit down calmly or have her restrain you."

"Ah…Fine…" Danny sat down at the dining table. Despite the massive size of the dining room, the table wasn't ridiculously long. Vision wanted a more personal eating experience. She always argued that a larger table could be brought in for guests.

"Good." Vision nodded to the man.

Dani snorted at the man she considered an older brother. She wore a light blue blouse and light jeans that hugged her developing curves. Her usual red beanie was over her long dark hair. "You thought that you could actually get away with that? I thought you were smarter than that."

"You tried that two minutes ago…" Joel mentioned dryly.

"Shh! Don't tell him that!" Dani glared at him. "Besides, I got further than he did."

"Yes, and Vision actually had to force you to sit." Joel mentioned.

"Yeah, I thought I could move fast enough." Dani sighed. "I should have used duplicates."

"It wouldn't have helped." Vision noted.

"Man, no one is letting me get away with anything…" Dani grumbled as she took a bite of her eggs.

"Considering what you get away with on a regular basis, I don't think that this is much to complain about, Lady Spirit." Most people would be frightened by the shadowy knight at the table. Everyone in the mansion was used to the Fright Knight now, though. It was years ago that the knight wearing black armor with silver shoulder pads, gauntlets, and helm dedicated himself to serving Danny Phantom.

"Oh…Fair enough." Dani conceded.

"By the way, my Liege." The Fright Knight turned to his master. "What has you so busy? Can I assist you with anything?"

"No, I don't think you can." Danny chuckled. "Not unless you can understand nanobot technology, can deal with several different conference calls at once, and deal with the Team." With that, he turned his attention back to his breakfast.

"…No, I do not believe that I could help all that much." The Fright Knight admitted.

"Oh! Speaking of the Team, am I getting a juicy mission today?" Dani questioned with a grin.

"You'll just have to wait to find out. Just like everyone else." Danny snorted. "That includes you, Joel. I know you tried to hack my computer. Only Nightwing and I get to know about potential missions until they're approved."

"How did you know I did that?" Joel blinked. He could have sworn he dusted off the finger prints.

"There were dents on my dashboard, dude." Danny snorted. "You have many talents, Joel. Hacking is not one of them."

"Right…" Joel nodded. "Stupid computer."

"How can you be so good at video games, but suck at using most tech?" Dani questioned.

"Secret." A blond haired girl wearing a white hooded robe spoke up. She wore a gentle smile on her face as her piercing blue eyes danced in amusement. A silver pendant hung proudly around her neck, "It's one of the many mysteries of life."

"Like why you still make that 'Secret' joke, Greta?" Joel inquired to the girl.

"Exactly. The answer should be simple, but it is forever out of our grasp." Greta nodded.

"That's very deep, Greta." The Fright Knight noted. "I just thought you liked making the joke because it annoys people."

"Well…there is that." Greta conceded.

"Yes, and…Danny, get off your phone." Vision glared at the halfa man.

"But I have to deal with something at Axion labs." Danny argued.

"And Dani, stop trying to manipulate the hash browns to jump into the Danny's face."

"But you told me to keep up on my control training." Dani mentioned.

"And Joel, quit feeding Cujo from the table. He's had his food.

"Alright, but don't blame me when he jumps up on the table." Joel shrugged.

"I will stop him." Vision noted. "Please. Just one calm morning breakfast where we all pay attention and have calm conversations. That is all I ask for. Will you give me that?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good."

"GOOD MORNING!" A red skinned giant chose that moment to rush into the room. The giant of a ghost had blue swirl tattoos across his body along with several different scars. His spiky black hair was long and shaggy just like his hakama pants.

"Colossus?" Danny blinked at his old rival. "Why are you here?"

"Young Spirit asked me to come today! She said that you having a good breakfast and that I needed to come!" Collosus roared as he walked to the dining table.

"…" Vision glared at her adopted daughter. "Why did you do that?"

"Well, you dumped me out of bed, sicked Cujo on me to wake me up, and restrained me to my chair so I couldn't leave." Dani grinned mischievously. She held up her phone and showed a text to Colossus. "I call this revenge."

"Let's eat." Colossus sat. The force of the giant's flop to the ground caused the table and food to jump up and spread everywhere.

Pulling at the eggs in her hair, Vision glared at Colossus. "Must you always cause a mess?"

"Hahahahaha! That's half the fun of eating!"

It was at this moment of distraction for Vision that Cujo discretely jumped up and began to tear into Wulf's bacon. The werewolf ghost obviously didn't like that. He tacked Cujo onto the table. "Don't touch my bacon!"

Reacting to the tackle, Cujo's puppy form shifted into a massive attack dog form. This allowed the two canine ghosts to roll around and fight on the table. Food spread everywhere.

Vision was about to restrain them, but Dani quickly jumped into action. "Alright! Food fight!"

Using her ectoplasmic powers, Dani threw food all across the table. The food splattered everywhere and caused more chaos as Greta was covered in greasy food. Now upset that her white clothes were stained, the blond ghost used her golden smoke to attack Dani in retaliation. The smoke was blocked, though, and it spread across the room to make it difficult to see.

Food continued to fly through he smoke, though. Seeing this, the Fright Knight jumped unto the table to shield Danny. "Don't worry, my Liege! I will not allow you to get dirty before your meetings!"

"You do realize we could all just use intangibility?" Danny chuckled.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha!" Colossus roared in laughter. He slammed in fist into the table. "Now this is an exciting breakfast!"

Unfortunately, the force of the giant's fist caused the table to crumble. This caused everyone on the table and all the food to fall and to spatter on everything and everyone around the area. It was then that everything erupted into chaos as playful fights broke out and laughter spread across the room.

Joel, who stayed out of the conflict, turned to Vision. "You do know that you could have avoided this…"

"I know." Vision sighed.

"Hehehe…Don't worry, my dear." Vlad placed an arm over her shoulder and comforted his fiancé. "This is simply how we are."

"True…" Vision couldn't help but smile at her family despite the chaos. "This is just a regular morning for us…"

* * *

"Don't worry, Mr. Luthor." Danny grinned at the screen. "We'll get the schematics for the new jet to you soon enough."

" _I have no doubts, Mr. Fenton_." A bald man wearing an expensive suit smiled back. _"Your work is always top notch. I just wish that you would give me a peak at your personal projects."_

Danny laughed. "I'm sorry, Lex! You know that no one gets to use my weapons but me. You won't be getting your hands on the Red X suit or the Exorcist armor any time soon."

" _I remember a time where you refused to sell ectoplasmic weapons at all."_ Luthor mentioned. _"It's hard to keep secrets in this world."_

"My personal weapons are no secret. Everyone knows about them." Danny stated. "Thing is…no one can use my weapons but me. If anyone even touches them, they'll regret it. I've learned from my past mistakes."

" _I'm sure. You're no fool, Daniel._ "

"That's a big compliment coming from you." Danny snorted. "Anyway, I'll sent the schematics tomorrow. If you'll excuse me, though, I have other meetings I have to attend."

" _I completely understand. I have several meetings to attend to myself. Goodbye, Daniel._ " Lex nodded.

"Goodbye." Danny nodded back and canceled the feed. Now free from the eyes of Lex Luthor, Danny let out a groan. "Gah…I hate dealing with that guy…"

"That's what you get for trying to keep up a ruse with your enemies." A woman of Asian descent snorted as she walked up behind Danny. This tall thin woman with her hair pulled back into a pony tail was Harriet Chin, the personal publicist for the Phantom Family.

"Keeping the relations open with the Light could be helpful in the future." Danny looked over shoulder to his longtime friend and ally. The halfa was referring to the criminal organization called the Light. This group had control over most of the criminal world. Their control was so deep that they could actually instigate several huge conflicts such as the ghost's war against the Guys in White and the massive criminal attack of Amity Park over two years ago.

"Very true, but you knew it wasn't going to be fun~" Harriet sang out.

"Yeah, yeah…" Danny grumbled and leaned back in his chair. They were currently in Fenton Works' lab. Danny basically took over his old home as his personal workshop. The entire basement was filled with moving equipment, half-finished weapons, and a Fenton Ghost portal. "Is there a reason you're here?"

"Someone has to keep you in line." Harriet noted. "You do know that you have public meetings today, not just this computer stuff."

"I know." Danny sighed and looked at the numerous monitors at his station. "Luckily, I've got all my online meetings done. I'm on time for once. J.A.Z.Z. has me on a strict schedule."

" _And for once, you actually listened to me._ " J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded from the phone of desk. " _Now you actually have time for lunch today. Make sure to eat healthy today. You need to eat more vegetables._ "

"Right…" Danny snorted. "Jazz, you're my A.I., not my caretaker."

"… _Fine…_ " The A.I. noted.

Danny rolled his eyes, "Don't pout."

Harriet laughed, "Now this is funny. Arguing with your own assistant program."

Danny snorted, "Everyone else makes fun of me, why not my A.I.?"

"Fair point," Harriet smiled. "Remember, you have a meeting with Silas at Axion Labs, and Danny Phantom promised to show up at the charity event."

"I know. I know." Danny waved her off. "You don't have to keep reminding me of everything. I have J.A.Z.Z. for that."

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure that you were thinking straight." Harriet laughed as she left the room.

"Huh? What does that mean?" Danny paused at his desk. He was about turn around when he was stopped.

"I think that she thought that you would be distracted by me." Valerie Gray noted as she hugged her boyfriend from behind. The eighteen year-old African American woman wore a red blouse and black skirt that hugged her rather curvaceous form. Her bright green eyes shined with mischief as her long brown hair slid over her shoulders.

"Val…" Danny looked to see his girlfriend place her chin on his shoulder. "I thought you had class today."

"I skipped." Valerie shrugged. "I hate my history professor anyway. Spending the day with you sounds a lot better than listening to him drivel on. I can just get notes from my friends later."

"Oh, so the righteous Red Huntress is actually skipping class." Danny chuckled as Valerie released him and sat on the table in front of him. "It seems that this slacker has finally rubbed off on you."

"Slacker? Danny, all you do is work." Valerie gave a smile as she spoke.

"That's not the way people talk, though." Danny mentioned. "Apparently, I should be going to college as well as all my other crap."

"To be fair, they don't know that you're Danny Phantom." Valerie smiled. "They only know about half your work."

"Tsk…I hate being a public figure. Everyone's all in my business." Danny groaned and leaned back in his chair. "Can't get any peace…"

"Then take the afternoon off." Valerie suggested. "We can just relax for once."

"Val, you know I can't." Danny sighed. "I have a ton of work to do. I have responsibilities that I have to take care of."

"You sound a lot older than eighteen." Valerie mentioned. "Danny, you shouldn't take so much stuff on your shoulders. It's not healthy, and we should enjoy the free time we have together."

"I know. I know. But I have set days off, you know." Danny stated. "That's why I need to get all my work done. So I can rest over the weekend."

"Alright. I get it." Valerie smiled. "You don't mind company, though, do you?"

"No, but it's going to get boring. You sure you don't want to go anywhere else?" Danny questioned.

"Naw, I'm fine as long as we're together." Valerie chuckled and got up. "So, where to first?"

"I needed to go to Axion labs to talk to Silas about a project…" Danny paused for a second. "But you know what; I think he can do without me. And later, I can get Amorpho to cover for me at the charity event. And I can just leave my own work until tomorrow. That leaves my afternoon completely free."

"You sure?" Valerie questioned.

"Yeah. The Danny of tomorrow is going to be pissed about it, but I don't care about that guy right now." Danny stood and took Valerie in his arms. "I think I'll act my age today and do something fun."

"Sounds good to me." Valerie grinned and pulled the taller man down for a kiss. Suddenly, work didn't seem to matter much anymore.

* * *

"…" Dani frowned as she looked across the empty lunchroom table. "Well…This sucks."

"What sucks?" A very pale girl with violet hair sat down in front of Dani. She wore a dark purple hoody and black pants. Her clothes were very baggy and the hood over her head hid most of her snow white skin from view.

"Oh. It was because no one was here..." Dani mentioned.

"Good to know where I rank." Rachel Roth muttered dryly.

"I said it before you got here." Dani rolled her eyes. "No need to be all upset about it."

"I don't get upset." Rachel noted. "The biggest reaction you will ever get out of me is apathy."

"Uh huh…" Dani placed her cheek in her right palm and grinned cheekily. "Please, I've seen you rage out a bunch of times."

"Those moments don't count. You and Nyx were involved." Rachel sighed.

"…Right, Nyx…" Dani's grin instantly fell. "It's been a week."

"Are you really worried? Nyx ditches school all the time." Rachel eyed the empty spots at their table.

"It's been too quiet, though." Dani's eyed narrowed. "Sure, she's taken weeks off before, but she usually showed up to do something after school. Plus…Pandora's been quiet lately. She won't respond to any of my messages."

Rachel looked at the seat next to hers. It was the seat that Nyx usually occupied. "True. Perhaps it is time to look into. Your instincts have never really been wrong before."

"…Then would you think that I'm insane to worry about Victor?" Dani looked to the other empty seat at the table.

"No, that has me concerned too." Rachel's lips pursed. "There's a home game tonight. Victor wouldn't even think about missing that."

"Yeah." Dani leaned back and crossed her arms. "Vic and Nyx are missing…Damn, I don't feel good about today."

"Friday the 13th. Bad Juju." Rachel acknowledged. "People mock this day, but they forget that numbers have always played an important role in luck, fate, and witchcraft."

"That sounds like something Mr. Blood would say." Dani mentioned. "He must be rubbing off on you."

"Yeah…" Rachel nodded. "I've learned more things from him than just magic."

"Right…" Dani nodded. "But you are right about the day. Something is off. And what's worse…My Premonition is sounding like crazy in my head."

"Is an enemy going to attack?" Rachel tensed as she gathered magical energy just in case.

"No…it's the boys…" Dani's right eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Their stares and intentions are disgusting."

Rachel groaned and placed her face in her palm. "Dani…"

"You may be able to sense emotions, but at least you can't hear about how they want to use them." Dani hissed. "How can guys think about sex so much? I mean, I think about it too, and I get that puberty is a pain in the ass; but they are just ridiculous."

"Give them a break." Rachel glanced around at the different tables. A lot of the boys in the lunchroom were giving them glancing looks. "We all have troubles with puberty. Girls have to deal with a lot of crap, but at least we don't have to fight off mating instincts older than our species. I pity them."

"Well, I don't. You don't hear them…" Dani snorted and looked away. "And I'm too distracted to limit what intentions I hear. Life was easier when I could only hear physical threats. Now it seems like the only time I get any quiet is when I'm at home, and that's just sad considering how loud we all are."

"I don't think today is the day to hide behind jokes, Dani." Rachel frowned. "Three friends are missing at our table after all."

"Three…Not Greta…So, you still act like Chuck counts." Dani looked to a chair at the very end of the table. "But he hasn't counted in a long time…"

Rachel looked away. "I may not be able to read intentions, but I can read emotions. He counts. You know it. He's always counted."

"Two and a half years, Rach." Dani muttered.

"That doesn't matter. Feelings never change. Not yours. Not his." Rachel hid under the shadow of her hood. Of course, Youngblood's feelings were far different from Dani's. Rachel started working on her empathy abilities right before he left. She knew what he really felt, but she couldn't tell Dani. It wasn't her place to reveal the emotions of others."

* * *

"Hey, Joel! How's it going?"

"Joel, could you help me with my homework? I suck at algebra."

"Check this out, Joel, this video is hilarious."

Joel smiled and greeted the various people in the hallway. He made sure to be as polite as possible to the people that he went to school with. His natural intensity, athletics, whit, and intelligence made him well known and somewhat popular, but his usual quiet and introvert kept people at a decent distance.

Overall, though, he was well liked in his school. The normality often leaved him shocked considering how strange his life had been. Of course, this was always what he wanted when he was younger, but it was something odd, or normal, that he had to deal with. Many times, though, the strange aspects of his life came to interrupt the normalcy that felt so strange to him.

Letting the smile on his face drop, Joel walked to the staircase. Quickly running up the stairs, the young teen made his way up to the roof. Now on top of Casper Middle School, the eighth grader walked to the edge and looked across the parking lot down below.

"Why are you here, Carol?" Joel questioned to seemingly no one.

A girl with Asian descent with dark hair and eyes walked out of the shadows. Oddly enough, the girl that was a year older than Joel was wearing a white blouse and blue skirt. She looked like a perfectly normal school girl. "Joel, it's Cassandra. Quit forgetting my name."

"Sorry." Joel shrugged, but did not turn to look at her. He obviously didn't care about getting her name wrong. "Why are you here?"

"I have some information." Cassandra mentioned as she walked beside Joel.

"And why give it to me? And why are you dressed like that?" Joel raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Danny is busy. Dani is with her demon friend, and the Trigon spawn hates me." Cassandra Cain mentioned. "And everyone else in your family might be more difficult to get to than you. As for the clothes, I'm trying to blend in."

"Yeah…" Joel eyed her. "That outfit will totally make you blend in a school with boys entering puberty. You won't get any stares at all."

"Shut up." Cassandra sighed and pulled a piece of paper out of her sling on purse. "Here. This is the information that Mother gained for Danny. Father is still working on his share right now."

"Thanks, I'll give it to Mentor." Joel placed the paper into his pocket. "And thanks for delivering it personally. It must be dangerous coming here so often, but we can't have the information leaked out."

"It's fine." Cassandra shrugged. "It's nice to get away, and I'm not watched like Mother. Besides, my partner Rose disappears all the time in between jobs. Plus…"

"Oh, please. I thought you were over that crush you had on Mentor." Joel snorted.

"I am. That was not what I was going to say, you idiot." Cassandra turned and began to walk away.

"Uh huh…" Joel did not look as Cassandra left. "If you say so."

"Don't think that you can read me so easily, Joel." Cassandra looked over her shoulder to him. "My wants and desires are beyond your understanding."

"If you say so."

"Tsk…Just get going." Cassandra walked back into the shadows. "If you keep standing here, you'll be late for class…Plus, you're going to get soaked."

"Yeah…" Joel looked up at the darkening clouds. "Looks like rain."

* * *

"Damn…" Danny Phantom growled. Now in his full ghost form, the man had white hair, tanner skin, and glowing green eyes. A large black trench coat with white rimming and stitches covered his black and white sleeveless shirt and baggy black and white pants. White flames danced across the edges of all his clothing, even his black boots. On the front of his shirt and on the back of his coat was the famous DP symbol.

"What is it?" A man that was a few inches shorter than Phantom questioned. The sixteen year old teen had slicked down black hair. A domino mask covered his face. His black and blue body suit showed off his muscled body.

"A crap load of work for me, damn it." Phantom grunted. "We got three missions to take care of, Aquaman took all of his protégés, and I have trouble to deal with in Amity Park. Dumbass Silas did something stupid…"

"Shorthanded again, huh?" Nightwing, who went by Robin not long ago, sighed. "Good thing the new recruits are coming in, huh? Been a while. Last new member was Secret."

"Yeah…They can't get here soon enough." Phantom nodded and turned away from the holographic computer at the center of a large cave. They were in the main center of Young Justice's base, Mount Justice, which was located in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. This part of the Cave was mostly rock and metal, but off to the side were several Zeta Tubes which allowed them to teleport across the country. "It's about time with Barb and Jase. Batman's been holding them out for too long."

"To be fair, Jason is really new and Barbara's main problem was getting her father's permission. He thinks that she'll get shot or something." Nightwing shrugged.

"True. I guess I should be grateful for the extra help. The League keeps piling us with missions, yet takes away our members at the drop of a hat." Phantom snorted. "Only down side is that Gar is going to get on my ass again about him joining officially."

"He has been begging since Dusk joined." Nightwing noted. "I thought he would go insane when Secret joined. And now that we have new members coming, I don't think we can stop him."

"Well, then we'll have to put the Beast Boy in his cage." Phantom joked.

"Hey!" A boy's voice rang out through the Cave. "No one is putting me in a cage, dude!"

Turning, the two men saw the members of Young Justice approach them. The boy that spoke had green colored skin, hair, and eyes. Oddly enough, the shapeshifter boy changed his appearance to give him simian features such as a tail and fur that was mostly covered by his red body suit.

"No cage, Gar. He was just joking." Another green skinned person spoke. This female had long red hair and freckles. Her black body suit with an x in front and cape were organic material and changed shape with the Martian woman's will.

"Although, it is tempting…" A man with the appearance of a sixteen year old body spoke. He had jet black hair, a strong chin, and piercing blue eyes. The Super Boy was a very muscular person which was shown by his long sleeved shirt with the famous S shield on the front.

"Tsk…" The green skinned Garfield Logan pouted.

"Don't get upset, Gar." Nightwing laughed. "You'll be uncaged soon enough."

"Yes!" Beast Boy jumped up and cheered.

"But until then, we have a lot of work to do…" Phantom waved his hand and spread out the different images across the group of young heroes.

"Bro, this is a lot…" A red haired man wearing a yellow body suit with red goggles and a red lightning symbol on the front. This was Wally West, aka Kid Flash, the famous speedster of Central City. "What exactly are the missions?"

"Team Alpha will be Miss Martian, Superboy, Rocket, and Kid Flash." Phantom explained. He gestured to pictures of Axion Labs. "We got another tip that the Shadows are going to try and steal more tech. No one knows why yet, but it can't be good."

"Alright. We got this." An African American woman wearing alien tech and a brown leather jacket grinned. This woman was called Rocket, and she used her kinetic energy tech to fight. "The Shadows won't get away from us again. I owe that Jinx a bloody lip from last time we saw her."

"Alright, Team Beta will be Artemis, Zatanna, Spirit, and Raven." Phantom pointed to pictures of the high security prison Belle Reve. "There was a problem at Belle Reve. Someone broke in and busted out a prisoner."

"Someone got busted out of Belle Reve?" A woman with extremely long blond hair question. On her back was a bow and arrow along with her quills. This archer wearing a green top with an arrow on it and green pants was Artemis. "How? Who?"

"It's complicated. Let's just say there's a reason that the four of you are on this mission. I'll have Nightwing fill you in as you go. Take the Supercycle." Phantom ordered.

"That's vague. You trying to be mysterious on us, Danny?" Zatanna questioned. The raven haired woman wore a magician's outfit that hugged to her curves. Her attire quickly gave away her magical abilities.

"No, I just don't have a lot of time. Team Gama will be Red Huntress, Secret, and Dusk." Phantom scowled at the last images that floated above them. "You all will be going to the Ghost Zone."

"The Ghost Zone? What happened?" Valerie Gray was wearing the Red Huntress suit 3.0. Like the previous model, the suit was high tech and colored red and black and color. The newest suit was developed by Danny personally to make sure that his girlfriend was prepared for anything. He made the armor thicker and more durable, yet made the joints so that her movements wouldn't be slowed.

Every inch of the suit was covered in weapons. Her wrists had guns attached. Pistols hung from her waist. Rocket launchers were inside her shoulder and knee pads. There was even an ecto bazooka across her back. Unlike her previous suits, this one's helmet only allowed her eyes to be seen through the black and red metal.

"I don't know, but Vision asked for some of us to come home and look into it with her." Phantom sighed. "I would do it personally, but I have an emergency of my own to deal with."

"Do you have any idea who's involved?" Dusk was Joel's ghost form. In his form, the boy had the same color scheme as Phantom. He wore a black hoody with white swirl patterns across it. Along the right side of his hoody was a large DP symbol. His black pants were covered by white shin and knee armor. The halfa's facial scar had moved from his forehead to his left cheek. His white hair with green highlights was covered by his hood.

"Yes…" Phantom sighed. "Clockwork…"

"That weird guy that you always have tea with? Don't you want to go and help him?" Greta, aka Secret, questioned.

"I do, but I have something else to deal with first." Phantom frowned. "I'll head with you back to Amity Park, and we'll split off from there."

"Something happened back at home?" Dusk's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"

"Axion Lab is doing something stupid. I have to get there before someone gets hurt."

* * *

"Silas!" Daniel Fenton roared as he went into a testing chamber of Axion Labs. The room was large and filled with computers and machinery. At the very end of the room was a large circular device. It looked a lot like a Ghost Portal, but Danny knew better. "Silas, stop this now!"

"Danny?" An aging African American man turned away from the machine to face his boss. His dark brown hair was beginning to grey and his face showed a few wrinkles. On his face were thick glasses that had slid down to the end of his nose. "Please, wait, I've done the math. This is perfectly safe."

"It doesn't matter. I am in charge here. I make these kind of calls." Danny said and looked to two of the scientists at the computers. "Roquette! Tillman! Turn off the machines now!"

"Danny," Elinore Stone walked up to Danny. She hid her age better than her husband. The African American woman was a tall beauty with curly black hair and brown eyes. A lab coat covered her form. "Please, you know that if we do that then the backlash would terrible. All our equipment would be fried."

"I don't care." Fenton glared at the portal as it started to glow and spark when the other scientists tried to turn everything off. This caused them to instantly stop trying to power off the machines, "We can get new equipment. I'm still not sure on the math of the portal you want to make. I know that we're trying to improve the efficiency of the Zeta Tubes, but this will only backfire. If this goes wrong, the result could kill everyone here."

"It's not just the equipment. Some of us might be hurt if we force it off." Silas tried to appease his boss.

"Then I'll call some ghosts and get their help." Fenton glared. "Do not think that this will work, Silas. Just because I took an afternoon off, that doesn't mean that you get to do whatever you want."

"Dad…Maybe you should listen to him…"

It was then that Fenton noticed that there was a minor in the room. Victor Stone was a bulky sixteen year old man. He stood as tall as Fenton and was just as muscular. His dark hair was short and trimmed while his eyes were a sharp brown.

"Victor…Silas, what is your son doing here?" Fenton hissed. "Victor, you need to get out of here now."

"That was just what I was trying to do before you got here." Silas sighed and looked to his son. "Victor, go. We'll talk about your little game later."

"It's not a little game! It's my life! My choice! Football means everything to me, and you haven't even been to one game yet." Victor glared.

"For the love of…Victor, it's just a stupid sport! You waste your brilliance by focusing on brawn." Silas shook his head in disappointment.

"No, Dad, I want to use both." Victor looked like he wanted to say more, but he was stopped. "Please, I've spent all day trying to convince you."

"Yes, and you skipped school! But I'll address that later. As for right now-"

"This argument has to wait!" Fenton stood between the two men and snapped out. "Victor, you need to get out now. It's not safe. In fact, I'm calling for a full evacuation now! Everyone out now!"

The various scientists obeyed instantly. Dozens of people rushed out of the room in waves. With a sigh, even the Stones went to exit the room. Victor followed, and all that was left was Danny. He was going to shut this down. The man could see it. The portal was becoming unstable. Energy sparked wildly as the metal grew red rot. It was going to explode.

In the blinding light, Danny used his powers. No one saw as ghost duplicates rushed out of him and flew to the equipment. This didn't last long, though, because energy burst out from the machines in a blaze. The duplicates were destroyed instantly. Fenton was caught up in the blast and thrown across the room. He crashed into the metal wall and formed a large dent in the solid steel.

While Danny was incredibly durable in both his forms, his human half was obviously the physically weaker side. The blast and landing did not cause any lasting damage to his body, but the man instantly blacked out from the damage. This only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough for everything to go to hell.

"Victor, NO!" Elinore's voice cried out and snapped Danny back to the land of consciousness.

Looking up, the hafla man saw that the room was burnt and destroyed in the blast. The portal was still working, though, but that was a bad thing. Large purple tentacles reached out of what appeared to be a swirling portal of energy. Most people got close enough to the exit for this not to be a problem, but one person got caught by the tentacles.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Victor Stone screamed in pain as a large tentacle held him into the air by his legs. The tentacle then began to squeeze. The cracks and sound off shattering bones were loud enough to be heard over the yells. It was doubtful that those legs would ever be usable again.

"Help!" Victor cried out as the tentacle dragged him through the portal.

"No!" Elinore was restrained by Silas from charging into the portal. The man looked ready to break down, but he knew that charging into the unknown was stupid and would get people killed.

"Damn it…" Fenton pealed himself out of the metal and pulled out his phone. "J.A.Z.Z., activate the Exorcist Armor…"

" _Of course."_

Metal spread out from the metal vest under his clothes. The armor quickly covered his body completely. It was almost purely white with green flames dancing around it and a green flaming F that was on the chest. The armor was jointed and thick, but still allowed for mobility. The jetpack on the back was supposed to allow the fastest speed, though. The left arm was completely covered in a Gatling gun that had retracted a bit to allow Danny to use his hand. On his right arm was a type of canon with double barrels on the top of Danny's forearm.

His shoulders were outfitted with retractable rocket launchers. On the teen's back but on the side of the jet was a rifle, while on his hip was a folded up piece of metal that when activated would turn into a Fenton Shotgun. The shotgun was attached to a belt that was filled with grenades. The feet of the armor had jets on the bottom to allow him to move if the back jet was damaged. The armor's helmet was a metal gas mask that would shield Danny from any airborne toxin and provided him with his own oxygen.

" **Stay back!** " Fenton roared as his jets activated and flew him into the portal. He was glad that he outfitted his armor to fit under his clothes while inactive. The Stones knew about his powers, but none of the other scientists did.

Once through the portal, Fenton was greeted by a site of what looked like to be an anti-Ghost Zone. The entire area was white with swirling energies of different colors across the plain. Different meteors and rocks floated across the space because the entire area seemed to lack a gravitational field.

"Crap…" Fenton now realized where he was. Superman told him stories about this place. Apparently, he and this area shared a name. The Phantom Zone was an alternate reality that existed out of time and space. The Kryptonians used this area to imprison their criminals. In fact, one of Superman's most dangerous foes was trapped here. Danny really hoped that he could avoid running into General Zod.

Looking around, Fenton saw Victor by a larch octopus creature with dozens of eyes. Rushing to the monster, Danny opened fire at the octopus's exposed eyes. Both his Gatling arm and his canon arm sent dozens of green blasts at the exposed eyes of the monster. This caused the creature to roar out in pain and agony. Its arms flared around in turmoil.

Quickly flying to the boy trapped by monster, Fenton used his rocket launchers to destroy the tentacle's lower part and free the teen. Now with a clear path, Danny flew to the boy and grabbed him. Quickly retreating back to the portal, the man looked at his sister's friend. "Oh shit."

Victor was doing very badly. His legs were crushed beyond repair. The monster also seemed to rip off his left arm. Acid burns covered most of his body, especially the left side of his face. One of the worst parts, though, was that the monster took a bite out of him. The boy's internal organs were on display for all to see.

" **RRROOOAAARRR!** " The monster charged after Fenton in a rage. Energy gathered around the mouth of the beast as its tentacles spread out to reveal the circular mouth. A wave of red energy then blasted out towards the men.

"Tsk…" Fenton grunted. Holding Victor in his right arm, the man allowed the Gatling gun on his left arm to retract. Now having a free hand, Danny grabbed a grenade from his belt and threw it back at the energy. It was not a normal grenade, though. It was a Negative Grenade that had the ability to absorb explosions. Thus, it was easily able to stop the blast, though.

This did not stop the monster's charge, though. The octopus monster charged to Fenton with the intent of regaining his meal. Not wanting it to get back to the portal, Fenton reformed his Gatling gun and opened fired behind him. The blasts hit the Negative Grenade and caused it to blow up. The explosion that followed quickly blasted the monster away from the humans.

Now free from the threat, Fenton rocketed through the portal back to Axion Labs. Back in the safety of the lab, Danny gently placed Victor on the ground. He then pointed both of his guns at all the machines and opened fire. The machines shattered before the might of his guns, and the portal instantly turned off before anything else could come through.

"VICTOR!" Elinore ran to her son's side and instantly fell to the ground next to him. She began to sob over the mangled body of her son.

"Son of a…" Silas was incredibly pale at the sight. "Call… CALL AN AMBULANCE RIGHT NOW!"

"No." Fenton shook his head as the metal retreated. "He's too injured. He has only minutes before he dies. And ambulance won't help."

"Then what do you suggest we do?!" Silas was in tears.

"We can save him, Silas." Fenton noted as his armor returned to its vest form. "But it will come at a big cost. He won't be normal ever again."

"You mean…that project you were working on with Roquette and Tillman?" Silas's voice was but a whisper. "But if we do that, then he'll be more machine than man…"

"Maybe, but he'll be alive." Fenton noted. "I can't make this decisions for you, Silas. You're his father. Chose. Do you want him to die, or do you want to make him a cyborg?"

"I…I don't…"

"Do it!" Elinore cried from her spot by the dying Victor. "Don't let my baby die!"

"Yes…I won't let my son die." Silas nodded. "Let's do this."

"Alright." Fenton looked across the scientists that had slowly filtered back into the room. "Get a station ready now! Get all of our medical equipment and supplies! Roquette, Tillman, get the nerve tech! We're going to save Victor's life!"

* * *

"I see why Danny wants us to deal with this." Artemis mumbled as she viewed the security footage. Currently, they were all in the warden's office of Belle Reve. It was darker room, but the chairs they were provided were extremely comfortable. "I also get why he didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone. Greta would have been really upset by this."

"Yeah, she didn't need to be on this mission. We can handle this, but…Why would anyone want to break Harm out in the first place? He has no allies, and everyone hates his guts. Why would anyone help him?" Spirit was the ghost form of Dani. At one time, she wanted to go by Dani Phantom like her brother, but she thought that the similar names would give away their secret identities. Like her normal form, the girl had her white hair pulled up into a pony tail, except this form lacked a hat. Similar to her brother, Dani's skin tone was tanner and her eyes were neon green in her ghost form.

Unlike her brothers, Spirit had changed her uniform more than once because of her changing tastes and style. A black scarf was wrapped around her neck and lower face. The girl had long since forgone her usual jacket and instead wore light leather armor over her chest and torso. This thin black armor with white zigzag lines across the side stood over her white blouse and hugged her feminine form while helping to prevent any incidents of undesired exposure of skin. The white cloth under the armor had a long sleeve on the left arm but no sleeve on the right side, thus revealing her thin yet powerful arm.

A white skirt flowed down her legs. This covered the black tights that ran all the way down her legs to her white sneakers. Like all three halfa in Young Justice, Spirit proudly wore the famous DP symbol on her clothes. In fact, the girl had two sympols on her. One was on the chest of her light armor, and the other one was on the left side of her skirt.

"That is what we are trying to figure out." An African American woman who could be described as somewhat husky. This was the warden of Belle Reve, Amanda Waller. "Unfortunately, most of the footage was destroyed in the chaos and my men are still unconscious, so we have no way of figuring out what happened."

"We…might have a clue." Zatanna entered the office with Raven. Raven was Rachel Roth's vigilante name. She was dressed in a purple cloak which had a hood that covered most of her face. Under the coat was a black leotard which hugged her developing form.

"I think I managed to identify the magical signature that we sensed from the Harm's cell." Raven frowned deeply. "It's…very familiar."

"Whose is it?" Aretmis questioned.

"…Nyx."

"What?!" Spirit jumped to her feet. "Nyx was here?"

"I've never heard of a Nyx…" Waller mentioned. "How do you know her?"

"She's a friend." Raven sighed.

"Really? A friend that breaks out your enemies?" Waller stroked her thick chin. "Did she betray you?"

"NO!" Spirit glared at the woman. "Nyx would never do that."

"But why was she here?" Artemis was deep in thought.

"If it helps, we found another source of energy. Well, really there were multiple sources, but they were identical." Zatanna mentioned. "It's kind of confusing. It's not duplication or anything like that, but twenty people had the same exact energy signature."

"…I recognized that signature too…" Raven looked away.

"Who was it?" Spirit was looking for anything that could get her friend out of trouble.

"…Youngblood." Raven sighed.

"Chuck?" Spirit was confused. "Why was he here?"

"This isn't making any sense." Artemis noted.

Waller was looking at her phone as a report came in from one of her men. "Well…It looks like some footage was recovered. Here, let me pull it up for you."

The warden then turned the screen of the computer to face the girls. A very blurry video played. In the video, a purple haired girl wearing golden armor on her upper torso and a black skirt over her legs was fighting a twelve year old child dressed up as a pirate complete with a hook for a hand and a peg leg.

"That's them alright." Raven scowled.

"Are those skeletons in the background?" Zatanna questioned.

"That's Chuck's pirate crew." Spirit noted.

"They're the ones that are unlocking Harm's cell…" Artemis mentioned.

"So it was the boy that freed Harm?" Waller questioned. "And the girl was trying to stop him."

"…No that's not it." Zatanna leaned in to the screen. "Freeze that image."

Waller complied. "What is it?"

"Look at their faces and eyes." Zatanna pointed to the screne. "I've seen that look before."

Raven glared at the screen. "Youngblood is being controlled. His eyes are pure red while his face is blank. He always used to smile when he fought…"

"And Nyx…her sclera is black." Artemis gained a thoughtful look. "But she seems to be in complete control of herself."

"She's being influenced by something." Zatanna mentioned. "Not completely controlled like the boy, but something is pushing her do something. Kind of like she's being drugged. It's still her, but she can't make clear choices responsibly."

"So they're both being controlled." Waller mentioned. "Obviously by different people, though. One who wants Harm to be free, while the other wants him locked up."

Spirit clenched her fists in anger. How dare someone control her friends like that! She was going to tear those jackasses apart.

"But why would anyone want to free Harm?" Raven questioned.

"Wait…What is that in Youngblood's free hand. It's a huge red gem." Artemis peered at the jewel in the boy's non hook hand.

"I know that gem." Raven's eyes narrowed. "My teacher has a book that explains its purpose. It was made by Morgan Le Fay to control demons and spirits."

"So, an evil sorceress is involved with murdering psychopath's breakout? And they have control over a ghost that is close to your family?" Zatanna paled. "That…Isn't good."

"No…" Spirit in a deep sadness eyed her friends on the screen. "It's not."

* * *

"What the hell happened here?" Red Huntress questioned.

Clockwork's domain was now only rubble. Dark smoke rose from the wreckage and reached up to cover portions of the green, swirling sky. Everything that Clockwork used to observe the flow of time was now destroyed. Standing outside the once beautiful building, Red Huntress and Secret could only look on in shock.

"We don't know…" A giant of a woman stood by the girls. This woman towered over them and had blue skin, long purple hair, and three arms. Golden armor covered her upper body while a dark skirt covered her legs. The helm on her head covered most of her face but allowed her deep red eyes and purple hair to show. "One minute, everything was fine. The next, the place blew up."

"How's Clockwork, Pandora?" Secret questioned.

"Not good…" Pandora sighed and pointed off to some of her servants using a stretcher to carry the unconscious body of the Master of Time away. "He's alive, but not responding. I think he's gone comatose on us."

"Danny is going to be pissed." Red Huntress sighed.

"Everyone is." Pandora clenched her fists. "Someone hurt one of our own. We cannot let this injustice stand."

"But who could possibly do this? Clockwork can stop time." Secret mentioned. "Who can fight that?"

"I don't know, but we will find out…" Pandora looked over to the rubble that was once Clockwork's domain. "What is Dusk doing?"

"I don't know." Red Huntress shrugged. "Maybe he's looking for clues about the enemy."

"My servants already searched. There was nothing." Pandora mentioned.

"…" Secret broke away from the two older women. She left them to their conversation and floated to Dusk. "Joel, what are you doing?"

"Looking…" Dusk continued to dig through the rubble.

"For what? Pandora's servants already searched for evidence. They didn't find anything." Secret mentioned.

"I'm looking for something else…" Dusk paused as he went through the rubble. "And I found it."

Dusk pulled out a Fenton Thermos from the rubble. It was perfectly intact, but the cap was open and the release switch was activated.

"Is that…" Secret's eyes widened at the sight. She heard stories of the thermos that was in Clockwork's care.

"It is." Dusk nodded. "This was the Thermos that contained Dark Dan…its empty now."

"No…So he broke out and did this?" Secret was pale.

"No." Dusk shook his head. "Someone released him. He didn't break out."

"That's why Clockwork wasn't killed." Secret sighed. "The attacker was after Dark Dan, not Clockwork."

"Maybe. Maybe not…" Dusk looked at the Thermos. He was glad he wore gloves. They would have to check for finger prints later. "We can't be sure yet, and we shouldn't jump to conclusions."

"I guess you're right…" Secret nodded. "But no matter how you look at it, this can't be a good thing."

"Yeah…" Dusk nodded in agreement. "No Clockwork. Dark Dan is loose. And some unknown threat is behind all of this. I think it's safe to say that our lives are about to get complicated again."

* * *

 **Next update: "Warnings" on June 8, 2015**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	3. Warnings

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action."

Felix Adler

* * *

Chapter 3: "Warnings"

(Saturday-September 28, 2013)

The past two weeks could only be described as hell for the half-ghosts. In one day, everything seemed to begin to crash around them. Friends were maimed beyond recognition or taken control of. That was something that the half-ghosts could not let go. No one messed with their friends.

Unfortunately, they had no leads to finding Nyx, Youngblood, Clockwork's attackers, or even Dark Dan. That was troubling to say the least. Despite having every sensor and tracker active constantly, there was no trace of any of them. They had disappeared off the grid, and everyone was left in a constant state of worry. This was especially true in the case of Dark Dan. The alternate version of Danny was powerful enough to fight off Superman, smart enough to keep up with Batman, and cruel enough to make the Joker do a double take. Because of this, everyone's main focus was on his capture. This included Young Justice.

"Alright, Team," Phantom looked around at the old and new members of Young Justice, "As you can tell, we have some new recruits."

"I can see that. Three at once. I believe that is a new record," A tall dark skinned Atlantian man nodded. He had buzzed blonde hair, webbed hands and feet, and dark eel tattoos running down his arms. This nineteen year old man was Aqualad.

"Indeed," The deep voice of Batman sounded out as he stood beside his newest protégé. The Dark Knight wore a dark cowl with pointed ears and a cape connected to it. His uniform was dark gray with a yellow utility belt and a bat symbol on the front, "This is Robin."

"So, Robin the second?" Kid Flash joked.

"Tsk," A teen wearing a black and red body suit snorted. His hair was slicked to the sides. A domino mask covered his eyes, and black cape ran down his back, "More like Robin done right."

"I'll ignore that." Nightwing chuckled.

A tall dark haired woman stepped forward next. She was a rather muscular woman outfitted with a tiara, silver bracelets, and a red, white, and blue uniform that could be described as close to a bathing suit. Wonder Woman spoke, "I believe I shall go next. This is my little sister Donna Troy. She will be going by the name Troia."

"Greetings, dwellers of Man's World." A dark haired girl that looked just like the taller woman spoke. Unlike the older woman, this girl wore a red body suit that covered more of her body than her sister's uniform did. The only things exposed were her shoulders and arms. Yellow stars danced up the side of her clothing while a yellow belt with a large W hung to her hips. "It shall be a pleasure to work with thee…even the men."

"Donna!" Wonder Woman glared at her sister, "I told you, you need to respect both genders. We all work together as equals in this world."

"That's not what mother says…" Troia mumbled.

"Great…" Superboy whispered to the more veteran members of Young Justice. "A man hating Amazon. I can just tell that she's going to be fun."

Everyone, even the girls, had to nod at that. Young Justice, for the most part, acted like a completely equal and cohesive unit. They recognized their various differences, but it didn't bother any of them. Having outright discrimination thrusted in was going to be an experience to say the least.

"And our last member…" Phantom looked over to the tall man beside him. "Is Cyborg."

"Yeah…" The recently transformed Victor Stone nodded slowly. "Outside of missions, though, you can call me Victor."

Using every available technology available, the scientists of Axion Lab managed to get Victor to the point that he would live. Unfortunately, that meant that over half of his body was outfitted with blue and grey cybernetic armor and synthetic intestines to replace what was lost. The only part of Victor's real body that was visible was the right side of his face. Everything else was blue and grey pulsing armor that was thick enough to stop bullets with ease. Even Victor's left red glowing red eye was synthetic now.

While the procedure did manage to save the young man's life, Victor was obviously upset by what happened. In one day, he went from a genius jock with a bright and shining future to a cybernetic man that would forever be outcasted from the normal world. Of course, Danny did everything he could to allow Victor to live a normal life. The tech in Victor's armor had artificial nerves to allow him to feel when he wants to, special disguise tech could give him the appearance of a human, and no one interfered with what made Victor a man in the first place.

Nevertheless, Victor went into a rage when he awoke. He cursed almost everything, but nothing more so than his father. Victor, now Cyborg, called his father out and claimed that it was all Silas's fault. Silas was the one that started the test early. Silas was the one that ignored Danny's warnings. Silas was the reason that Victor was like this now. It was for these reasons that Victor forsook his father and stated that he would never forgive the older man.

Oddly enough, Victor…Cyborg held no ill will toward Danny. The teen claimed that Danny was the only one that tried to prevent this from happening to him and that Danny was the reason he was allowed even a small glimpse of what it was like to be normal again. Danny did argue that it was his machines and inventions that caused the incident. Victor's response was surprisingly wise.

"You didn't create you machines for them to be misused. It was my Dad that perverted what they were meant to be for. Inventions are made to better the world. It's wrong to blame the creators when other people use them incorrectly."

After this, Victor stuck close to the Phantom Family seeing as they were all odd themselves. But Danny didn't think that was enough, so he proposed giving Cyborg a chance to interact with people his own age that were a bit out of the norm themselves. The young man quickly agreed, and his parents would say yes to anything in order to get their son back in speaking terms with them. Cyborg had requested help in training hand to hand combat years ago, so the young man was already trained enough. Thus, after a few weeks of getting used to his new body, Cyborg was ready to be a member of Young Justice.

"Usually, I would start us all on some team drills, but we have missions to do." Phantom nodded to Batman. "So, we're going to do some 'on the field' bonding."

Various images popped around the Team and League members. They showed three different locations, the Ghost Zone, Atlantis, and a S.T.A.R. Labs location.

"Batman has offered to take coordination and monitor duty so that we can all go out in the field." Phantom explained. "Squad Alpha will be led by me. Nightwing, Kid Flash, Secret, Red Huntress, Zatanna, and Robin, we're going to be investigating Harm's breakout and what happened with Clockwork."

"Who's Clockwork?" Troia questioned.

"The ghost of time." Robin shrugged. He noticed he got weird looks. Usually, the 'freshman,' as they called the new guys, often never did their homework. "What? Batman briefed me on it."

"Yes, both Jason Blood and Doctor Fate are working together to try and locate them. Their work has been ineffective for the most part, but they did get something," Phantom pointed to the display's showing and underwater city, "They managed to locate faint traces of Nyx's and Klarion the Witch Boy's energy in Atlantis."

"What?!" Spirit perked up at that.

"Yeah, I thought you would be interested in that." Phantom noted, "Aqualad, you're leading a team of Aquagirl, Tempest, Spirit, Raven, and Cyborg to Atlantis. You three have the home turf advantage and those three have a big stake in this. I would send Secret too, but I thought she would want to deal with Harm."

Greta nodded. "Thank you." She turned to her friends. "You okay with that?"

"We'll be fine." Raven nodded.

"Yeah, underwater city…fun for the metal guy. Good thing my body's equipped with swimming equipment." Cyborg shrugged. "It will be great ignoring the rusting. But...We'll find out what happened to Nyx and get a chance to save her. So it'll be worth it."

"Yeah..." Spirit clenched her fists.

"Squad Gama," Phantom began. "M'gann, you'll be leading Artemis, Rocket, Superboy, Troia, and Dusk. Take Wolf and the Supercycle with you for help. We got information that a S.T.A.R. lab in New York will be attacked as the next target for the string of thefts. No one has a clue what the Shadows are up to, but we believe they're feeding the tech to the Brain, and whatever he's building can't be good."

"Understood." M'gann nodded.

"Any questions?" Phantom looked around. No one spoke up. "Alright. Dismissed."

* * *

"What's his status?" Phantom questioned to a large yeti like being beside him.

"Nothing has changed." The white haired beast with ice horns mentioned. The yeti ghost was large, muscular, and had a fake left arm made of ice. "He remains comatose."

The Land of the Far Frozen was a large domain in the middle of the Ghost Zone. The frozen wasteland did not have much, but it did have Frostbite and his people. They lived in ice huts and spent their lives guarding over the Infi-map, a map that could take someone anywhere in the Ghost Zone and some places in the human world. The only problem with the map was that it had a mind of its own and acted sporadically at times. They would have used it more for their problems, but the Infi-map could be blocked by magic and powerful barriers. Not only that, they didn't want to risk having such a powerful object fall into the wrong hands.

In the middle of the frozen village was the yeti people's surprising advanced medical facility. The Phantom Family had often used this place to heal after hard battles. This was the area that they took Clockwork. The Master of Time floated in a healing tube in order to recover, but nothing was working.

"Clockwork's one of the most powerful ghosts, right?" Kid Flash looked up at the floating ghost in the medical tube. "How was he even taken out?"

"Clockwork's main way of fighting involves freezing time. You find a way around that, you can beat him." Phantom explained as he looked over the medical charts. "And don't act like he's dead yet."

"Yes…" Secret was examining the other tubes around the room. The blonde ghost had healing abilities and was considered the medic of Young Justice. As such, she was always looking for ways to improve her powers and help save lives. "Every ghost has a fatal weakness. A way around their powers. Sometimes it's physical, sometimes it's emotional. You find that, then they're not much of a threat anymore."

"Oh?" Robin smirked at her. "And what's yours?"

"I despise fighting with a passion." Secret explained as she glanced at the new Boy Wonder.

"Dusk doesn't really like fighting either." Kid Flash mentioned.

"Yes, he prefers not to fight and tries to avoid it, but he can stomach it. I can't stand it. I hate hurting people." Secret sighed as she peered into her reflection in one of the tubes.

"Do not act like that is a bad thing, young one." Frostbite smiled kindly at the girl. "It is easy to hurt people. Very few have the gift of healing, though. Your distaste for violence is what makes you who you are."

"Well, I think you're in the wrong line of business," Robin spoke up. "A vigilante has to fight. If you don't, you'll get your ass kicked."

Kid Flash snorted. "Rob…man, that's weird calling someone else that…You haven't spared her yet. Secret is no pushover. She can handle herself even if she's better as a support role."

"Oh, really?" Robin seemed to light up in excitement.

"Calm down, kid." Phantom snorted and handed the charts back to Frostbite. "We'll have sparing matches soon enough."

"Awesome."

"Until then, though," Phantom turned and eyed the Boy Wonder. "You have to remain calm. Don't let your emotions guide your judgment. And always listen to what the senior members of Young Justice have to say."

"Is that why you put me on your squad?" Robin looked amused. "You want to keep me in line?"

"I read Batman's file on you, Robin." Phantom shrugged. "You have an attitude problem and serious issue with authority. I just want to make sure you know how this Team works."

"Don't worry you're ghostly little head." Robin crossed his arms. "I only give people a hard time if they haven't earned my respect. You, dear sir, earned my respect a long time ago."

"Good." Phantom nodded slowly. There always seemed to be a bit of a mocking tone in that kid's voice. It was both amusing and entertaining.

"Hey, I thought we were going after my br…Harm." Secret mentioned as her hands reached up to grasp the silver pendant around her neck.

"We are later, but Dark Dan is the bigger threat." Phantom noted. "Not only that, we think the Black Lanterns were the ones that attacked Clockwork. Double wammy."

"Is that why you sent Nightwing and the others to look at the Infi-map with that fire guy?" Kid questioned.

"Yeah. The Black Lanterns can usually hide themselves, but if they make a-"

"TORCH IS HERE! CAN SOMEONE GIVE TORCH A HELL YEAH!" The six foot two inch tall man with a dark tan had spiked up black hair with red highlights. His eyes were covered by blue sunglasses. This ghost was wearing a red vest over a black long-sleeved shirt and torn dark blue jeans. Black tennis shoes covered the ghost's feet. The ghost was wearing a chain necklace around his neck. Various rings were on each of the man's fingers. Simple silver piercings were in the man's ears, right eyebrow, and tongue…which was sticking out at them.

"Hell yeah!" Robin raised a fist to the air.

"Don't encourage him." Phantom sighed. "What is it, Torch?"

"We got a hit." Zatanna entered the room behind the fire ghost. She was followed by the rest of the members of squad Alpha. "Well, multiple hits really."

"Already?" Frostbite frowned. "My people have been monitoring the map for weeks and saw nothing."

"Torch is just lucky!" Torch grinned at them. "See, this is why Torch said that Torch should come by."

"Are you sure it's just not a distraction for your lack of prisoners and Ember's snooping around your prison?" Phantom questioned.

"Shut it, DP! Torch could kill you!" Fire danced around Torch. "Torch is not bored or cowardly! Torch just knows that these guys need to be caught! In fact, Torch will go get them by Torch's self!"

"I wouldn't get carried away." Red Huntress noted. "The guys we found are pretty tough. We better work together."

"What did you find?" Phantom questioned.

"There are three large signals." Nightwing sighed. "One in Atlantis, one in New York, and one in the Ghost Zone."

"What?" Phantom's eyes widened. "New York…Damn it. Gama…"

"What about the one in the Ghost Zone. We should deal with that first, then we can help Gama." Kid Flash mentioned.

"Look at you being all sensible." Nightwing chuckled. "Artemis has really beaten that into you."

"Dude! Not cool! And at least I can keep a girlfriend, man. Not like you, you dog. You have a new girl every other week." Kid Flash's face flushed.

"He does…" Zatanna chuckled at her old boyfriend's behavior.

"Enough of that." Phantom cut off any retort from Nightwing. "Torch, where is the signal in the Ghost Zone coming from."

"Not that far." Torch looked at the scroll Infi-map. "In fact, it was pretty damn…close…Oh, shit."

"What?"

"The map says that the energy signal is coming from this room."

With that said, the room was suddenly filled with explosions.

* * *

Atlantis was a city of beauty. The ancient architecture was covered in glowing coral and streaming seaweed. Atlantians and merpeople swam around the entire city and acted like it was nothing. Spirit, however, was in awe by the beauty. If she wasn't busy and underwater, she would take a sketch of the gorgeous city. She would just have to save that for later.

"Welcome to Atlantis." Tula, aka Aquagirl, smiled at the three visitors behind her. She was a beautiful woman with short trim red hair and piercing blue eyes. The thin woman wore a yellow tank top that showed her midriff, yellow fingerless gloves, and a short sarong-like cloth around her waist. "If not for the mission, I would love to give you a tour. I'm sure you would love our art gallery, Spirit."

"You bet!" Spirit's eyes lit up, but she quickly got control. While the girl did not need air to live while in her ghost form, she did need it to talk. That was why she wore an oxygen mask over her face. "But first we have to find Nyx."

"Right. Do not worry. We shall find your friend and what exactly is going on." Garth, aka Tempest, looked back at them. He was a muscular young man wearing a skin tight black and blue shirt and black pants. His long dark hair was pulled up into a pony tail.

"Good. Then can we get out of here?" Raven grumbled. To withstand the pressure of the deep ocean, she covered herself in dark magical energy shaped like a raven. Her face was visible, but it was protected from the water by an invisible force. "I thought the bottom of the sea would be dark. This place is brighter than up on the surface. It's giving me a headache."

"Must you always be so droll, Raven?" Tula questioned. "Atlantis is a beautiful city, and very few non-Atlantians have had the pleasure of seeing it."

"Whatever…" Raven grumbled. While Tula was a kind and caring person, she was a bit too chipper and bright for Raven's taste. Sure, Spirit was cheerful, but not to the sickening degree and almost self-righteous way that Tula was. Raven could only deal with the red-head with so long without losing it.

"What's our first move?" Cyborg looked over to Aqualad as they were led through the halls of the palace. Because he still needed air despite his modifications, Cyborg had an oxygen mask over his face. His new body did deal with the pressure problem, though.

"First, we will report to King Orin." Aqualad explained. "He knows of our mission and shall give us direction."

"Alright." Cyborg nodded. Jets that came out of his back allowed him to keep up with the more mobile members of his squad.

Beta Squad quickly made their way through the palace filled with water. All three of the surface dwellers were impressed by the designs, not that Raven would ever admit it. In fact, each one of the three outsiders were curious about the different aspects of Atlantian culture, but they had to remain focused on the task at hand.

Once they arrived in the throne room, all three of the native Atlantian members of Young Justice gave an odd, closed fist solute to the people sitting up on the thrones. "Your Majesty, we have arrived for our mission."

"I see that, welcome." Aquaman smiled as he rose from his throne. He was a tall, blond, muscular man. His shirt was covered in orange scales while his pants were covered in green scales. A golden trident was held in his right hand.

"Hey, Aquaman." Spirit waved at the Leaguer.

"Er…Should we bow? I mean, when in Rome…" Cyborg mentioned.

"I'm not bowing to anyone," Raven muttered.

"Hahahahahahaha!" Aquaman laughed. "Hello, Spirit, Raven. And you…must be Cyborg. Phantom mentioned you to me a few days ago. I welcome you all to my home. This is my wife Mera and my son Arthur."

"Greetings." A slender woman with long red hair smiled at them. A golden grown was on her forehead. Her clothes were rather revealing with the green bikini top and the green sash around her waist. A blond haired two year-old boy sat in her arms. "It is a pleasure to meet some of the surface dwellers my students speak so highly of."

"They must not have mentioned me," Raven rationalized.

"We did…but not as much." Tula chuckled. "We do not wish to depress our queen."

"…Fair enough." Raven shrugged.

"Not to be rude, but can we cut the chitchat for now, please?" Spirit questioned. "I want to go see my friend."

"Ah yes…" Aquaman swam up to them. "The energy disturbance at the edge of the city. I'm having my soldiers look into it as we speak. You are welcome to go there and move about my city freely."

"Thank you, your majesty." Cyborg bowed his head.

"Think nothing of it, young ones." Aquaman smiled. "If something happens, I will come to assist, but I need to make sure that my wife and child is safe first."

"I can take care of myself, Orin." Queen Mera chuckled.

"Better safe than sorry, my love." Aquaman noted. "Normally, I would have Orm guard you, but he's away on a political trip. With him gone, I must guard you myself. It would kill me if anything were to ever happen to either of you."

* * *

Gama squad was hidden just outside the S.T.A.R. Labs facility in New York City. Miss Martian and Superboy were disguised as regular people. Artemis was hiding up on a nearby building to give her a sniper's point of view. Dusk was hiding in the area by using his invisibility.

Rocket was up in the Martian Bioship. The red and black ship was slick in design. The center seemed to be like a large pod with wings coming out the side. Inside the ship with Rocket was Troia, Wolf, and Sphere the Supercycle. Troia was there because she lacked experience with stealth. Wolf and Sphere, the 'pets' of Young Justice, on the other hand stood out too much. Wolf was a genetically modified white haired wolf the size of a small bear. Sphere was alien technology that could transform into a flying motorcycle.

'Why do you let that ghost man lead you?' Troia questioned through the mental link established by Miss Martian. 'You could lead the team just as well as any man.'

'Girl, you don't get it.' Rocket's voice sounded through the link. 'None of us want his job. Danny's job sucks.'

'Amen.' Artemis snorted.

'I certainly don't want it.' M'gann smiled.

'Ah, I see. You allow him to have the job to make your life easier.' Troia nodded to herself.

'It's not that,' M'gann briefly looked up to the camouflaged Bioship. 'Danny does a great job as leader. I was part of the original group that decided that he should lead, and we've never regretted it. He's always pulled us through hard times.'

'Besides, he's more patient with people than most of us are.' Artemis mentioned from her sniping spot. Her bow and arrows were out and ready to go. 'He has to deal with a lot of conflicting personalities. And when newbies show up, he has to delegate teams so there isn't too much friction during the adjustment.'

'What do you mean?' Troia questioned.

'She means that Dusk and I don't care about your sexist comments.' Superboy grunted. 'He doesn't let anything bother him, and I really don't give a damn about the battle of the sexes.'

'Sexist? How is what I say sexist?'

'It works both ways, Troia.' Rocket mentioned. 'Yes, men can be pigs and take advantage of women, but trust me when I say that women can be far crueler than men when they want to be.'

'If you want to be on this Team, then you have to accept both genders and realize that they are equal. We all have our roles to play, but no one role is more important than another. If we don't work together, then we will fail.' M'gann noted.

'Yeah, and all that's coming from the girl that bakes cookies and makes sandwiches.' Artemis joked. 'Talk about stereotypical gender roles…'

'I do that for everyone, not just the guys. Besides, you eat the cookies too.' M'gann's face flushed.

'That is…not a lie.'

As this conversation was going on, Dusk scanned the area. Truth be told, he didn't care about Troia's point of view. She could dislike men all she wanted for all he cared. As long as it didn't interfere with the mission, he didn't give a damn. Of course, that was his attitude on a lot of things.

That was why he was on this mission in the first place, though. Simple words would never get under the youngest halfa's skin. He has endured far worse than a few pathetic insults. It was easy to see that was the reasoning as to why he was placed in this squad. Phantom wanted to ease Troia into accepting male teammates. Dusk's and Superboy's indifference on the issue made them ideal for helping the Amazonian woman. The other men on Young Justice might make things worse. Kid Flash had a perverted sense of humor. Nightwing was a player. Robin and Cyborg were too raw. The Atlantians and Phantom himself were plausible choices, but they were needed for other missions.

Still, this was not Dusk's ideal mission. He would prefer something that didn't have to deal with the League of Shadows. He had a bad history with them, and the teen wasn't even exactly sure what the history really was. Originally, the youngest halfa thought that he was merely taken in by the Shadows at a young age because of his talent and potential. It was only after being excommunicated and rescued from the monstrous Ghoul Project that he would find out that he was actually the son of the Shadow's leader Ra's Al Ghul.

Now that was turn Dusk never saw coming. A few years ago, Talia Al Ghul, Ra's daughter, tried to re-recruit Dusk back into the Shadows by putting him in situations that would require Dusk to kill. Apparently, the entire reason Joel was even put in the Ghoul Project was because Ra's was sure that he would live, be hardened, and come back to eventually take over the Shadows. The teen would be lying if he said that the plan didn't have merit. Dusk almost did break his personal vow of never killing more than once, but he remained strong. He was sure that Ra's and Talia weren't going to give up any time soon, though.

'…I found one.' Dusk finally spoke up in the mental link. 'M'gann, at your five o'clock.'

'…Jinx.' M'gann looked through the crowd.

'Yeah. What are your orders? Do you want me to get the jump on her?' Dusk questioned. He was probably the only one in Young Justice besides Nightwing that could get close to the girl without her noticing.

'You think you can do it without anyone getting injured?' Superboy questioned.

'Yes. I can stun her so she won't be able to lash out.' Dusk answered.

'Do it.' M'gann ordered.

'Right.' Dusk carefully made his way over to Jinx. Despite his invisibility and intangibility, he might be detected. Jinx always had some sort of six sense.

Getting close to the woman, Dusk got a good look on the assassin that was actually a companion to Danny. The woman was moderately tall. Her black hair was long and silky. With a soft and curvy form and a beautiful heart shaped face, Jennifer Savage was incredibly attractive. This was her normal form too. Her combat form could arguably be considered even more stunningly beautiful than her civilian form.

This villain had an odd relationship with the Phantom Family, or Danny more specifically. Originally, Jinx was assigned to seduce and grow close to Danny Fenton. The only problem was that she grew to care for Danny. So, even when they found out each other's secrets, they still tried to make their friendship work. Of course, Dusk knew that Jinx wanted something more intimate than friendship.

Despite this odd relationship, Jinx was not above the law. Even Danny had to admit that they couldn't give her exceptions. As such, if Jinx got caught, she wouldn't get out because of her connections to Danny. Of course, her connections to her father Vandal Savage might help…if she ever got caught. Jinx was a veteran at this after all, and she proved it yet again.

"Sorry, kid, but that won't work." A man said quietly from behind Dusk. The halfa recognized the voice, but he could do nothing to stop the incoming attack. In a blaze of green, Dusk was sent sprawling.

The affect was instantaneous. The crowd panicked, began to scream, and ran away. That was good, though, considering the fight that was about to happen. No one wanted them to get caught up in it.

Quickly jumping back up, Dusk glared at his attacker. "Deathstroke."

"Hello, ghost." The man in the bronze and black armor lowered his ecto pistol and pulled out his sword. The left side of his mask did not have a hole for an eye, and a long white pony tail hung out the back of the mask. "Ra's has high hopes this time. Shall we begin your next test?"

* * *

"Son of a…" Phantom grunted as he released Robin from his hold and lowered the shield he formed around them.

"T-thanks…" Robin muttered in awe at how fast Phantom reacted to the danger.

"Don't mention it." Phantom gathered energy to his hands and did a mild blast to dispel the smoke and snow in the air. "Is everyone okay!?"

"Great One!" Frostbite called from Clockwork's tube. He had created an ice shield around him and the Master of Time. "I believe your comrades exited the building during the explosion."

"Right…" Phantom nodded. He went to guard Robin, and the other regular human members of the squad were close enough to the exit to leave and avoid damage. Kid Flash was fast enough to escape on his own, and Secret had a few ways to leave as well. That meant that they were most likely all outside. "We need to go back them up."

"I shall stay here and guard Clockwork." Frostbite noted. "Go, help my-"

"RAW!" Several other yeti ghosts flew into the room. While they were not as large, powerful, or dangerous as Frostbite, they still had an instinctual viciousness about them.

"Woah!" Robin's eyes widened as the yeti ghosts began to attack them. The new Boy Wonder flipped over the ghost that attacked him and then rolled out of the way of the next yeti. He then pulled out shock shuriken and flung them at the ghost's unprotected backs. The ectoplasm empowered shuriken hit the backs of the creatures and electrocuted them, but the followers of Frostbite did not fall.

"Crap…" Phantom quickly activated his own cryokinetic powers. His eyes shined a neon blue as a chilling energy danced around him. He quickly used his abilities to freeze the yeti ghosts that were being electrocuted by Robin's weapons. The halfa then followed up by sending out a wave of freezing ectoplasm at his own attackers.

Frostbite growled as he froze his own attackers. "They're being controlled!"

"Ghosts being controlled…It has to be Harm…" Phantom clenched his fists. "And the only reason he would be here would be…The Infi-Map."

"Go stop him!" Frostbit roared as more of his followers flooded into the room. "I shall protect Clockwork! Please, try not to hurt my people too much!"

"Right." Phantom nodded and looked back to Robin. "Hold on, kid."

"Hold on to whAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Robin's eyes widened as he was suddenly grabbed and pulled through the room. The new Boy Wonder was in shock by the speed at which Phantom weaved through the ghosts flying into the room. In a blur, the two of them were out of the room and into a miniature war zone.

"That was awesome." Robin smirked as Phantom let go of the teen.

"Stay sharp, Rob." Phantom noted. The halfa slid into a self-defense stance and looked around at the chaos that was the Land of the Far Frozen. Almost all of the yeti ghosts that lived here were going nuts. Along with them were several different skeleton ghosts that were dressed up as pirates. "Torch had the Infi-map last. So, Harm's going after him. If we head towards the fire, we'll find Torch and Harm. I need your help, though. Guard my back."

"Do you normally trust people so quickly?" Robin questioned skeptically. Not even Batman seemed to trust him so nonchalantly. It always seemed like everyone was automatically wary of him. Phantom's attitude surprised him.

"No, I don't trust regular people, but I always trust my teammates." Phantom stated with a quick glance to Robin. "You're part of Young Justice now, Robin. In this Team, we need to trust each other completely, or we might all die. Our trust in each other is what makes us strong. Remember that."

Chuckling, Robin reached to his utility belt and pulled out a metal tube. The tube extended into a staff with a subtle green glow. "Yeah. You got it."

"Then let's go." Phantom rushed forward with Robin right behind him. The halfa instantly went on the offensive to the various ghosts around him. Knowing that they were being controlled, Phantom decided to only use his cryokinetic power to subdue the ghosts because while humans would be killed by being frozen, a ghost could survive such an ordeal.

With a wave of his hands, Phantom formed several different ice broadswords that floated around him. The swords flew forward towards the enemies. As soon as the blades hit their targets, they instantly exploded in a wave of blue energy. This flash froze the different yeti and pirate ghosts hit by the swords.

While this was going on, Robin guarded Phantom's back. He used his staff to knock the different ghosts away from the duo. When he was about to be overwhelmed, Robin flung some shuriken that either exploded out with entrapment foam or electrocuted the various ghosts to stun them.

"Guys!" Phantom yelled as he and Robin saw the other members of Young Justice fight off the ghosts. "Work together and get to Torch! He's the target!"

"Easier said than done." Nightwing grunted. He used his electric batons and his extreme hand-to-hand combat abilities to fight of the ghosts. He flipped, kicked, and hit the ghosts on the left side of the battlefield into submission. "Harm seems to have purposely separated him from us. We've been trying to get back with him, but we can't get past these ghosts. It's going to take a lot to get to him."

"We need to work together!" Phantom grunted out. He formed massive ice claws around his arms and began to bat away and freeze the ghosts around him. "I'll try and lead the way. Everyone, give me some support!"

"Roger that, boss man!" With a mock solute, Kid Flash used his incredible speed to rush around the openings between the ghosts at the right side and smacked them upside the heads. Secret then used her white smoke to trap the distracted and outraged ghosts. The smoke quickly solidified and became almost like white foam that made sure that the ghosts wouldn't move.

"You got it! Evig Motnahp a tsoob!" Zatanna pointed her hands to Phantom. The magic user changed magic into the ghost. Normally, ectoplasm and magic was not very compatible. It often ended up exploding in the users face. Zatanna and Phantom were different, though. Years ago, Phantom gained experience channeling magic during his time bonded with Doctor Fate. Using this experience in practice with Zatanna, the two members of Young Justice could combine their energy. Of course, this kind of process couldn't work with any magic user because Phantom needed to have the same intentions and a strong bond with the user so there wouldn't be side effect, but when all the requirements were filled, the result was rather impressive.

Slamming his ice claws into the ground, Phantom channeled all his energy into his next attack. Giant spikes of ice spread out in front of him. The ice caught dozens of the ghosts and instantly froze them all. Then with a wave of his hand, Phantom spread the spikes of ice away and created an opening towards the blasts of fire that shined in front of him.

Seeing that the ground was dangerous, the remaining ghosts went into the air. This was exactly what Red Huntress had wanted, though. Using her special red and black surfboard glider, the ghost hunter had left floating ectoplasmic mines above the fighting. With the reaming ghosts in the air, Red Huntress quickly activated the mines by blasting one with her retractable wrist gun. Luckily, the mines were not explosive. Instead, they all connected with green ectoplasmic ropes. All of the pirate ghosts and yeti ghosts were instantly trapped in a massive green net.

Now free of the fighting, Phantom rushed forward. As he went, he grabbed onto Nightwing and Robin. It took only a few brief seconds to catch up to Torch's fight. The fire ghost looked beaten up and bloodied, but he was still fighting. One of his opponents was the mind controlled Youngblood. Luckily, the ghost was still in his child form so he wasn't a huge threat.

The real threat was Torch's second opponent. Harm was a tall pale man that seemed to be made up of lean muscle. His torn brown trench coat was opened to reveal his shirtless torso. His long dark hair fell over his shoulders, and three red scars ran down his face in an almost enraged manner.

Harm was wielding a broadsword of his own. Yellow electricity danced around the blade. Phantom could tell it was magic. That would explain how the normal human was able to keep up Torch. In fact, the magic seemed to be protecting him from the flames and allowing Harm to keep Torch in a deadlock. Torch used his special black and red flame scythe to stop Harm's attack. They were trying to outmuscle each other and seemed to be even. Unfortunately, Youngblood transformed his peg leg into an ectoplasmic cannon and was about to fire at Torch's unprotected back.

With a roar, Phantom spun around and flung the protégés of Batman to Torch's enemies. Robin flew to Youngblood with no trouble and kicked the child ghost away. Nightwing, on the other hand, tried to use his batons to strike Harm's head. Seeing this, the scared man used a kick covered in yellow electricity to push Torch away. Harm then blocked Nightwing's attack with his sword. Unfortunately for the human hero, the magical electricity in Harm's blade overpowered the electricity in the batons and began to shock the young man.

"I got your back, Jack!" Kid Flash rushed forward and elbowed Harm in the ribs. The force of the blow caused the scared man to grunt out in pain and skid back several paces. This delay allowed the rest of the members of Alpha squad to catch up and surround the villain and his mind controlled henchman.

"Hehehe…" Harm chuckled as he stood upright. "The its are not bad. But the its fail to bring forth any real harm."

"Oh Merlin…" Zatanna face palmed. "Are you really still using puns with your name? That's so sad."

"The it should not mock Harm, or Harm shall kill it." The scared man glared at the magician.

"Oh, you can try, psycho, but let's see how far you get." Red Huntress floated off to the side. Rocket launchers jumped out of her shoulder padding and pointed at the sword wielder.

"Hmm…" Harm looked around at the various heroes around him. "Yes, this situation does not favor Harm…Especially with the Secret it here…"

"Brother…" Greta gave her insane brother a look of pity. Her right hand began to fiddle with her silver amulet.

"Do not look at Harm in such a way! Harm is pure again! Harm's master made it so that Harm's purity will no longer be shaken by the Secret it!" Harm snarled.

"Give up, Harm." Phantom warned. "You can't win this fight. We outnumber you."

"This is true. This is not a good battlefield for Harm, but Harm does not plan to fight here." Smirking, the psychopath raised his left hand to reveal the Infi-map.

"What?" Torch reached into his coat only to find nothing. "He must have taken it from Troch during the fight!"

"That's right…" Harm raised the Infi-map while plunging his sword into the ground. A magic circle appeared around all of the fighters in the immediate area. "Infi-map, take us to Harm's master! Take us to Magaine le Fey!"

And with that, they all disappeared in a flash of green.

* * *

Beta squad made it to the area where Nyx's energy was sensed to see a very strange sight. A large shadow cat was fighting against the Atlantian guards. The massive beast seemed to be pushing the guards back with relative ease. The armor wearing Atlantians with magical spears were sent back when the demonic cat let out a roar which caused black electricity to spark through the water and shock the soldiers.

"Perhaps we should have asked for the King's assistance…" Tempest muttered.

"I recognize that shadow cat." Raven mentioned as she observed the monstrous cat. "Nyx creates those things…only smaller."

"Yeah, I've never seen her create one so bit." Cyborg held up his left arm. A hologram popped up over his cybernetic arm and began to scan the ectoplasmic beast. "Hot damn! The energy readings on that thin are unreal! According to my scanners, it appears to be made up of magic and ectoplasm."

"So she finally figured that out…" Spirit frowned. "Or…she was forced to figure it out."

"Either way, we need to stop that thing." Aqualad reached behind him and pulled out his curved Water Bearers. The weapons, fueled by magic, quickly lit up and formed blades of water. "Considering the monster's makeup, we will need to be careful. Spirit, Cyborg, and Raven seem to know it best. You three will work with me to take that thing down. Aquagirl and Tempest, give us some range support with your sorcery."

"Got it." Aquagirl nodded and swam off to the side. Tempest went to the other side. The two Atlantians activated their magic and began to send blasts and cyclones of water to the beast. That attacks distracted the shadow cat enough for the other four heroes to rush it.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven used her specialized chant to gather her demonic magic around her. A blast of black and white swirling energy spread out and took the shape of a large bird. The bird then flew forward and rammed into the cat. The shadow cat was stunned, but it did not seem too injured.

The magical attacks from the first three members of Young Justice allowed the close range fighters to rush in. Rushing in to the shadow cat's right front paw, Aqualad used his magical Water Bearers to cut through the demonic feline's leg. At the same time, Spirit rushed in as well. Gathering ectoplasmic energy to her hands, Spirit activated her Spectral Claws. Green glowing claws extended from Spirit's hand several inches. The deadly sharp ectoplasmic blades easily cut through the shadow cat's front left paw.

Aqualad's and Spirit's combined attack caused the giant animal to lose its footing. The massive beast came tumbling forward. Black electricity danced around it. It was clear that the animal, knowing its defeat, was going to try to do some kind of kamikaze attack. The spread of the blast would likely wound or even kill several people. Luckily, Cyborg was there to stop it.

Using his jets to rush forward, Cyborg swam to the giant shadow cat's head. Many of the observers' eyes widened as Cyborg's right arm began to transform into a cannon. The futuristic cannon began to spark and glow. It was then that a large blue beam began to blast out. Just as this happened, Cyborg thrusted the cannon into the beast's mouth and yelled out a battle cry.

"Booyah!"

In a blaze of blue, the shadow cat's exploded out into thousands of pieces. The body of the beast then began to quickly fade away. The shadow retreated as if a giant light had shined down on it from above it. In mere seconds, there was nothing left.

"Amazing!"

"They took down the beast with ease!"

"Is this the power of the surface heroes?"

Ignoring the praise of the soldiers, Beta squad quickly regrouped. Aqualad spoke. "This place used to have a small art gallery, and now all that is left is a crater…Why would anyone attack this place?"

"A distraction?" Aquagirl suggested.

"That would mean they would be attacking somewhere else…" Tempest tensed in alertness.

"No, Nyx isn't that subtle. If she was going to attack some place, she would just do it. Even if she was being controlled by someone else, she wouldn't leave a fight scene like this. It's not in her nature." Raven mentioned.

"You're right. She had to target this place." Cyborg nodded. "But why? What did she have to gain?"

"She wanted to send a message." Spirit gasped out as blue smoke escaped from her mouth into her oxygen mask. "Isn't that right, Nyx?"

"Oh~ you noticed me, eh? Why am I not surprised?" A mockingly sweet voice sounded out. In a blaze of black electricity, a blue skinned girl appeared in front of them. Her long purple hair fell down behind her to her lower back. Her eyes were pure black and seemed to mock them. Black Greek armor covered her torso, shoulder, and arms, but red robes could be seen below the gaps in the armor. The robes pooled down to her feet, but were open enough to reveal the black pants and crimson Greeves that covered her lower half. "It's good to see you again, Girl Scout. Did you miss me?"

* * *

Dusk hated when everything seemed to go wrong. One moment, everything was fine. The next moment, his world was rocked to his core. This seemed to happen to him every week, and he despised it every time. For once, he wanted a mission that would go right without any complications. What that too much to ask for?

"You're open, Dusk!" A girl in golden and black armor chuckled. She took out an ecto pistol and shot Dusk in the side as he was fighting against Deathstroke. The force caused Dusk to go tumbling away.

Apparently, a simple mission was too much to ask for…

The girl who shot at Dusk, Ravager, wore armor similar to Deathstroke. There were only small differences in the armors. Ravager's armor was obviously build for her slimmer and lighter frame. Another difference was the fact that her mask allowed both her functioning eyes to glare at the halfa in front of her. The armor allowed Ravager's pure white hair to be pulled back into a pony tail just like Deathstroke.

"I didn't need your help." Deathstroke muttered as he brought his sword back into a defensive stance.

"It was orders, Father." Ravager mentioned. "We are supposed to push Dusk to the limit."

"And I can do that by myself." Deathstroke grumbled. "He's just a boy."

"Do not underestimate him, Deathstroke." A dark figure dropped to the other side of Deathstroke. "Do not forget, he is a ghoul and also the son of the Great One. His shear potential greatly outweighs all of us individually."

"Potential means nothing if it isn't utilized correctly, Black Bat." Deathstroke argued.

Black Bat, aka Cassandra Cain, wore a pure black body suit that covered her entire body to the point that no inch of skin was shown. The skin tight uniform was very similar with the Batman's attire. Her pure black mask had bat ear spikes and white eye wholes for seeing. A yellow utility belt was wrapped around her slim waist. The yellow bat symbol on her chest stood mockingly to all heroes. Almost everyone took Black Bat's look as an insult to Batman. The super villains thought it was hilarious, of course.

"So, the three of you were sent to fight against me, eh…" Dusk frowned. Using his special Matter Make ability to shape his ectoplasm into physical matter, Dusk created green nunchucku connected with a black chain. This special weapon's chain could extend and shorten at will and also could electrocute enemies they trapped. Dusk called them Pendulum Nunchucku. "Tell me, was this Ra's plan or Talia's?"

"Does it matter, ghoul?" Deathstroke readied his sword. "Either way, you're outnumbered and outmatched.

Dusk didn't want to admit it, but Deathstroke was right. These were three very skilled assassins, even if the girls were only in their teens. He couldn't fight all three of them and win…especially if he refused to use deadly force.

Looking around, the halfa knew that he probably wouldn't be getting backup. Four other assassins were there and fighting against the members of Gama squad. Not only that, they were enemies that would distract the other members of the squad for a while. The four assassins of Sportsmaster, Lady Shiva, Jinx, and Cheshire were holding back the team of Superboy, Miss Martian, Artemis, and Rocket.

…Wait…there was still…

"Halt!" Troia floated down to Dusk's side. "It is unjust to have such unfair numbers in battle! I shall battle by thy side, Dusk."

"Do you have to?" Dusk muttered under his breath, even though he knew that he needed her help.

"Oh?" Deathstroke chuckled at the sight of Troia. "Isn't that Wonder Woman's new brat?"

"I supposed it was only a matter of time before she joined the young hero club." Ravager rolled her neck and pulled out twin blades.

"She shouldn't bet too difficult." Black Bat noted. "I have studied Wonder Woman's fighting patterns. This girl is only a slower, weaker version of that."

"Shut thy mouth! Thou does not get to measure me by the battle prowess of my sister!" Donna Troy glared. "I shall use my own strength to defeat thee!"

"Be careful." Dusk warned. "These three are dangerous."

"I am aware of that. But I am rather dangerous myself!" Troia rushed forward. Dusk was quickly following behind her. The Amazon threw the first attack. She went for the person that held the biggest threat. Despite hating to admit that a male was better than two female warriors, Deathstroke had the most experience, strength, speed, and overall battle prowess. He needed to be dealt with first.

Unfortunately, Deathstroke was ready for Troia's strike. He knew that the Amazon had demigod strength, so he couldn't block the blow. Instead, he dodged the blow and went to cut down on the girl's head. The Amazon quickly reacted and used her nearly indestructible bracelets to block the blow.

With both her arms up, though, Troia was open to an attack. Both Black Bat and Ravager quickly reacted. The both went to strike the demigod girl. Ravager would use her blade, while Black Bat would use knives that she hid on her person. They were quickly stopped by Dusk, though. The halfa floated above them. He had swung and extended his nunchucku's chains the strike at the girls. They were forced to cancel their attacks and block.

Now free from danger, Troia could react. She twisted Deathstoke's blade and stabbed it into the ground. She then went to attack Deathstroke once more. The male assassin, though, was ready. He had already flipped over the blade and kicked the Amazon to the ground. Deathstroke then landed on the handle of his blade and used it to jump up to Dusk.

The male assassin flew towards Dusk was. Realizing the danger, Dusk shortened the chains in his nunchucku and went to counterstrike his attacker. Deathstroke quickly reacted and pulled out a staff to catch the chains of the other weapons. The halfa would have electrocuted the man, but the rubber in the staff negated the shock.

Twisting, Deathstroke went to kick the ghoul. Knowing that he was open, Dusk absorbed his current weapon and then shaped a giant shield. The pure black shield except for the DP logo in the center shield was completely round, but it was as large as the halfa's body. Dusk used his Reflect Shield to stop the kick and several of the staff blows that came after it.

Gravity quickly took hold of the assassin, and he fell to the ground. Dusk continued to point his shield at the man, though. The Reflect Shield began to glow and gather green energy at its center. It then released a blast of green energy at the man. Deathstroke had expected this, though, and threw a grenade up earlier to stop the blast before it got too close to him. The force did push him down faster, but he was unharmed when he landed.

While this was happening, Troia was having a hard time fighting off the team of Ravager and Black Bat. While the Amazon had more natural strength, the female assassins were lighting fast. With their combined teamwork and agility, they quickly pushed back Troia. Donna had to take several blow, luckily her endurance were far better than regular humans. She managed to survive until Black Bat and Ravager attacked at the same time. The assassins both swung their weapons at the Amazon, and Troia blocked with her bracelets.

Using her incredible strength, Troia pushed both the girls back with ease. Black Bat and Ravager went flying flew the air. It was only their grace and agility that allowed them to land on their feet and skid away to safety.

"Thou…are better than I thought." Troia grinned despite breathing heavily.

"Good job holding your own against them." Dusk floated down to his current fighting partner. "They aren't pushovers."

"It wasn't easy." Troia admitted. "And thou are impressive as well. Thy abilities are strange, but extremely effective."

"Getting a compliment from you?" Dusk snorted. "I guess I must have been pretty good then."

"Do not let it go to thy head." Troia frowned.

"I won't, in fact…" Dusk paused as he glanced around the battlefield.

"What is it?"

"I just noticed…Sphere and Wolf aren't here." Dusk's eyes narrowed. "Why aren't they fighting? They always fight with us…"

"Hey, what are you whispering about over there, kid?" Deathstroke questioned as he pulled his blade out of the concrete.

"Something is wrong." Dusk stated, "To my knowledge, the Light has no interest in Wolf or Sphere anymore. So, if they aren't here…A third party must have taken them." The halfa then paused when a cold chill ran down his spine, and blue smoke escaped his mouth.

"A third party? But would possibly be interested-"

BOOM!

A massive green explosion spread out from where Dusk, Troia, and the three assassins were. They were all sent sprawling back covered in burns and injuries. As this happened, a figured landed at the center of the where the explosion happened. Wolf and Sphere the Supercycle were dropped right beside the figure. Both creatures were greatly injured and unconscious.

Dusk quickly jumped to his feet. Despite the fact that the sneak attack was quite strong, Dusk didn't care about the pain. His Numbing ability had already kicked in was numbing the pain of the wound. He would have to do something about the bleeding, but his quicker than normal healing would stop the blood flow soon enough.

"No…It's…" The normally composed Joel felt himself break out into terrible sweat. His face lost all its complexion. He had heard stories, descriptions, and even saw a memory of this guy, so Joel recognized him instantly.

The being before the ghoul was tall. He had broad shoulders and was incredibly muscular. This was easy to tell with his tight black and white outfit that even had a cape. The man's skin was blue, his teeth were fanged, and his hairy was like a white fire. As Joel stared, a forked tongue slipped out and waved about.

The most noticeable thing for Dusk, however, wasn't any of this. No. The symbol on the man's chest spoke more everything combined. It was the same symbol on the clothes of Dusk, Spirit, and Phantom.

It was a flaming DP.

"Speechless? I would be to. You better not stay that way, though, boy. Because we have a lot to discuss, little halfa." Dark Dan smiled sharply.

* * *

"Danny?" Doctor Fate's red eyes widened as Alpha squad appeared in the room. The good doctor wore a black body suit over her feminine frame. This caused the golden helm, cape, belt, and long blond hair on her person to pop out greatly. The female vessel of the Lord of Order Nabu was named Dora who had the ability to turn into a dragon when not under the moniker of Doctor Fate.

"How did you get here?" A yellow being with horns, fish-like gills, and sharp teeth questioned. The red spandex, black cape wearing being was a demon of old that appeared around the time King Arthur and Merlin. Etrigan the Demon was the possessed version of Jason Blood, a knight and magician hundreds of years old.

"Doctor…Etrigan…" Phantom froze in surprise about where Harm had taken them. Alpha squad now stood in a large library that existed in Jason Blood's manor in Amity Park. Normally, the massive library was lined with books, but now the shelves were completely barren. "What happened here?"

"I happened, little ghost." A sultry voice that caused Phantom's brain to spark and rattle in his head.

A woman stood at the far end of the library. Harm was kneeling by her side. This woman was tall and slender. A golden mask covered her face and her black hair was pulled up. Green robes flowed down her body and was covered in golden armor. This woman was the one, if not the, most dangerous magic user on the planet. This woman was the sorceress Morgaine le Fey.

"You…" Zatanna paled at the sight of this woman. Her father warned her about Morgaine le Fey. She was a woman feared by almost every magic user. Even beings such as Klarion the Witch Boy and Wotan were wary of her.

"Oh, a baby magic user. How adorable." Morgaine le Fey chuckled.

"Baby magic user?" Kid Flash took offense to the insult to his longtime friend. "Zatanna's one of the most skilled magic users I know."

"And here I thought you didn't believe in magic…" Robin muttered under his breath and was smacked upside the head by Nightwing.

"People change. Now shut it and stay alert." Nightwing warned carefully.

"I do take a lot of pride in my talent and skill, but…" Zatanna sweated under Morgaine's stared. "I'm not anywhere near her level."

"Good thing you know to be careful…" Doctor Fate noted. "Because you cannot trifle with her…"

"How did she fight the two of you?" Red Huntress had her guns pointed at the sorceress. "Individually, you're some of the hardest hitting allies we have."

"She cheated." Etrigan growled. "She's controlling our allies."

"Yes…" Morgaine's silky voice sounded out. She reached out her hand to show a glowing red jewel. Oddly enough, there seemed to be a chunk missing out of it. "I found some ghosts that were willing to help me. Kneel before, you're new master, ghosts.

With that said, four figures appeared. One was Youngblood who had traveled with the group from the Land of the Far Frozen. Two of the figures were Wulf and Cujo. That last person was a faceless ghost wearing sunglasses, a fedora, and a trench coat. A wooden cane rested in Amorpho's hands. This shapeshifting ghost was a close friend of the Phantom Family and often helped by filling in for Phantom in certain situations, even though he lacked a lot of fighting abilities.

"We managed to push her back, but then she revealed that Wulf, Cujo, and Amorpho were under her control." Doctor Fate clenched her fists. "She threatened to have them kill themselves if we tried anything to stop her."

"Yes, you shouldn't leave such weak ghosts in charge while everyone is away. Even Plasmius and Vision had business to attend to, no? Of course, having Doctor Fate here trying to track large energy signals with Blood was probably meant to help, but it wasn't enough." Morgaine le Fey chuckled lightly. "With no S-rank ghost in the city, taking all of Blood's books was easy."

"The books…The ones that contained demons?" Torch tensed. Despite his lack of maturity and common sense at times, the fight ghost was very knowledgeable on anything involving ghosts and Amity Park. "Torch thinks…that is not good."

"No, it isn't!" Etrigan growled. "I had thousands of demons held here, and she already teleported them away. With those demons under her control…the temptress could do a lot of damage."

"Still bitter, Blood?" The woman mocked with a tilt of her head. "If I remember correctly, all those years ago you were begging me for even the slightest attention. I barely had to do any work at all."

"Silence, you wench!" Etrigan snarled. "It was you that put me under that spell! It was because of you that I betrayed my people and was cursed like this!"

"I used no spell on you other than my looks and natural charm, Blood." Morgaine mentioned.

"Is there a more powerful magic than that?" Kid Flash questioned out loud.

"Not the time, KF." Nightwing rolled his eyes.

"Mistress, Harm has brought you what you wished for. Harm also returned the part of your jewel that you lent to Harm." Harm held up the Infi-map and the piece of the large red jewel.

"Thank you, Harm. You have done well." Morgaine le Fey took hold of the Infi-map and fused the jewel to its complete form.

"Damn…" Phantom glared over to the sorceress. "What do you want, le Fey? Why do all this?"

Morgaine took a long look at the halfa. "Ah, the Phantom. It just had to be you. Fate is a funny thing, especially considering that a copy of this jewel was used to control you by the heir of the Showenhower clan. It was always so amusing to see how they used ghosts to entertain people."

"What?"

"To answer your question, though. What I want is for something interesting to happen." Morgaine chuckled. "I love watching as things change and evolve. But lately, things have been oh so stagnant. Someone came to me and told me a plan to make things more interesting, though. I just couldn't pass it up."

"Who? Who came to you?!" Phantom glared. "Was it a ghost that looked like me except more demonic?"

"No, it wasn't your alternate self." Morgaine paused at the surprised looks. "Oh, please, did you really think I wouldn't know about that? Please. But it wasn't him that contacted me. I won't' tell you who it was, though. That would be too boring."

Robin grunted, "Of course it would."

"But I knew I needed help to pull something off, luckily, Harm here was interested in my mind control jewel, so he was the perfect candidate." Morgaine lightly petted the psychopath's head. "And all I had to do was make another sword like the one he used to use."

"Thank you again, Mistress."

"Brother…Billy…" Secret glanced to the scared man. Once again, she grabbed at her the silver that hung from her neck.

"Do not call me that! I am Harm. I am pure. Harm does not need you, so Harm will kill you and erase the past." Harm glared.

"But that will have to wait for a later day." Morgaine le Fey raised a hand and energy began to surround the sorceress, swordsman, and controlled ghosts. The heroes wanted to stop here, but they didn't want to risk the chance of the ghosts reacting and killing themselves because of the sorceress's orders. "Until then. Until the day that ghost and demon blood are spilt, I bid you all adieu."

With that, they were gone.

"Damn it…" Phantom growled.

* * *

"Nyx," Spirit looked to her friend. "It's been a while. How have you been?"

"Oh? Same old, same old." Nyx paused and looked down at her clothing. "Well, not really. I've actually changed a lot."

Raven's eyes narrowed, "We can see that…"

"Of course you can, Doom and Gloom." Nyx let out a smirk. The water seemed to ripple around her mouth under magical influence and allowed her to speak. "Can't take your eyes off me, right~"

"It's definitely a new look for you, but I'm not one to talk." Cyborg mentioned.

Nyx blinked at the metal man. "Vic? Is that you? What the hell happened?"

"A lot…" Cyborg sighed. "How about you tell me what happened to you first, then I'll share."

"Sure, sure." Nyx waved him off. She shrugged and started speaking nonchalantly. "Got sick of Amity Park, your faces, and Mom. Decided to embrace the chaos. And the rest is history. So, what happened to you?"

"What?!" Spirit gained a hurt look.

"Don't listen to her." Raven quickly stated. "She's being influence by something, probably the Witch Boy. These aren't her real thoughts."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night…" Nyx tilted her head. "So, are your friends going to attack? Cause they look brutally mad right now."

"Huh?" Spirit turned to the older members of Beta squad. The three Atlantians were all glaring at the purple haired ghost and had their magic coursing so they were ready for a fight. "Calm down, guys."

"We will not." Aqualad snarled, "She attacked our home."

Aquagirl gather balls of magic water at her hands. "We will not allow her to do more harm."

"You can, Fishies, but I doubt it will work." Nyx smirked and put her arms out wide. "Come on. One free shot."

"Do not mock us!" Tempest snapped.

"Cool down, man." Cyborg held an arm out. "She's just teasing you. That's what she does."

"No fun!" Nyx puffed out her cheeks. "You know I like to make people angry before I fight them."

"Well you accomplished your goals!" Tempest began to gather his magic.

"Stop it!" Spirit glared back at the dark haired Atlantian. "Let me talk to her."

"Tsk…"

"Nyx…" Spirit took a step forward. "Please, come back home. We'll remove whatever Klarion is using to controlling you. Everything can go back to normal."

"Nothing's been normal sense Chuck left." Nyx rolled her eyes. "He left you, and now I've left you. Soon, Doom and Gloom will be forced to leave. Almost sixteen, right Rae Rae?"

Raven was silent.

"That's just the way things are. Friends change, leave, and never come back." Nyx shrugged. "There's nothing you can do about it. Soon, we'll all be gone and you'll be left alone."

"No I won't! I'll fix this! I swear I will!" Spirit clenched her fists. She fought the tears that stung in her eyes. "I was hurt by Youngblood…but he must have a good reason for leaving like that! I'll bring him back! I'll save you! And I'll stop Raven's prophecy! I swear it! I won't let anything bad happen to any of my friends."

"That…is the dumbest thing I have ever heard." Nyx burst out laughing.

"Nyx…gasp!" Blue smoke once again escaped through Spirit's mouth.

"We're done here…" A large ghost turned visible right beside Nyx. Like Spirit, he had an oxygen mask to allow him to speak. The ghost had ash white skin and was dressed in a white suit with black tie, buttons, and boots. A white cowboy hat stood on his head and partially covered his glowing green eyes. Standing at over eight feet, the ghost was incredibly muscular and bulky. One odd thing that could be note was that while his right hand was pale white skin, the left hand was glowing green energy instead of normal flesh.

"Walker!" Spirit frowned, "Should have figured that you'd show up considering you were broken out by—"

Boom!

"Gaaah!" All members of Beta squad were blasted back. At the same time, the soldiers around them were swept away by a large cyclone of water.

"Me!" A rail thin man appeared in a blaze of red energy. The skinny man wore a fancy black and white suit. His face was pale, and his eyes were black. Oddly enough, his hair mostly flat except for two tiny horns at the top. A strange orange and black cat sat in his arms and was covered in a magical bubble. "Kekekekee!"

"Klarion!" Aqualad growled and readied his Water Bearers.

"Yep! Nice to see you again, kiddies!" Klarion waved with a free hand, but the friendly gesture was ruined by his cruel smile.

"So, we're done here, Dad?" Nyx questioned.

"Yep! We found out what we needed." Klarion giggled. "Time to go!"

"But the halfa girl is right there…" Walker looked at his energy hand in anger. "I can finally kill her for what she did to my arm."

"Nononono!" Klarion rapidly shook his head. "We'll have to save that for another day! If we start fighting, some of the people down here might get killed. We can't have that, can we?"

Walker sighed. "No, you're right. But I will get to kill her at some point."

"Of course!" Nyx grinned. "Just make sure to let me watch!"

Raven frowned at the magic user, "Nyx…"

"And with that, we're gone." Klarion waved cheerfully. "Bye bye, kiddies! Pray we don't meet in a better spot for me cause I'll kill you~"

"Wait!" Spirit lunged forward. "Nyx! NYX!"

In a blaze of red they were all gone. Spirit was left reaching out towards nothing. The halfa girl fell to her knees in despair.

"No…Nyx…"

* * *

The silence that sounded across the streets of New York were far worse than the previous sounds of battle. Dusk thought that his ears would start to bleed from the terrible lack of noise. Not that he blamed everyone's silence. Not even the villains seemed to be able to process what was going on. That was why no one made a move, because no one knew what to do under the pressure of Dark Dan's presence.

Dark Dan just stood there amused. He seemed to bask in their shock and fear. It didn't help that a steady wave of hatred and evil were coming off him in waves. He was showing an ability only the strongest ghosts could use. A Haunting Aura was the ability to force the ghost's own emotions on another person's will and cause them fall under the pressure of ghost's willpower. Dusk thought that he felt strong Haunting Auras before, but this one was so terrible that I made him want to vomit.

"W-who art thou?" Troia forced herself to stop trembling and addressed the evil Phantom.

Dark Dan gave her a bored look. It was the look a child would give a toy that wasn't very amusing. "Hmm, I have no idea who you are. You weren't around as a hero in my timeline. My alternate self changed a lot didn't he?"

"Troia!" Superboy yelled out. "Get away from him, now!"

"Yes, little girl. Run away." Dark turned away from her and back to Dusk. "I have no use for you."

Anger flared in Troia. "Do not think that thou can talk to me that way, man!"

"Troia, no!"

The Amazon rushed forward and threw a punch at the man's face. It actually made contact and sent Dark Dan's head to turn to the side.

"Ha! See?! I am an Amazonian war-AAAAHHHH!" Troia yelled out in pain as Dark Dan's right hand lashed out at speeds that could rival Kid Flash and grabbed the Amazon by the face and life her head. It was easy to see that he was trying to crush her head.

Dark Dan's head slowly turned back to her and revealed that he was completely unharmed. "Ha, I almost felt that. I'll admit, you got guts, kid. But that means nothing to me."

Troia desperately tried to escape. Unfortunately, Dark Dan was holding her away at arm's length. Her reach was far shorter than his, so she couldn't hit his body. So, she punched his elbow repeatedly. That did absolutely nothing, though.

"Let go of her!" Rocket flew through the air and tried to use her kinetic energy to blast him in the back. Unfortunately, Dark Dan turned slightly and batted the energy away like a fly with his free hand. The alternate Phantom then reached out with that free hand. His arm turned into green smoke except for his hand and blasted outward. The hand grabbed the woman's kinetic energy belt and ripped it off in a blaze of green energy. Before Rocket could fall, the arm then swung down and crashed her into the ground. The smoke arm then dropped the belt on the unconscious Rocket.

"You're lucky, child, that it would be counterproductive to kill you." Dark Dan sighed as his arm returned. "Otherwise, I'd snap your pretty little neck. But all things considering, I'll go easy on you."

A blaze of green energy bust out from Dark Dan's hand. Troia was completely consumed in a torrent of ectoplasmic energy. Screams of agony filled the air as Troia was hit with an energy blast that would kill most men. Luckily, her Amazonian body was tough enough to keep her alive. It did nothing to keep her conscious, though. When released, one of the newest members of Young Justice fell to the ground completely defeated.

"Son of a…" Superboy was pale.

'What do we do?' Miss Martian mentally asked the remaining members of Gama squad. She received no answer from the heroes. Fortunately, someone had an answer.

Deathstroke rushed forward silently and tried to slice down at the deadly ghost with the ectoplasm empowered sword. This didn't work, though. Dark Dan's torso turned completely without his lower half moving. Now completely backwards, Dark Dan stopped Deathstroke's attack by clapping his hand at the dull sides of the sword.

"Now!" Deathstroke yelled. "I want the bounty the Light put on his head!"

Black Bat and Ravager then appeared at Dark Dan's unprotected sides. This was the same strategy they used before on the young heroes. This time was different than the last, though, because Dark Dan was alone. They failed to account for duplicates, though. Two duplicates came from the monster's sides and blasted the girls away in a blaze of green. Dark Dan then snapped Deathstroke's sword into pieces and kicked the mercenary into a wall.

While this was happening, Lady Shiva turned to the heroes. Shiva was a woman of Asian descent with dark eyes and flowing black hair. A large black trench coat covered her black and red combat suit, but it was still easy to see her curves. Normally, the woman was the definition of confidence and danger, but now she looked worried. "Our mission is over. He is the bigger threat. If we wish to defeat him, we must work together.

"Tsk..." Artemis glared at Cheshire and Sportsmaster. Cheshire was a thin woman with pushy black hair, a green kimono, and a mask of a smiling cat. Sportsmaster was a large muscular blond man wearing a hockey mask and purple and black armor with various grey pads covering his body.

"Now's not the time to get petty, little girl." Sportsmaster snapped at his daughter.

"He's right." Superboy growled. "Remember the stories from Danny. This guy is a beast incarnate."

"Alright! Fine! I'll suck it up!" Artemis pointed her bow and arrow at the large ghost as he beat down the other villains.

"I'll try to slow him down mentally!" Miss Martian's eyes began to glow green. "Maybe I can buy you a few seconds."

"Wait!" The last remaining assassin there reached out to the Martian to warn her, but it was too late. Normally, M'gann could take down almost anyone with her mental powers. M'gann had more raw mental power than anyone and was growing in skill each day. While ghosts had stranger minds than most people, the ghosts of Young Justice allowed her to practice on them so she could fight better against enemy ghosts. That was why Miss Martian thought that she could at least buy a few seconds.

She was wrong.

Dark Dan's eyes lazily turned to the alien. 'I'll admit, that's pretty damn good. But not good enough. Burn.'

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" M'gann dropped to the ground and trashed around like she was on fire. "IT BURNS! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"M'gann!" Conner's eyes widened as his girlfriend screamed on the ground.

"This is annoying." Dark Dan rolled his neck. "It takes too much effort not to kill you. I'll just end this quickly." The dark Phantom's stance slide deeper. He leaned forward, opened his mouth, and began to yell.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**

Sound actually solidified in that moment. Green sound waves bounced around the area. The force of the yell was so great that the glass windows in all the surrounding buildings shattered. The ground began to peel away and ooze like it was bleeding. All the heroes and assassins instantly crumbled under the pressure of the attack. All of them fell before the force of the cry of death. No one stood a chance before the mighty Ghostly Wail.

Stopping his shout, Dark Dan blinked in surprise. "Well, what do you know? You two actually managed to fight it off."

It was true. During the fight, Dusk retrieved the fallen people around Dark Dan and pulled them off to the side. With that done, he created special earmuffs to block the noise and braced himself in armor. Even that didn't stop the full blow of the Ghostly Wail, though, and Dusk was now trembling in pain.

The other fighter that fought off unconsciousness was Jinx. She was a very pale woman wearing a black and purple long sleeved dress that tightly hugged her thin curves. Stripped black and purple tights were revealed where the dress cut off at her thighs. The woman had pink hair pulled up into curved horns. Her pink slitted eyes glared defiantly at the ghost.

"A pink energy shield…" Dark Dan noted as Jinx dropped the shield she used to protect herself. Like Dusk, she looked extremely tired. "And that felt almost like…Oh, I remember you. That's right. You're June's daughter."

"H-How do you know my mom's name!?" Jinx demanded.

"She and I share a past. The Sorceress always thought she was clever, but I found her out." Dark Dan laughed out cruelly. "But that doesn't matter anymore, Jen."

"You…how do you know so much…" Jinx looked troubled.

"I'm not here to kill anyone. In fact, take your allies and go. You're no use to me locked up." Dark Dan turned away from Jinx and faced Dusk once again.

Jinx looked troubled by the situation, but she decided that this wasn't the situation to start asking questions. That would come later. Right now, she had to help her allies escape.

Now free to speak without interference, Dark Dan addressed Dusk. "Now, where were we?"

Knowing that he had very little chance of fighting the older ghost, Dusk just gritted his teeth. "You said we had a lot to talk about."

"Ah, yes." Dark Dan nodded and walked up to the boy. "I came to give you a warning."

"What?" Dusk was confused.

"Listen to me, little halfa." Dark Dan towered above Dusk. "You have to do everything you can to make sure that no one is killed."

"…What?" Dusk blinked. "You, the man that destroyed the human race in another timeline, want me to save lives?"

"Yes." Dark Dan nodded. He reached down, grabbed Dusk's collar, and pulled him up. "Make sure as few people as possible die in the next coming year. Especially the powerful people. They are not allowed to die."

"You're trying to trick me." Dusk mumbled. "That can be the only explanation…"

"SHUT UP!" Dark Dan's energy flared as he lost his temper. Dusk felt the weight of a mountain crash down on his shoulders. "Stop talking and listen to me."

Dusk was silent.

"I can't tell you everything. They can hear us." Dark Dan's eyes darted around. "If I tell you everything, they'll just kill you outright, and none of the halfas can die. If a halfa dies…I won't stand a chance."

Dusk didn't understand a word the man just said.

"It might seem strange coming from be, but understand this. There is a bigger threat than me right now." Dark Dan whispered. "The plan is complete destruction, and if that happens, I won't survive either. That's why I have to stop it. That way, I can destroy everything in this universe with my own power."

A bigger threat than Dark Dan? Did such a thing exist?

"The reason I came to you is because you're the only ghost that would ever have the mindset to listen to me. You are a being that has little fear, a logical mind, and the dogma to never kill." Dark Dan's red eyes glared into Dusk's neon green eyes. "The others would just blow my warning off, but you won't. Little halfa, hear my warning. You have to stop the killing from happening."

"My family will always work to stop the villains."

"It's not them I'm talking about!" Dark Dan hissed. "You think I'm blind? You think I can't see people's true characters!? The people I am warning you about is your so-called family. They will be the quickest to kill. I can see it. My alternate self. The clone. And all the other ghosts…They'll kill if something gets in the way of their obsession. But not you. You won't kill. I can see that. And that is why you must do everything in your power to keep your family from killing your enemies. Because if too many of the powerful people are killed off…Nothing will survive."

Dusk couldn't find his voice. He just gave Dark Dan a completely dumbfounded look.

"Head my warning, little halfa." Dark Dan dropped Dusk and began to walk away. "The next year will be hell, be prepared kid. Because things are already in motion, and there's nothing any of us can do to stop it."

Then, in a blaze of green energy, Dark Dan disappeared. Dusk was left in a destroyed street with his comrades lying unconscious across the ground. Once again, the silence filled the area around the halfa. This time, the silence didn't last long, though.

"I have to…stop them from killing…" Dusk looked up to the dark sky. "In truth, that might be easier said than done."

* * *

 **Extra: Wedding Plans**

(Sunday-September 29, 2013)

"We must postpone the wedding." Vision announced to the members of her family.

All the members of the Phantom Family groaned in unison. They were all spread across the living room of the Master Mansion. It was a room filled with leather furniture, imported carpeting, and expensive paintings. Most of the different informal meetings of the family were held here.

"Again?" Dani dropped to the floor in a heap. "What is this? The thirtieth time?"

"Close…Twenty…Nine…" Joel mentioned in between the times he banged his head on the wall.

"Can't we just get the stupid thing over with?" Danny sat on the couch and had his face in his hands.

"No. My wedding must be perfect." Vision's eyes gleamed. "It will be the only wedding I ever have, so I have to make sure everything must go right."

"What happens if there are problems?" The Fright Knight questioned. "Are you sure this will be your only wedding."

"Yes." Vision gave a death glare to Vlad. "This wedding will be my only wedding because I will remained married for at least the majority of my life."

"Why are you glaring at me?" Vlad took a step back. "Fright Knight said it."

"I want to make sure you got the message."

"Alright…" Greta sighed. She held a list in her hands. "If next month isn't good, when will be?"

"December." Vision nodded. "My wedding will happen in December."

"Vision, you've been saying that for years…" Wulf grunted as he laid across a couch.

"It's not my fault that something always happens. Just look at what happened this month." Vision argued.

"Okay, this month was bad." Danny admitted. "What about the last time you postponed the wedding?"

"It was going to rain."

"We would be inside!" Dani snapped out.

"My wedding cannot be on a rainy day."

"Okay, what about the time before that?" Fright Knight inquired.

"Dani got a zit. It would have ruined the wedding photos."

"I could have worn makeup!" Dani argued.

"At your age? Absolutely not!"

"What about the time before that?" Wulf questioned. "I forget what it was."

"Box Lunch was born."

"Alright, that was a good reason." Vlad nodded to himself.

"All the food in the Ghost Zone flew around like a food fight." Dani muttered.

"The Box Ghost was crying so much when the Lunch Lady broke his hand and punched him the groin during labor." Fright Knight sighed.

"I…I still don't understand how a baby could poop and throw up so much…" Danny muttered in horror. "Five garbage trucks filled…I still think we should have thrown them into the voids of space for safety…"

"See, something always happens." Vision stated. "But not in December. In December, my wedding shall be perfect."

Greta leaned over to Joel and whispered, "Twenty bucks says that the wedding is postponed again."

Joel stopped banging his head on the wall for a moment to say, "That's a sucker's bet."

* * *

 **Next update: "Stopwatch" on June 22, 2015**

 **Due to the serious nature and tense tone of most of my chapters, there will be a lot less extras than there were in Absolution. To make up for this, I am planning to do a special chapter filled with random, humorous, and possibly heartwarming scenes that really do nothing to further the plot. This special will be called "Interlude" and will be published in between plot arcs. My plan is to have it out in between regular chapter updates around November or December.**

 **Because so many people are asking about them, I'm going to make the following announcement: Starfire and Luna Fenton are not going to appear in Conviction. They will have their debuts (outside of bonus chapters) in the next book.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	4. Stopwatch

*In honor and memory of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. October 11, 1945-June 11, 2015. Thanks for getting us through those hard times, Dream.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

William Shakespeare

* * *

Chapter 4: "Stopwatch"

(Wednesday-October 30, 2013)

" _I got nothing, kid,_ " A gruff looking man with graying hair and facial stubble grunted. A lit cigarette stuck lazily out of his mouth, " _No one knows anything about what Morgaine is doing. And there's been no sighting of that Dark Dan guy or the Black Lanterns."_

"I see…thanks anyway, David." Phantom sighed at the monitor. He then turned to face a different monitor. "What about on your end?"

" _I found nozing."_ A woman called Madame Rogue shook her head. She had short black hair that was completely pushed away from her face. Her lips were colored ruby, and there was a cold calculating look in her dark eyes. _"Even wiz me disguising myzelf az one of zhe Light's minions…No one knows what zhe bosses want with zhe stolen tech or where zhe one called Nyx is."_

"Damn…" Phantom frowned. "I'm not too worried about the tech. I've been tracking the parts I provide for the Light, so I know where the Brain moves it all, but as for Nyx…Spirit isn't going to be happy."

" _Then we'll just have to keep looking into it, eh?_ " David Cain shrugged.

"Yeah." Phantom looked to be deep in thought. "Keep investigating. I already transferred some funds to your accounts, but you'll only get your full payments when I get something I can use."

" _Right._ "

" _Understood._ "

"Contact me again if you find something worthwhile. Until then…" Phantom ended the conversations on his computer. He then leaned back in his chair and sighed. He had been in Fenton Works all day trying to get everything he knew about the threats organized. Unfortunately, he really had nothing even after a month of searching.

" _Are you sure you can trust them?_ " Another voice sounded another monitor nearby. On the screen was a tall young man with short red hair and a domino mask. " _They are mercenaries for hire. What if someone offers them a bigger prize?_ "

"You're questioning our methods now?" Red Huntress pushed off the wall she was leaning on and walked into view of the monitor with the webcam. "I didn't see you complaining when their info helped your personal cause, Roy."

Red Arrow as silent.

"Please don't antagonize him, Val," Phantom groaned. "He has legit concerns. After all, those two did try to kill me once upon a time."

"So did every other friend you have, though," Red Huntress retorted.

"That's…not really wrong," Phantom chuckled.

" _You're right, Valerie. I shouldn't have double standards on using their intel_." Red Arrow gained a saddened look. " _After all, without their info, I wouldn't even have a hope of finding the real Roy Harper_."

"You are the real Roy Harper." Phantom glared at the screen. "You're just as real as Conner or Dani. Being a clone doesn't mean that you're not real. Just call him the original Roy, how about that?"

" _Fine._ " Red Arrow looked away. No matter what anyone said, though, the clone wouldn't let of the guilt he felt because the Light replaced the original Roy with him in order to have a sleeper agent. That was why he was so dedicated to finding the original Roy. It was the least he could do.

"Have you heard anything in your travels, Roy?" Red Huntress changed the subject.

" _No. People have no idea what's going to happen._ " Red Arrow shrugged. " _Sorry."_

"Don't worry about it, man." Phantom waved him off. "It seems like no one has a clue about what's going on. We'll just have to prepare for the worst…like always."

" _Right. I'll be ready in case you need my help_." Red Arrow nodded. " _Not like I can do anything to find the real…original Roy until you get me more intel._ "

"Okay." Phantom agreed. "Talk to you later."

Red Huntress leaned against the desk when the video call was ended. "Well, that was a bust."

"Yeah…" Phantom groaned and placed his head on the table. "A whole month of nothing. I'm sick of it. I might have to go with my last resort and ask Jinx for help."

"Oh…The frenemy, huh." Red Huntress did not look happy.

"No, she's an old friend." Phantom gave her a knowing look. "That's all."

"Uh huh…" Red Huntress rolled her eyes. It was obvious that Jinx still held feeling for Danny, and Valerie didn't like that.

"Look, I haven't talked to her as much because I know how you feel." Phantom noted. "But asking me to stop being friends with her would be like me asking not to have any guy friends who have ever thought about asking you out, which I know some of your college classmates have…"

"I know." Red Huntress sighed. "Sorry."

"I'm not mad at you." Phantom smiled. "Besides…It would probably be pointless to call Jinx about any of this anyway. She won't know about anything besides what the Light is up to, and I know that she won't talk about that."

"Yeah." Red Huntress's visor slid down and leaned over to kiss Phantom. "Hmm…What about that Endless group you told me about?"

"You act like I can contact Death whenever I want." Phantom shook his head. "I only see her when people are about to die."

"Oh…" Red Huntress sat back up and rubbed her temples. "Then I'm out of ideas."

"Yeah…" Phantom frowned. "Well, there's one more thing I can think to do…"

"What is it?"

"I need to go to the Ghost Zone. Do you want to come?"

"Sure. Let's go."

* * *

"Spirit! You aren't supposed to be here!" Superboy snapped at the halfa girl. It was that distraction that put him off guard enough for the enemy to blind side him. The Kryptonian clone was blasted away in a blaze of green.

"I got bored, and you did request backup." Spirit chuckled as she caught her fellow clone and gently put him back on his feet.

"Fine. Just watch out." The man also known as Conner Kent grunted.

"Why? We face the Royal Flush Gang all the time."

"It's not them I'm worried about." Suberboy sighed.

Once a faction that worked under the Light, the Royal Flush Gang had long since broke away from the controllers of the underground. No one knew why this happened, but everyone thought that it had to deal with the leader of the gang. Ace was a very small girl that was at the beginning of her prepubescent years. Her dark hair fell just above her shoulder. Tired bags hug under cold eyes. A white and black leotard covered with a large A on the front hung over her frame.

Most would never think that Ace could lead a gang, but very few could face up against Ace's mental powers. Just being around Ace made it hard to concentrate, and when she made eye contact with people, the fight was basically over. As of right now, the small girl was fighting off the only member of Young Justice that had a chance of fighting her mentally. Miss Martian was having a mental battle with the girl as they used their telepathy to try to invade each other's mind. The mental backlash from the fight was causing the air around them to waver.

While this was happening, the other members of the Royal Flush Gang and Young Justice were facing off against each other. The first member of the gang, King, was currently fighting off against Superboy. Previously known as Agent K of the Guys in White, King was an African American man wearing white armor with black lining. Dark shades covered his eyes and a K stood proud on his chest.

Jack was a man that was once referred to as Agent O. The Caucasian man wore the same armor and shades as King except he had a J on the front of his armor. Flying on a hover scooter, Jack was fighting against Troia. Knowing that he could never fight the Amazon with his natural strength, the ex-GIW agent kept his distance and used the ectoplasmic energy guns and cannons on his armor and scooter to try and hit Troia down. The Amazon was using her bracelets to black all the blows. She couldn't get close, so she tried to use her lasso to catch the man. A green energy shield stopped the rope from getting all the way around him, though.

Queen was a woman that used to be part of a ghost hunting group once called the Extreme Ghostbreakers. She wore armor that was more black than white in contrast to King and Jack. Her arburn colored hair was hidden by the black helmet on her head, and her eyes were covered by sports goggles. The woman was currently using her natural athletic skills and power suit to fight off against Robin. The Boy Wonder was barely holding on by using his agility to avoid her blows. Unfortunately, none of his attacks got close to making contact, though.

Ten was the last member of the Royal Flush Gang. He was dressed in an almost identical male version of Queen's clothes. Also, like Queen, he used to be a member of the Extreme Ghostbreakers. While riding on a skateboard with supersonic jets, Ten raced against Kid Flash and traded blows. While the speedster was faster than Ten, the ghost hunter's quick reactions, athletics, and equipment evened the battlefield. Neither fighter was gaining the upper hand.

"Ah crap…" King frowned at Spirit. "Ace isn't going to like your being here."

"She'll get over it!" Spirit rushed forward and attacked the man.

Sighing, King activated a shield around him to protect himself as prepared for a fight that he wasn't really allowed to fight. Years ago when the Light did an all-out assault on Amity Park, Ace was shown love and sympathy by Vision instead of a ruthless takedown when Ace was temporarily distracted. In that one moment of tearful selflessness, Ace decided that the Royal Flush Gang, which was made up of ex-ghost hunters, would never kill a ghost and would actively avoid having to harm the ectoplasmic beings. While not a popular decision, the other members of the group agreed out of fear of Ace's power, and eventually they all got used to the policy.

Of course, this did not mean that the Royal Flush Gang was a group of heroes. They often destroyed, stole, and hurt people for their own amusement. There seemed to be an underlying theme, though. Many of their targets, such as the one today, was an attack against the Light. The villainous group was attacking the Lex Corp Building in New York City. In fact, they already managed to destroy part of the facility by the time the current Alpha squad.

"Oh…" Ace turned her head lightly to see Spirit. "The girl Vision thinks of as a daughter…I guess play time is over."

"Damn." Jack grunted as he retreated away from Troia. "I was just having fun."

"It can't be helped." Queen shrugged as she suddenly grabbed Robin's kicking leg and tossed him away. "With us outnumbered, especially with Spirit here, we can't fight and win without going for the kill."

"Yes." Ace suddenly looked back at Miss Martian. The girl's face then changed from impassive to somewhat focused in intense.

"AH!" M'gann cried out in shock and pain as if felt like Ace sucker punched her brain.

"Do it." Ace looked over to King.

"Right." King nodded. He was still protected by his shield despite Spirit's constant attacks, so no one could stop him as he pulled out a trigger button and pressed it. The nearby Lex Corp building suddenly burst out in an explosion. Glass, concrete, and fire burst out everywhere. Alpha Squad and the Royal Flush Gang were far enough to avoid the damage, but they could still feel the heat of the blast.

'No!' Miss Martian gasped out mentally as she winced from the sight of the flames. 'Aquagirl! Are you alright!?'

'Yes, I am. I was outside when the explosion went off.' Tula's voice sounded out. 'Unfortunately, I could not evacuate the entire building. Some…some people just lost their lives.'

'Damn.' Superboy growled. "Damn it! Why would you do that!?"

"The Light must be destroyed." Queen noted. "I'm no moralist, but the things they've done…It's sickening."

"That doesn't mean you can kill innocent people!" Spirit shouted out angrily.

"Dude! You don't even know anything, man!" Ten scoffed. "They, like, knew what they were getting into when they decided to work for Lex Luthor."

"Many of them had families, though!" Kid Flash glared at the man.

"Sacrifices must be made." Jack sighed. "This facility was important to the Light. With this, we've postponed the Sorcerer Initiative. It will buy us all more time to prepare."

"What does that mean?" Troia was confused.

"It doesn't matter." Ace raised her arms. "All that matters is the destruction of the Light. It doesn't matter how big the wound is. As long as they suffer even a little, it's a victory to me."

Using her telekinesis, Ace caused the ground below them to crack and blast up. The wave of concrete and dust covered the area and blinded all of the members of Alpha Squad. It took a few seconds, but M'gann managed to recover enough to use her telekinesis to scatter the dust and allow them to see again. By the time she did this, though, the Royal Flush Gang was already gone.

"I am really sick of the bad guys getting away." Robin suddenly noted. "It leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"I know what thou means…" Troia nodded.

* * *

"I hate when you ask me to do this." Greta frowned as she tried to steady the needle in her hand.

"Sorry." Joel muttered. He felt the shaky needle poke into his neck. "But I have trouble doing it to myself."

"Hmm…" Greta gently pushed the needle into his neck and injected the green liquid. "So how does that work with the emergency ecto boosts? Do you need others to do it for you?"

Joel smiled as the needle was pulled out. "Pretty much. When I'm at the point that I need the boost, I can't really move."

"I see…" Greta sighed and gave the needle to her companion. "There you go. Nice and stable."

"Thanks." Joel turned and put the needle on his nightstand.

Because of the circumstances revolving around his transformation into a half-ghost, Joel wasn't exactly always stable. He couldn't just go of on his own and hope to survive. If he did, then he would dissolve. That was why he needed a stabilizing agent to help him. Luckily, Danny had developed something like that before Joel even arrived in Amity Park, and the ectoplasmic boosts had only improved since then. Now, there were no longer terrible side effects from using a boost. Thus, if Joel took his boosts consistently, he would be fine. Just in case of emergency, though, he always kept extra boosts to help stabilize him if anything happened while on missions.

"By the way, shouldn't you be at the Cave?" Joel looked over to Greta. She was sitting on a mat in the middle of his room. "I thought all the possible targets of Harm were staying there for safety."

"I managed to convince everyone that I would be safe enough here." Greta mentioned. "This is the safest city in the world, right?"

"Not as much anymore…" Joel grunted as he sat down across from Greta. "Wulf, Cujo, and Amorpho are gone. And they might be used against us…"

"Yeah…And it doesn't help that other ghosts have gone missing. Everyone seems so anxious and angry. I remember when Ember went missing too. Danny and Torch went nuts…" Greta fidgeted with her robes. "Everyone is worried about them. I hope they're okay."

"Morgaine and Harm wouldn't just kill them. They want to use them against us after all. It's going to be hard to fight against our friends, but at least if gives us a chance to save them." Joel mentioned.

"Right…" Greta looked down. "Right…save them."

Joel eyed Greta. "I have to ask…Why did you come into my room? Usually, you respect Vision's rules. I'm not complaining or anything cause it saved me a trip to find someone to help with my boost, but it's strange for you."

"I…There's something I wanted to talk to you about." Greta looked up into Joel's eyes.

"I'm listening."

"Harm…my brother…I need your help in trying to save him." Greta's eyes teared up. "I know that he's become a monster, but…he's still my brother, and I love him. With the way things are going, I can't help but think that he's going to die, and if that happens…I won't be able to go on."

"Greta…"

"He's part of my real obsession." Greta allowed her tears to flow. She gently lifted the silver amulet around her neck and peered down at it, "I want to help redeem him. I know it's kind of impossible, but I have to at least try and save him from his darkness. Or at least, I have to make sure he isn't killed in the coming fight."

Joel sighed and looked up to the ceiling tiredly. "Why do so many people ask me to do the impossible?"

"You mean like Dark Dan?"

"Yeah, like him."

Joel did tell everyone what happened with Dark Dan. They were all confused by the evil ghost's words After all, Dark Dan was a ghost of destruction. There was no reason that he would want to save lives. Most of the ghosts assumed that the alternate Phantom was trying to trick Joel or perhaps gain future allies in the form of the supervillains. The youngest halfa wasn't sure, though. For some reason, he thought that Dark Dan was making a real request to keep everyone alive to avoid something terrible. Joel had no idea what that could be, though.

"This is different from that." Greta leaned forward and got close up to Joel's face. "I saw him, Joel. I saw my brother up close and personal. Whenever he looked at me, I saw the guilt and shame in his eyes. Part of the real Billy is still in there, and if I can talk, or at least fight with him, maybe I can bring that out."

"I don't know, Greta."

"Please, Joel." Greta took his hands in her own. "I'm desperate. Help me try and save my brother. If I can't redeem him, then at least I can make sure he stays alive. Because if I lose him, I'll lose the reason I came back as a ghost in the first place."

"Can't…can't you get another reason?" Joel questioned. "Live for something else. I mean…You have another family now. You have all of us in Amity Park. You have…a future here."

"We can't change our obsessions Joel." Greta gave him a sad look. "Regular ghosts aren't half-ghosts. Our obsessions don't evolve. Completing the unfinished task from our past life is our whole reason for living. Nothing can change that, not even new friends, family, and…people that we want to get really close."

"So that's it…" Joel looked devastated. "That's you answer?"

"Yes…Tomorrow, the anniversary of when I first confronted my brother, will be the all or nothing moment."

"I see…" Joel gently squeezed her hands. "Then, if that's the case, I'll do whatever I can do to save your brother. I will make him regret what he's done and put him on the path to redemption. I promise you…You'll have your real brother back."

"Thank you."

* * *

"This…Is a first." A being with a head that was only one giant eye stated. His body was completely covered in white robes. "I don't believe that you have ever visited us before."

"I never needed to." Phantom noted as he stood in a large room. Dozens of other beings like the one in front of him were seated in different rows of seats above hem. They all peered down at Phantom and Red Huntress in a judging manner.

The Observerants were an odd group of ghosts. They were born from the human habit of watching but not taking action. Every one of the eyeball ghosts could see into the future to some extent. They very rarely acted on anything. Instead, they were mostly silent observers. There was a good reason for that, though. This group realized that if they acted on their knowledge of the future, things most likely would end up worse than what was supposed to happen.

"So these are the guys that tried to get Clockwork to kill you, right?" Red Huntress looked around the room. "Hmm…Were they there back when Vortex attacked? Cause I remember them."

"Yeah, that was them." Phantom paused and looked to the head Observant. "Thanks for the warnings by the way. They really helped me through the GIW War thing."

"We were concerned that more interference would only make things worse, but Clockwork trusted you, so we thought it would be wise to do the same." The Head Observant noted.

"If that's the way you feel, maybe you'd be willing to help again." Phantom noted. "Things aren't going well. Normally, I would ask Clockwork for some advice on the matter, but he's…"

"Yes. He predicted that this would happen." The Head Observant sighed.

"He told you about all that? Why didn't you put a stop to it?!" Red Huntress glared.

"Our interference would only have ended up in us dying." The Head Observant gained a saddened look. "Every time we directly interfere, some of us die. We've tried before…None of us are like Clockwork, you know. We lack his strength."

"You act like it's a bad thing." Phantom mentioned. "Power is a great burden that very few people can handle."

The Observants burst out laughing. "Ah, you have changed a lot, haven't you?"

"Yeah." Phantom nodded.

The Head Observant looked down. "I…I'm sorry. I can't help you. We are blind to everything that will happen after today."

"After today? Why after today?" Red Huntress questioned.

"Tomorrow. All Hallow's Eve." The Head Observant looked at his hands. "It is the day that the dead and the demons get to go out and play…"

"So Harm will be acting tomorrow." Phantom nodded. "That's what I assumed, but I wasn't completely sure."

"Yes…He will act, and everything shall go to hell." The Head Observant looked around at his brothers. They all closed their eyes and bowed their heads.

"Is there anything more you're allowed to tell me?" Phantom questioned.

"The only thing I can say is…I hope you get the chance to give away the box you carry away." Observant gave him a knowing look.

"Box?" Red Huntress blinked.

Phantom burst out laughing. Despite the laughter, he seemed somewhat embarrassed. "What? You bring that up now? Why?"

"Clockwork always said that we needed to lighten up more." The Head Observant took a few steps back and sat in a small chair. "Better late than never."

"I think there are rarely times where things are too late." Phantom mentioned. "As long as we at least try to change, that's all that matters."

"Yes…Change…Second chances." The Observant's voice hitched for a second. "Phantom…I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"We thought we knew it all. We thought that your death would bring peace, but we were wrong." The Observant began to cry. "We were always so wrong."

"Hey…It's alright. I don't hold a grudge or anything." Phantom rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Then you are a better person than us." The Observant cried into his hands. "We were always bitter to Clockwork. He always had all the answers. He got to **act**. We just had to sit and watch. Never acting…We never asked for this burden. To know about the future but not be able to do anything to change it. Can you imagine it?"

"It must have been hard." Despite her confusion, Red Huntress still gave the Observant a look of pity.

"No…The worst part is that it is so easy not to act. To not even try and change things…It's the easiest thing in the world." The Head Observant sobbed. "We're such fools! Pariah Dark should never have given us any power at all! We didn't deserve any of it!"

Phantom was now extremely concerned. "Something's going to happen isn't it?"

"Yes. It is about to begin. We are out of time." The Observant's massive eye looked up to Phantom. "Forgive us, Phantom. You are the solution, not the problem. We see that now...now that our stopwatch has stopped running. Goodbye, Danny Phantom. I hope that the next life is kinder than this one."

It was then that a massive red light flooded the room. Everything was covered in the crimson waves. The odd thing was that the light didn't originate from the room. No, it came from outside. In fact, the light was covering far more than just the Observants' domain. The red light touched everything in the Ghost Zone for a brief moment. Then, as quickly as it arrived, the light was gone. What replaced it was loud cries and screams of ghosts throughout the Ghost Zone.

* * *

"You shouldn't have been there in New York. You could have gotten hurt." Nightwing glared Spirit as she sat with the other members of Young Justice on lockdown. They were all at the kitchen table of the Cave. It was a rather small kitchen with only a refrigerator, a few cabinets, and a small stove, but it filled the needs of the Team.

"Yeah, yeah…" Spirit rolled her eyes and stuffed a handful of chips into her mouth.

"Dani, I'm actually on Nightwing's side." Zatanna sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Harm has Morgaine le Fey on his side. He's more dangerous than ever, and he'll likely come after us. It's best to stay around a lot of people to help us fight in case he uses the Infi-map to find us."

"I get that…" Spirit said through a mouthful of chips. "But why am I here and not Greta? She's probably the biggest target of all."

"You were the one that didn't want to stay cramped in Amity Park with the Fright Knight always looking over your shoulder." Artemis smirked and placed her chin in her hands. "Greta was fine with it, so she doesn't have to stay here."

"Yeah, yeah…" Spirit grumbled.

"Excuse me, but what art thou talking about?" Troia questioned as she leaned against the kitchen counter. "Why would the man called Harm be after thee?"

"It's a long story, but basically three years ago, these three showed up in New York, fought Harm, and defeated him with Greta's help." Nightwing explained to the Amazon.

"Don't forget about the Fright Knight. He helped to…" Spirit mentioned.

"Ah, I see." Troia nodded. "That would explain the tension."

"Yeah," A green bird flew from the living room to the kitchen and transformed back into Garfield. "Everyone's thinking that today or tomorrow's gonna be the day Harm acts out, so every friend we have is on high alert."

"So that is why there are so many League members in the Cave today." Troia crossed her arms. "Do they not trust us to guard our own comrades?"

"That's the way it's always been." Spirit shrugged. "There's a reason they get the special space station and we don't."

"Hmph…" Troia huffed and looked away. "And just when I thought that discrimination wasn't prevalent in this hero business of Man's World. Instead of men taking advantage of women, it is the adults that lack the ability to trust the young."

"It's…not always this bad." Zatanna gave a weak smile. "These are some dangerous circumstances."

"Yeah, they used to be a lot worse about not trusting us." Artemis groaned and cranked her neck back. "Remember those days?"

"You sound old." Garfield joked. He quickly shut up when Artemis glared at him.

"Never comment on a woman's age." Nightwing advised the green boy.

"Ah…noted."

"But Gar does have a point." Spirit looked around the kitchen to everyone. "I feel old just sitting here talking about this stuff. Almost all the members of the Team are out doing things. Even most of Alpha went to go help their mentors. Yet we're stuck here. I hate it."

"I believe that thou art thinking about this in the wrong way." Troia caught their attention. "This beith the time to prepare for the next battle. We all handle this time in different ways. Some prepare more. Some rest. Some fight. What matters is that we make sure that we are ready to put our lives on the line for each other when the time comes to fight."

"Well said." Nightwing smiled at the girl.

"I guess that's true…" Spirit looked down at the table. "But…I still got friends out there under Harm's control. One of which, I didn't give the benefit of the doubt. I need to save them…I need to…"

"Don't worry, Dani." Artemis patted her on the shoulder. "Everything is going to be fine. We'll save your friends and beat the bad guys like always."

"Yeah, this isn't anything we can't handle." Zatanna smiled.

"I hope so, but…I just got this bad feeling…"

It was then that all the alarms in the Cave blared to live. Red light flashed around the entire mountain. Sirens flared and echoed across the rocky walls. Every monitor and hologram lit up in an instant as they were assault with different images of demons and ghosts fighting each other a different locations across the planet.

"Damn, I hate when I'm right about this crap."

* * *

"The automated defense system is online." Cyborg noted. A hologram appeared above his left arm, and he interacted with it like it was a touchscreen computer. The picture on the holographic screen showed the various connecting networks across Amity Park. Each signal was sent by a radio dish that the Phantom Family had spent years establishing. "Everything is completely operational, and by my calculation unhackable. Not even that annoying brat Gizmo could get into the J.A.Z.Z controlled system Axion Labs and I developed."

"I never knew you were so brilliant with technology." Fright Knight noted. They currently were on top of the Fenton Ops Center. The massive metal battle center towered in the Amity Park skyline. It was from here that they could control the entire system. "Of course, you did show some skill before, but now…"

"Well, technology is basically my life now." Cyborg's words were dunked in bitterness. "Might as well give it my goddam all…"

"Vic, please don't. You're getting depressing, and that means something coming from me." Raven mentioned to her friend.

"Right, sorry, Rae." Cyborg gave her a sheepish look. "Just…voicing my thoughts. I don't want to take it out on you guys."

"It is fine, tech knight." Fright Knight noted. "I cannot even begin to imagine the position you are in. Your feelings are beyond my comprehension, but if it helps you at all, please vent away."

"Haha…" Cyborg chuckled and shook his head. "Thanks, man. I appreciate it, but I'm not the kind of man to take my frustrations out on someone who doesn't deserve it."

"Then we must find someone who deserves it and take it out on him, correct?" Fright Knight questioned.

"I like the way you think." Cyborg couldn't help but smile. He had to admit that his situation wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The large teen was lucky enough to be surrounded by people would accept him and respect him despite his circumstances. It made life easier, but of course he was far from being cool with his new body just yet.

"Hey!" Dusk called over to them as he and Secret arrived. "Sorry we're late. I needed Greta to help me take my ecto-boost."

"No problem, dude." Cyborg waved them off. "I already programmed every ghost, magic, and demon ally into the data base, so we won't be alerted if they come by. But if Harm or the le Fey lady shows up with any of their minions, we'll get an alert."

"I still don't get how this works in Amity Park." Raven mentioned. "Amity Park is too heavy with ectoplasmic energy for any sensor to get a feel of who's in it."

"I'd like to take the credit, but Danny, Vlad, and…my father have been working on this system for years." Cyborg grunted. "I just modified the calibrations and tweaked the system to make it work the best way possible. By using all the satellite dishes, phone signals, and radios in Amity Park as a miniature sensor, we can divide the city into small grids. Then, we constantly scan the grids individually to see if there are any abnormalities."

"Fascinating…" Fright Knight nodded slowly. "But I don't understand a word you just said."

"Me neither." Dusk shrugged.

"Don't worry about it." Cyborg mentioned. "Just know that we will know if there is even a little disturbance."

"Amazing." Greta smiled. "So, if Harm or Morgaine opens up a portal, we can automatically react and stop them before things get too out of hand."

"Exactly." Cyborg nodded. "Plus, the defense system will kick in. Apparently, after what happened with the Light, Danny and Vlad have been outfitting the city with an Invasion Defense System. There are turrets, robots, and armored vehicles ready to defend the city in case of an all-out assault. Right, J.A.Z.Z.?"

Cyborg pulled out his personally made Fenton Works Tucker Phone. J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded from the device. _"Yes, Danny and Vlad have placed me in complete control of the defense system. If I sense anything, I will alert you while activating the weaponry._ "

"What about the citizens?" Greta questioned.

"We already relocated them to the bunkers. Harm and le Fey are likely to attack today, so we wanted to make sure they didn't get in the way." Raven explained.

" _And with the people of Amity Park safe, the defense system can be used without worry."_ J.A.Z.Z. stated.

"Good." Dusk nodded. "Just…be careful about the ghosts you attack. They're under Morgaine's control."

" _I know. Don't worry. I won't be using deadly force on them._ " J.A.Z.Z. crushed their worries.

"Excellent." Fright Knight nodded. "And with the rest of the family ready, le Fey and Harm won't stand a chance once they attack this city."

"…Wait…" Raven paused. "How do we know they will attack the city?"

"This is the home of the only group of people that fight against their ghosts and demons properly. Not to mention Harm's grudge against Lady Spirit and Lady Secret." Fright Knight mentioned. "This is the most logical place that they would attack first. They would want to get us out of the way."

"But why attack our stronghold when they know that we're prepared?" Raven questioned.

"Vision thought about that." Cyborg shrugged. "If they spread out the attack across the globe, there's nothing we can really do to prepare. We wouldn't be able to set up a system like this anywhere else. The only thing we can really do is prep Amity Park and guard the Ghost Zone."

"And if they do attack anywhere else, we have the League and nonaffiliated vigilantes to help out." Fright Knight nodded.

"Then we have everything covered." Dusk nodded. "That's good. But…I still have to question what le Fey's motives are. Why do all this anyway? It's not like she has any sort of grudge against us."

"The only way to answer that is to ask her." Fright Knight shrugged. "And most likely we'll get the opportunity to do just that soon enough…"

" _Oh no…."_ J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded through the Tucker Phone once more. " _Fright Knight's right! Morgaine le Fey and Harm are on the move! They just attacked the Ghost Zone!_ "

"Did Colossus and Frostbite intercept them?" Cybrog questioned.

" _No! They didn't get the chance! Morgaine did something to control all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone!_ "

"What?" Dusk went pale.

" _From what I understand, the ghosts are flying through portals left and right._ "

"But…nothing's happening here." Greta mentioned.

" _That's because they're not attacking Amity Park!"_

"Damn, so they're attacking different cities." The Fright Knight sighed.

" _No! That's not it! They're not attacking buildings or people!_ "

"Then…what are they doing?" Raven felt her stomach clench.

" _The demons!_ "

"What?"

" _The demons from Jason Blood's collection! The ghosts and the demons are fighting across each other across the globe! They're tearing each other apart and destroying everything in the process!_ "

Dusk's eyes widened. If the ghosts and demons were fighting, then that meant that they could do very little to save their allies being controlled by le Fey. All of their brainwashed allies would be killed right before their eyes. "No…"

* * *

"Morgaine le Fey!" Phantom roared. After the brainwashing red light had died down, he rushed to the source with Red Huntress hot on his heels. The halfa arrived to the source of the light located in the center of the Ghost Zone. There, he found Morgaine le Fey, Harm, and a machine with the mind controlling jewel at its center.

The halfa rushed towards the sorceress at neck break speeds. Green energy blazed around his right hand as he sent a powerful punch towards the woman. Normally, the power behind the attack could have caused concrete to shatter and buildings to shake. When le Fey created a yellow shield of magical energy, though, Phantom's attack was stopped completely. This didn't stop the halfa completely. For a few seconds, he tried to force his way through the barrier. Energy sparked around him as he tried to use his skills with magic to deconstruct the barrier, but that proved useless as Morgaine was far too skilled of a powerful for his meager understanding of magic to handle.

Realizing that it was futile, Phantom retreated a decent distance and glared at the woman. Red Huntress flew up to his side and examined him. "Danny, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Phantom grunted.

"Me oh my…" Morgaine tilted her head to the side in fascination. "I have to say, I'm impressed. If that was any other magic user, you would have broken the shield. It is certainly easy to see why so many people are interested in you."

"Don't give me that crap! I won't be distracted!" Phantom glared. "You have to stop this, now!"

"Do not speak to Master le Fey in such a way." Harm snapped.

"It's alright, Harm. I like his attitude. Very few men have the backbone to talk back to me. I have to say…I like it."

All around the four individuals, ghosts were flying through portals. It seemed like every ghost in the Ghost Zone was now under le Fey's control. The two heroes thought that some of the ghosts would attack them, but that didn't happen. The ghosts continued to pile out of the Ghost Zone and acted as if Phantom and Red Huntress didn't even exist.

"That machine must have amplified the effects of the jewel." Red Huntress realized as she looked at the machine that stood at nearly ten feet tall. It was very thin about the size of lamppost pole. A large antenna stood at the top of the machine. "But…how did you two build it? An ancient sorceress and a psychopath. Neither of you have any knowledge of how to build something like that."

"You are correct. That is why I recruited a mind that does understand such things." Morgaine waved her hand and a teenager appeared in a blaze of yellow energy. The teen was rather short and had a shaved head. His body was covered in a green body suit completely covered in tech. A pair of green goggles stood on his head, but the glass was shattered.

"Gizmo!" Phantom's eyes widened.

"I…I'm sorry…" Gizmo coughed out as he was dropped to the ground. He was covered in bruises and cuts. "I didn't want to. They made me…"

"Yes, this new generation is very surprising." Morgaine le Fey glanced down at the teen. "I just wanted to find someone that no one would notice if he went missing. This recluse was perfect, but I thought it would be easier considering his perverted nature. Imagine my surprise when he actually resisted me when I explained to him what I wanted."

"Snot muncher…" Gizmo hissed. "I may be a crook, but there's no way in hell I was going to help you commit mass murder."

"Murder?" Harm laughed and picked the boy up with one hand. "How can you murder what is already dead?"

"Idiot…" Gizmo glared at the psychopath. "I'm a scientist, asswhipe. I know how ghosts work. Everything about them fits the description of a sentient being. That means, they're alive."

"Tsk…" Harm rolled his eyes. "Annoying bug. Can Harm kill the it now?"

"No. He might be of use later." Morgaine le Fey shook her head.

"Fine." Harm chucked Gizmo at the heroes. Red Huntress caught the teen carefully.

"Grr…" Gizmo shook in both pain and anger as he peered back to the sorceress. "I swear, witch, one day I'll make you pay for this. No one gets to use me and abuse me like this. One day, I'm gonna make sure you suffer five times more than I have."

"Big words from a little man." Morgaine le Fey chuckled.

"You mock the words of a fallen warrior? How disgraceful." The voice of Colossus called out. The giant and Frostbite arrived at the scene and helped surround the two villains.

"Witch! Release the ghosts now, or I'll tear you limb from limb!" Frostbite roared. His eyes were slitted, his teeth were bared, and his fur was standing on end. He looked positively monstrous.

"From one of the ancient ghosts that stood by the Ghost King, that is a decent threat." Morgaine nodded. "But it is already too late. You see, the ghosts have already been given commands. They are to go to the human world and fight the demons that I released. The only way to stop this command is for someone with my mind control jewel to order them to stop. If that doesn't happen, they will fight until they are unable to fight anymore, because I have ordered them to fight to the death."

"You did what?!" Phantom's eyes widened.

"I will have the ghosts and demons fight to the death." Morgaine le Fey shivered in pleasure as she reached up to her golden mask. She removed to reveal one of the most beautiful faces Phantom had ever seen. The halfa could now see how this woman could seduce someone like Jason Blood to the point of obsession. "It will be such a beautiful sight. Long ago, people feared demons and ghosts like no other. I always wondered which would be the most terrifying in a fight. Now, I will get to see that."

"Is that why you did this?" Red Huntress glared.

"Yes, and no." Morgaine le Fey's pouty lips dipped up into a smirk. "I do have another reason for all this, but mostly…I just thought that it would be an incredibly interesting sight. All the bloodshed and war…It will be glorious."

"You…" Colossus trembled in rage. "HOW DARE YOU!? Fighting is an honorable thing! It is to equals coming together to see who is the strongest! Yet, here you are forcing people to battle without their consent or honor! You dare pervert the integrity of battle in such a way?!"

"I do…" Morgaine seemed pleased. "Remember the plan, Harm. Go get the final piece."

"I will, Mistress." Harm removed the jewel from the machine and bowed to the woman.

"You will pay!" Colossus roared and flew to Morgaine at dizzying speeds.

"Colossus, wait!" Phantom yelled, but he was too late. Colossus was already at le Fey. The giant was about to strike, but le Fey was ready before that. She hand her hands raised and concentrated on her energy. In a blaze, le Fey, Harm, and Colossus were gone.

"No!" Frostbite rushed to where the three beings just were.

"Damn…" Red Huntress frowned. "That was her plan. She was baited Colossus in so she could teleport him with her and take our biggest gun away."

"She's not stupid." Phantom clenched his fists. "She had everything planned from the start."

Frostbite's feral look disappeared and was replaced by a look of despair. "I…What can we do now? We can't order the ghosts to stop without the jewel, and Harm has that. And without Colossus, we're a lot weaker than we should be. How can we save our allies now?"

"…By beating them to the point that they can't move so they can't fight to the death." Phantom reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "J.A.Z.Z., where are all the ghosts going?"

" _Luckily for you, I've been monitoring just that."_ J.A.Z.Z. spoke out. " _Here's the map I created._ "

"Thank you." Phantom looked at the map. "I see…"

"Danny?" Red Huntress looked to the halfa.

"Frostbite, you go to Atlantis and give them some support. Your powers will be amplified by the water." Phantom noted. "Freeze the ghosts so that they won't be killed."

"…Yes. Yes, I'll do that. Thank you, Great One." Frostbite bowed his head and flew off.

"Hey…But muncher…" Gizmo gasped out from his spot in Red Huntress's arms. "Get me and the machine to Amity Park. If I…recalibrate it…I can reverse the effects…and stop the ghosts…That way, I can be happy knowing that I did something…"

"Red Huntress, do as he says." Phantom looked to his girlfriend. "While he's doing that, I'll have people look for the stone so we can stop this madness."

"Right." Red Huntress nodded and did as her boyfriend asked.

Now alone, Phantom looked to his phone. "J.A.Z.Z., get me in contact with everyone you can get a hold of. We need to be organized if we want to minimize the death count."

* * *

"Most of the League is already out in the field." Nightwing mentioned as he worked with the holographic computer in the center of the Cave. "A lot of them are working with members of Young Justice already."

" _That's fine."_ Phantom's face showed in one of the images. " _I'll have Vision organize the ghosts to give them backup. Who do you have with you right now?_ "

"Robin already left for Gotham, but Spirit, Artemis, Troia, and Zatanna are still here." Nightwing mentioned.

" _And Batman probably wants you back in Gotham too._ " Phantom frowned. _"Alright, it's probably best to keep up with the pattern. Zatanna, Artemis, and Troia, meet with your mentors and help them. I'll have Vision sent some backup to help Zatanna and Artemis in case Harm tries to target them."_

"With my Dad?" Zatanna sighed. "That will suck. He still treats me like a baby."

Artemis patted her on the shoulder. "I think he'll get over it considering the circumstances. We'll all have to work as a team."

"Should we go ahead and head out?" Troia questioned. "I am sure Diana is waiting for my help."

" _Yeah. Go._ " Phantom nodded as the women left.

"Hey!" Spirit glared at the screen. "What about me?"

" _I'll have you meet with Raven and Vision. Vision will decide where you go._ " Phantom noted.

"Alright…" Spirit paused. "Is there any way you can know where some of the specific ghosts are. Like Cujo, Wulf, or Youngblood."

J.A.Z.Z.'s voice then sounded throughout the Cave. " _Actually, I've managed to track our closest allies. Wulf and Youngblood seem to be in the same location."_

" _J.A.Z.Z.,"_ Phantom sighed. " _You know telling her that will only rile her up…_ "

"Where are they?" Spirit quickly questioned.

" _Dani, I think it would be best if we let someone else handle those two. Your emotions in the situation might get in the way._ " Phantom explained from his holographic image.

"No, that's exactly why I should go and help them. I care enough to stop them without hurting them." Spirit frowned. "Please, I want to help my friends."

"…"

"Danny, what do you think?" Nightwing questioned.

" _Alright, Dani. I'll trust you with this. Tell Vision that I suggested this, and she'll listen."_ Phantom sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Thanks! Don't worry! I'll get them back in one piece! It's a promise!" Spirit grinned and ran up to the Zeta Tubes.

 **Recognized: Spirit B12**

With that, Spirit disappeared in a flash of golden light.

"Are you sure that was wise?" Nightwing inquired.

" _No idea, but it's out of my hands now."_ Phantom looked worried, though. " _I don't have time to worry…I'm going to head out. I'll talk to you when this is all over._ "

"Where are you heading anyway?"

" _With Dani helping Wulf and Youngblood, the only family members unaccounted for are Amorpho and Cujo. I contacted some friends to track down Amorpho, so I'll head to help my dog._ " Phantom explained. " _Cujo was located in Dakota City. I'm going to head there and make sure he doesn't die."_

* * *

Dusk was silent as he pulled Secret into an alley way. Amity Park was completely silent. There were no ghosts or demons around. It appeared that all the preparation was for nothing. Nevertheless, it gave the youngest halfa peace of mind to know that his home would be safe without him around to protect it.

As soon as everyone was starting to be divided up into groups, Dusk quickly grabbed Secret and pulled her away from Fenton Works before anyone could notice. If they wanted to track Harm down, they couldn't be following orders to defend a certain spot. So, Dusk left a text message alerting everyone that he and Greta would be looking for Harm and the jewel. After all, someone had to find the jewel to reverse the orders of le Fey.

The only problem lay in the fact that everyone would probably object to Secret being involved in this. She was a possible target of Harm after all. Dusk didn't care, though. He promised Greta that he would help her save brother. The halfa teen was going to make sure he kept that promise, so he turned cut off J.A.Z.Z.'s connection to his Tucker Phone, which wasn't hard considering how talented he was at breaking tech.

"I feel bad about leaving our friends." Greta frowned as the settled into the alley way.

"I do too, but it will all be worth it if we succeed. No one will be able to say anything as long as we get le Fey's brainwashing jewel." Dusk explained.

"Right…you're right." Secret shuffled her feet a little bit though. "I guess…I wanted to have all my friends on this mission."

"I'm sorry, Greta, but you knew that wasn't going to happen." Dusk lowed his head. His hood hid most of his face. "That's why you came to me, right?"

"Yes…among other reasons…" Greta looked to where their hands were still connected. Her face flushed, but she did nothing to stop the contact.

"Okay," Dusk nodded. "Then we'll need a way to track him down. Tell me, do you think with him being so active right now, could you possibly track his movements?"

"How?"

"He's part of your obsession, right?" Dusk mentioned. "That means you'll automatically be drawn to him. No one asked you for help earlier because of le Fey's protection, but according to Red Huntress, she's most likely distracting Colossus while Harm was ordered somewhere else. He's no longer being shielded by her."

"Oh, right…" Secret closed her eyes. "I don't know if this will work, but I'll try."

For several minutes, they were both silent. Greta focused on targeting her brother. Dusk on the other hand was merely observing her. Out of everyone in Amity Park, Greta was closest to being Dusk's best friend. Only Cujo and Fright Knight compared, but considering their species and age, the halfa didn't think that it counted. As such, the teen cared for her strongly.

It was often suggested that Dusk had romantic feelings for her, but he wasn't sure. Before Amity Park, Joel never had time for such thoughts. Then, when he got to the city, the halfa was focused on integrating into a somewhat stable life while dealing with the threat of the Light. Now, though, with his body changing into that of an adult, Dusk thought about such things far more often. It was a natural part of life after all.

Still, the halfa was an incredibly guarded individual. With his background and observations from the Shadows, Dusk was pretty skeptical of romance. He had seen plenty of female assassins use their beauty and bodies to entice men into a false sense of security. Dusk would be lying if he said that wasn't paranoid about such things now.

With Greta, though, it was different. She was so similar to him in a way. Both of them disliked violence more than the other ghosts, both of them came into Amity Park long after the GIW War, and both of them were more soft-spoken. As such, Dusk felt drawn to Greta. Especially now that they were alone. Looking at her angelic face, Dusk felt the odd urge to kiss her…

"I got him." Secret's eyes snapped open.

"W-what?" Dusk flinched a little. He was so enamored that he was caught by surprise.

"I got a lock on my brother." Secret exited the hold between their hands. She placed on hand on her forehead to concentrate and one hand pointed out to the darkened western sky. "He's in the West. My gut says California…Los Angeles."

"You sure?" Dusk questioned.

"Yes, I'm positive." Secret nodded.

"Alright…" Dusk looked at his phone and began to dial a number.

"Who are you calling? I thought the reason we ran off was because our friends would try to stop us?" Greta tilted her head in confusion.

"They will definitely try to keep you here." Dusk nodded as he pulled the phone up to his ear. "But we'll need help, so I'm calling someone that will help us without trying to keep you out of the loop."

"Who?" Greta questioned.

Dusk signed as the phone began to ring. "Someone I promised myself I wouldn't call for help…"

" _Hello, Joel. This is a surprise._ "

"Hello, Cassandra." Dusk frowned as he spoke into the phone. "I need a favor."

* * *

Jim Corrigan was a tall broad man with rust colored hair. He currently wore a dark green suit that fit his frame well. His appearance was a little unkempt at the moment, though, as his tie was loosened and his shirt was untucked.

"Damn." Jim grunted as he unlocked the door of his apartment and stumbled in. He held his head like he was in great pain. "Why can't…I let the other guy out…"

As soon as Jim caught wind of what was happening with the ghosts and demons across the planet, he tried to jump into action. For some reason, though, the other guy was not responding. It was like his inner demon was fighting to stay locked up. He kept trying to change, but it wouldn't work. All it got him was a terrible headache.

Usually, Jim just transformed in the bathroom of his detective office, but he couldn't just stay there. What if there was some kind of backlash that came from the condition he had? If there was an energy shockwave, people would die. That was why he went home immediately.

His home was a rather small messy place on the outskirts of Los Angeles. This was a necessity considering the company he keeps at times. It would be bad if a lot of people saw the leader of the Ghost Zone at his door.

"Damn…" Jim leaned against the door once it was closed and slid to the floor. "What's happening? Why won't you listen to me?"

Jim didn't expect an answer, but he got one.

"Because Harm has ordered the ghost it not to listen to the human it."

Jim's head snapped up to see Harm standing in the center of his apartment. "You…You're the guy that broke out of Belle Reve."

"Yes…" Harm held up the red jewel and smiled cruelly. "Harm escaped the prison and now, it's time for the Spectre to escape its prison."

"Damn…" Jim trembled as he tried to get up, but his body wasn't responding. "How do you know that I contain the Spectre?"

"This," Harm reached into his trench coat with his free hand and revealed the Infi-map. "You and the it called Gizmo were the only reasons we needed this dumb map. You especially were a hard it to find."

"I see…" Jim stopped fighting and just stared at Harm. "So…What do you want exactly?"

"The Spectre. He's the final piece. Harm's master needs him so she can cause the most damage." Harm explained. "But the thing is…The Spectre is contained inside the it. When it was about to die, the Spectre sealed itself inside human it so that the Spectre could be controlled from his murderous tendencies as the ghost of revenge."

"You know a lot, eh…" Jim reached into his coat with his shaky hands and pulled out a cigarette and lighter. He lit the cigarette and began to smoke.

"Harm know only what Mistress le Fey has told Harm."

"Morgaine le Fey, eh?" Jim chuckled. "I guess I should have listened to Vision when she tried to warn me. Damn Spectre and his pride."

"Pride is the deadliest of all sins." Harm noted.

"Indeed." Jim blew out a puff of smoke and gave Harm a calm look. "So, what now, kid?"

"Now…" Harm reached behind him to his sword and pulled it out. "Harm will kill the container it and release the Spectre."

"I see." Jim sighed. "That's too bad."

"The it does not seem scared. This confuses Harm."

"Confuses you? It's not that hard to understand, kid." Jim shrugged. "I've been living off of borrowed time ever since the Spectre sealed himself inside of me. I've had to come to accept my weird existence in this world, and I've long since accepted that my borrowed time would run out. If it's today, then so be it. I just wish that my death didn't mean that hundreds would die by the hands of the Spectre. Keeping him from going on the massacre is the only reason I didn't off myself earlier."

"Harm sees," The psycho eyed the man. "Tell Harm, what is the its' name?"

"Jim Corrigan."

"I see. Harm will remember that name and carve the words on the its' grave." Harm raised his blade and cut down on the defenseless man. Blood spattered across the walls as green light flooded from Jim. With that, the spirit of revenge was now completely unchained.

* * *

 **Next update: "Harmful Control" on July 6, 2015**

 **Some of you may know that I am a huge pro-wrestling fan, even though I don't advertise it a lot. As a fan, I was shocked and saddened when the legendary Dusty Rhodes passed away. To someone who doesn't know about how great Dusty was, he might seem like a strange looking athlete with "a stomach a little too big" and a "heiny a little too big," but he was the greatest blue collar hero and one of the best talkers in the industry. I think I speak for all the fans when I say, we love you, and we're gonna miss you, Dusty. Thank you for everything.**

 **An on lighter note...Batman: Arkham Knight...It's almost here...I have high expectations.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

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	5. Harmful Control

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Only you can control your future."

Dr. Seuss

* * *

Chapter 5: "Harmful Control"

(Wednesday-October 30, 2013)

Dakota City was in complete chaos. People were screaming and running in fear through the streets of the large city. Multiple civilians were on the ground injured, and many of them were dead. All around these bodies were very strange beings that were fighting in death matches. Half of the beings fighting were green in color and used ectoplasm to fight. The other half were demonic in nature with their sharp claws, pointed teeth, and curved ears.

The day had started out as incredibly peaceful. No one even thought about something like this happening until green and red portals opened up all around the city. The ghosts and demons poured into the city and instantly attacked each other. Destruction and chaos ensued immediately. Backlash from the ghost's and demon's attack caused the ground and buildings around them to crumble.

It was as this moment that the people of Dakota City wished that they had more native superheroes to their city. Icon and Rocket could usually handle any issues the city had, but today was definitely the exception. The heroes were struggling to keep up with all the chaos. They were fighting an uphill battle and could use some back-up.

Until then, though, it would be up to the non-super powered heroes to deal with some of the chaos. The police, firefighters, and medics of the city were rushing around trying to help as many people as possible. Unfortunately, these people could not fight the ghosts and demons directly. The only thing they could do was run into the chaos and try to get the civilians out of there, and this led to even more deaths. People seemed to instinctively understand that, even the children.

"But Mom! I've got this really bad feeling." A twelve year old Virgil Hawkins spoke into his phone. He was a young African American boy with dreadlocks covered by his blue baseball cap. "Can't you just come home where it's safe?"

" _I'm sorry, Virgil, but you know I can't do that."_ Jean Hawkins's voice spoke through the phone. " _People out here need my help. I can't just abandon them._ "

"I know, but-" Virgil never got the chance to finish that thought.

" _What? Right, I'll be right there. Sorry, Virgil, but I have to go I'll see you tomorrow._ "

"Wait!" Virgil was too late, though. His mother already hung up. "No…"

"I'm guessing she's not coming home, eh dude?" Richard Foley glanced to his friend as they both sat on a couch in the Hawkins living room. The Caucasian boy had blonde hair and thin glasses covering his concerned brown eyes.

"No, she's not…" Virgil crossed his arms and slumped into the couch cushions.

Robert Hawkins looked to his son from his spot by the window. The African American was slightly overweight and had a thin mustache on his upper lip. He was just peering out into the darkened street. They lived at the edges of the city, so they weren't as effected as badly as the city. A few ghosts and demons went by randomly, though, "I know you're worried, son, and I am too. There's nothing we can do. Your mother already made up her mind. We can only hope and pray that she'll come out of this safely."

"I'm with Virgil on this one, Dad." Sharon Hawkins pulled her legs up to her chest as she sat in a nearby chair. She was a fifteen year old girl with dark skin and long thick black hair. "I mean, there's a bunch of weird creatures out there…"

"I know, honey…" Robert sighed. He looked to the boys, "Maybe you boys should try to sleep. It's getting pretty late. Richard, I already called your parents. They agree that it's too dangerous to go outside, so you're going to stay here tonight."

"Alright, Mr. H," Richard nodded. He didn't really want to go out anyways. The boy's chest was beating a mile a minute in fear already.

"Dad, there're no way we're going to be able to sleep with what's happening." Virgil frowned.

"Maybe not, but it's best to at least try." Richard noted.

"…Fine, come on, Rich. I'll get you a sleeping bag." Virgil jumped off the couch and walked over to the stairs.

"Alright." Richard followed.

"Goodnight, Virgil." Robert called up to his son.

"Night, Dad." Virgil responded before he entered his room with his friend.

As soon as the door was closed, Richard looked over to his friend. "We're not going to sleep, are we?"

"No." Virgil walked over to his window and pulled it open. "I have to get to my Mom, Rich. She's in trouble. I can feel it. You can stay here, but-"

"Stay here?" Richie scoffed. "Please, dude. You know me better than that. If you go, I go. There's no way I'd abandon you like that."

Virgil grinned. "Really? Because you look terrified."

"I am, man. That doesn't matter, though." Richard forced his legs to stop shaking. "I won't leave a friend to go out there alone."

"You could just get my Dad and try to stop me." Virgil noted.

"I doubt that would stop you." Richard walked over to the corner and picked up a metal back-pack that he made. It had a single metal strap that instantly latched on around his torso. "I memorized a map of the city, and I can use Back-Pack to listen to the radio chatter so we can find your mom."

"Thanks, Rich." Virgil held out his fist. "I owe you one."

"You owe me a whole lot more than one, dude." Richard fist bumped his friend. "Now let's go before I lose my nerve."

* * *

"Remember to stay focused." Vision reminded the two girls as they flew towards the battle zone. "It is likely that both the ghosts and the demons will try to kill us. If we want to win this fight while minimizing the amount of ghost's deaths, then we'll have to be careful."

"I know, Vision." Raven mumbled. The half-demon girl looked down at the city of Metropolis. It looked pretty chaotic down there. People were scrambling everywhere, but they didn't seem to be getting away from the chaos of the fights. Luckily, they had Superman and Superboy to protect them.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be careful," Spirit looked like she was ready to rocket down into the city. "Can we go now? Wulf and Chuck are down there, and they might be injured as we speak."

Vision eyed her adopted daughter. "Spirit…You need to calm down. We'll save them, but if you keep acting like this, you'll get yourself into trouble. Take a calming breath."

"Fine…" Spirit stopped her fidgeting and breathed in and out deeply.

"Good. Now, let's go." In a blaze of purple, Vision flew down to the battlefield below them. She was quickly trailed by Spirit and Raven. They flew into the chaos that filled the city. The blaring neon lights actually seemed dull in comparison to the fights between the ghosts and the demons.

Vision instantly went to work. Purple balls of energy formed and began to orbit around their master. As quickly as they were formed, the balls of energy flew to the various creatures currently in combat. When the orbs made contact with one of the creatures, the energy stretched out all around them. The ghosts and demons were instantly captured within a cocoon of flaring purple energy.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven placed her hands on the concrete below her. A black pool of demonic energy appeared below some of the ghosts and demons. Dark claws reached out, grabbed the creatures, and pulled them into the darkness to the point where only their heads were showing.

Spirit lacked the natural ability to trap the creatures like her comrades did. As such, she had to knock out or use equipment on her enemies instead. Splitting up with three separate duplicates, the girl rushed through the crowds of ghosts with the flow and grace of a river. The duplicates tried to break up the fights and knock out as many ghosts and demons as possible. As this was happening, the original Spirit pulled out the ghost capture device called the Fenton Thermos and was using it to capture all the ghosts that she could. A blast of energy hit the ghosts and dragged them into the thermos.

"It is good to have you here." A muscular man wearing a red and blue uniform stated. His black hair was slick and smooth. Bright blue eyes enhanced the man's handsome feature to the point that some woman might start drooling over the man. The famous S shield stood proudly on his chest. "We could use some back up."

"Danny's right." Superboy grunted to his mentor as the clone grabbed a demon and flung it into an empty care. "We really need to start carrying some ectoplasmic tech, or at least I do. Sphere's helping, but she's having trouble flying around in all this crap."

"Here!" Spirit flung a Fenton Thermos at Superboy. "I brought an extra!"

"Thanks!" Superboy grinned and uncapped the thermos. He then used the device to start capturing the ghosts.

Superman used his heat vision to blast several of the different ghosts and demons away in an unconscious heap. "Nothing for me?"

"Do you really need it?"

"No." Superman took a deep breath. He then let out a cold huff. A wave of ghosts and demons were instantly frozen by his Freezing Breath. "I'm fine."

"Then don't complain." Spirit chuckled and immediately went back to work. As she fought, she looked through the crowds of demons and ghosts. The girl tried to find even the smallest glimpse of Youngblood or Wulf, but she found nothing. Through all the fighting, there wasn't even the tiniest glimpse of the two ghosts.

'Where are they?' The halfa girl questioned.

"GAAAHHH!" The sound of Superman yelling out in pain instantly caught everyone's attention. They all turned and saw one of the people that Spirit was just looking for. Youngblood floated in front of the Man of Steel. In his non-hook hand stood a green glowing rock that appeared to be Kryptonite, one of Superman's few weaknesses.

The hooked hand of Youngblood was covered in blood. Superman was holding his bleeding chest in agony. Using this to his advantage, Youngblood hit Superman across the face with the stone and then transformed his peg leg into a cannon. A glowing green cannon ball flew out of the cannon and struck Superman on his injured chest. The Man of Steel was instantly sent flying into a building.

"Kal El!" Superboy shouted. He would have jumped after his genetic father and adopted brother if it wasn't for the ghosts and demons clawing at him. His shout drew Youngblood's attention to him. The eternally young ghost then held out the Kryptonite to the clone and began to fly to him.

"We have to stop him!" Vision commanded. She, however, was the furthest away from what was happening and was trapped behind a wall of ghosts and demons.

"I got him!" Raven flew, the closest to the even, rocketed towards the event.

"Right behind you-"

'Slice at head. Tear skin. Kill.' Spirit's Premonition screamed at her. The young woman instantly ducked and rolled away. A pair of razor sharp claws flew right were the girl was a second ago.

"Grr…" Wulf growled at the halfa girl.

"Wulf…" Spirit eyed her longtime friend. "It's me, your friend. Please, fight against this. You don't have to do this."

"No…You're…wrong…" Wulf snarled. "Kill…kill…KILL!"

With that, Wulf once again lunged at the girl with the full intention of ending her young life.

* * *

Dusk frowned at the people in front of him. "Why did you bring her?"

"I had to bring someone as backup, someone that could give me an alibi." Black Bat shrugged. "My mother was away, so Jinx was the only option."

"Nice to see you too, Joel." Jinx grinned devilishly at the young teen. "And how have you been?"

Dusk just grunted and looked away.

The three people trained by the Shadows stood outside a ruined apartment stained with blood. Secret was inside investigating the scene. She insisted that Harm was just here and that she needed a few minutes to find out what happened.

"And here I thought that you were actually polite." Jinx chuckled.

"I am usually, but you're one of the people Talia and Ra's frequently uses to try to recruit me." Dusk mentioned.

"To be fair, so am I." Black Bat mentioned.

"That's different. I know whose side you're really on." Dusk glared at Jinx. "Her on the other hand…"

"I'm not gonna tell anyone that you got a mole in the Light." Jinx shrugged. "It's only fair, I kept Young Justice's mole problem from Danny. Now it's my Dad's turn to get played."

"So your loyalties are equal to them?" Dusk's eyes narrowed. "Sounds to me like you're on the fence, and people that stay on the fence too long eventually get impaled."

"Oh, you're worried about me. How sweet." Jinx patted the boy on the head. "Don't, though. I can handle my own situation just fine. For example, I can write all this off as us trying to recruit you while you're away from everyone. No one will question it at all."

"Well…that's good I guess." Dusk looked to Black Bat. "At least you won't get in trouble for this."

"That was my plan from the beginning." Black Bat shrugged. "So…Just to clarify, we're going after Harm, but not going to kill him? That's a waste. That guy needs to be put down."

"Don't act like you have any right to judge and decide someone else's punishment like that." Dusk frowned deeply.

"I don't claim to be a judge. I merely listen to what fate is saying." Black Bat mentioned and shook her head at the halfa. "Sometimes, people have to die. It's either them or the good people. Trying to spare those that need to die will only result in people you care about dying."

"No. I refuse that claim. No one has to die." Dusk stated. "If my allies stand by me, then we will protect each other and keep the enemy alive as well."

"You're naïve, Joel." Jinx rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall leading to the apartment building.

"I don't think he's naïve. I think he's optimistic and caring." Secret stepped out of the apartment. "He views life as precious, and that's more than can be said for you two."

"Whatever, little girl." Jinx scoffed. "You obviously don't understand how this world really works. How people need to die in order for things to be better…"

"You're right…" Secret nodded. "I don't know anything about death at all. It's not like I was stabbed to death or something."

Black Bat sighed and addressed the blonde ghost dressed in white. "Moving on now. What did you find?"

"My brother was definitely here." Secret's face twisted in disgust as she glanced back at the room. "He was here for a reason. There was a ghost here. I'm not sure who cause I'm not as good of a sensor as Vision, but I can still feel the power radiating off this place."

"That shouldn't be." Dusk mentioned. "Morgaine's jewel shouldn't be able to control a ghost all that powerful."

"I know, but that doesn't change what I felt in there." Secret explained.

"So we're assuming that Harm came here for that ghost, right? That makes sense, but if the ghost was so powerful, though, why didn't you know that he was out in here in Los Angeles?" Jinx questioned.

"Vision definitely would know…" Dusk noted. "She wouldn't let a ghost powerful enough to leave such an after effect go unguarded and without giving us a little knowledge on him…That means we know about him…Oh crap, the Spectre."

"Oh, that's not good." Secret paled so much she might even look invisible. "The Spectre is already unstable, right? He did mention once that he shared a body with a human to stop his vengeful killing. That would explain the blood. Harm killed the Spectre's host."

"Would the Spectre's lack of control make it so that Harm could control him?" Black Bat questioned.

"Definitely considering Harm's desire for revenge," Dusk clenched his fists. "But he would have to stay close to Spectre at all times."

"So, we find the Spectre, we find Harm and the jewel." Jinx noted. "Looks like we have a plan."

"The only question is where would Harm take the Spectre?" Black Bat frowned.

"It would have to be against someone that would require the Spectre to beat. One of the Ancient Six comes to mind…" Dusk muttered.

"We'll have to find out soon enough." Secret mentioned. "I managed to use my connection to my brother to track him. He's moving kind of slowly. I think he's basking in the chaos and victory."

"Can all ghosts track people like that?" Black Bat questioned.

"In a way, yes." Dusk mentioned. "If a person is a core part of a ghost's obsession, then the ghost will automatically be drawn to it. But only a powerful enough ghost with far above average sensor abilities could track a person like this."

"Interesting. I'd love to discuss this more, but we have to move if we want to intercept Harm and stop the Spectre going on a rampage, we should probably get moving." Jinx noted. "Considering that Harm isn't on the Light's hit list, I won't go for the kill if I don't have to…if only as a favor for Danny. I make no promises, though."

"That's fine." Secret mentioned as she began to walk away from the apartment. "Considering the situation, if we don't use as much force as possible, we might fail and die."

* * *

"Grr…" Gizmo growled as he struggled to hold a wrench correctly. His arms shook and trembled from exhaustion and pain. "Dumb Burger Breath Witch. Freaking a sadist is what she is. I swear, I'm going to get revenge on that dumb…"

"Geeze, man, take it easy." Cyborg mentioned as he helped Gizmo fix his machine. They set the signal device on the top of Fenton Works. When the machine was fixed and the jewel was returned, they would be able to bounce the signal across the communication lines among Young Justice, the Justice League, and the ghosts. With that, they could stop Morgaine le Fey's control over the ghosts at every battle zone.

"Don't tell me to take it easy, Metal Head!" Gizmo hissed. "I'm trying to fix this damn thing with a couple of broken rips. Besides, getting angry and cussing the hell out of stuff makes me work faster."

"If you're that hurt, then let me handle it." Cyborg noted as his right index finger morphed into a makeshift torch, and he started to fix part of the metal. "I'm pretty good with the tech stuff myself."

"Idiot, you could be the smartest person in the world, and it would still take you at least an hour to figure out how this damn machine works if you don't have my help and know-how. Not to mention how long it would take to reverse the signal." Gizmo grunted. "And I doubt you have all that much time to waste. You want to save as many ghosts as possible, right?"

"Yeah, you're right." Cyborg nodded.

"Then let me work. You dumb Snot Rag-AH! Son of a…" Gizmo clutched his ribs after reaching too far into the machine.

"My apologies," Fright Knight looked back at the two tech geniuses working on the machine. He floated over the edge of Fenton Works standing guard. "I wish our medic was here, but she left to find le Fey's jewel."

"Gah…huff…Whatever, I'll get over it…Don't need a medic…" Gizmo grinded his teeth together. "I can deal without her. Although having a better view would definitely help my motivation. Why couldn't that hot Red Huntress chick stay?"

"She went to help Lord Phantom." Fright Knight explained.

"Lord Phantom? Psh! Lame…" Gizmo snickered.

Fright Knight's flaming hair flared out as his glowing eyes glared at the thief.

"Careful," Cyborg whispered to the smaller teen. "He's doesn't like people badmouthing Phantom."

Gizmo gulped. "I can tell…"

"I shall forgive the blasphemy this time because of the circumstances." Fright Knight turned away and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "But be careful of your words next time, tech wizard."

"Got it…" Gizmo went back to work. "I'll just-" The teen was interrupted by the blare of alarms all across the city. Red lights flashed as different cannons and turrets appeared out of different spots in the city. "What the hell is happening?!"

"It's the city's new sensor system. It alerts us when there's a drastic change in the energy field in Amity Park." Cyborg raised his right arm and examined the holographic computer the floated over his right arm. "Damn! There are alerts of demons and ghosts entering the city!"

"Morgaine le Fey is no fool." The Fright Knight reached down and unsheathed his green blade Soul Shredder. "She know that our forces are spread out, and the city is not as protected as usual. The sorceress probably predicted that we would try to alter the machine to stop her."

"For the record, all my shit is broken, and I'm injured to hell; so I can't really fight." Gizmo mentioned.

"Don't worry." Cyborg stood to his full height and transformed his left arm into his energy cannon. "We got this."

"We're going to need help, though…" Fright Knight pulled out his communicator. "J.A.Z.Z., I'm overriding normal protocol. Prep the Red X suit."

* * *

Colossus let out a massive roar as he rushed towards Morgaine le Fey. His roar was so powerful, it almost seemed to shake the ground. Of course, this was nothing compared to his devastating shockwave empowered blows. One of the reasons that Colossus was so dangerous was that his power shook and broke everything in its path. The ground fled from his. The sky bowed to him. Enemies fell like flies before him.

Of course, this was assuming that his enemies were around to be hit.

"Amazing." Morgaine le Fey clapped her hands at the display of power. The massive shockwave sent to where she just was seemed to distort the space that they were in. "I can see why you are considered one of the strongest ghosts. Very few could ever hope to keep up with you."

"Gah!" Colossus yelled out in frustration. "Quit running away from me and fight, witch!"

"I am very sure of my own powers, but I do not intend to fight you." Morgaine mentioned. "You exist on a completely different level than normal beings. It's amazing how far ghosts can go. You could fight against people proclaimed as gods. So I know very well that I would inevitably lose a fight against you. But my purpose is not to defeat you. It's to take you out of the game altogether."

"What? You're not making any sense!" Colossus kicked at the woman and used a shockwave blast to hit her. Like all of his other blows, though, it didn't hit. Just like before, Morgaine disappeared from the spot and reappeared somewhere else instantly.

"Of course it doesn't." le Fey chuckled sweetly. "How could a brute understand? It's not like with you out of the picture, my plans can go more smoothly. Especially with that mirror in your back pocket taken out of the equation as well."

"I see…" Colossus growled. "That's it, eh? You don't want me or the Mirror of Memories to interfere in your plans. So basically…You spit on my honor by making so that I can't fight at all!"

The giant red ghost spread his arms out wide and sent a giant shockwave out. The entire area around him shook as if afraid. Despite everything being blank and almost nothing except for faint outlines, the place still began to shatter and fall apart.

"And that's why I can't just leave you here." Morgaine le Fey mentioned as her formed reappeared after the shockwave had ended. "You would destroy and escape this pocket dimension I created if I left."

"Then what's the point of your plan anyway? You said that you wanted to see the battles." Colossus argued. "How is staying here going to accomplish that?"

"The answer is very simple…" Morgaine waved her hands. Thousands of images appeared all around them. They all showed the different fights happening across the planet. Colossus looked in wonder as the different battles showed both his friends and enemies fight and bleed. "I shall watch and record what is happening while I'm here. That way, I can relive this day forever."

"You…You refuse to fight me, yet you torture me with images of different battles?" Colossus trembled in absolute rage. "This…this is the greatest insult to my honor that has ever occurred…Such a crime deserves only death."

"You can try all you want, but I can teleport, exit, and move freely throughout this space at will." Morgaine le Fey mentioned. "Nothing you can do will hurt me as long as I refuse to fight."

"Then it's pointless." Colossus glared.

"Exactly." Morgaine le Fey smiled. "With you and the Mirror of Memories you protect out of the way, my glorious day will remained unruined. Especially now that Harm has recruited the final piece."

Morgaine pointed to a specific image. Colossus's eyes widened. "No…The Spectre."

"Yes, he's under my command now." Morgaine le Fey let out a giggle that would cause most men to melt before her. "And with you out of the way, there's only three people active right now strong enough to give him a challenge. Superman has his own problems to deal with, though. Captain Marvel will soon have a problem with his powers. And Dark Dan is being entertained by a few new friends of mine."

"What about Phantom?" Colossus argued. He expected some sort of reaction from le Fey. Hell, he thought she might even laugh at the implication that such a young fighter could handle the Spectre. Her reaction, though, shocked him to his core.

Morgaine le Fey let out the cruelest smile that Colossus had ever seen and spoke once more. "Exactly. What about Danny Phantom? The answer is very simple…there's a reason I put his closet friends I brainwashed into two different cities. I knew he would go after one of them, and with Spirit's attachment to Youngblood, it was obvious that he would be going to Dakota City."

* * *

Frostbite let out a massive roar that seemed to distort the water around him. Even the mind-controlled ghosts and demons flinched back in fear and shock as the yeti ghost charged at them. All the demons in the water were slashed with Frostbite's claws and tossed away. The ghosts were covered in a blaze of blue energy and instantly frozen.

"Wow…" Aquagirl paused her attacks as she watched the large ghost tear through the enemies and smacked them allow like flies. "I am glad that he is on our side."

"I have thought that many time," Aquaman nodded as he grabbed a demon and flung it into a ghost.

"At this rate he will kill the ghosts…" Aqualad noted. He used his Water Bearers to shield himself from various ectoplasmic attacks.

"That is his choice," Tempest mentioned. With wave of his hands, he sent a twister of water and sent several of their enemies sprawling. "They are his people."

"But I know him…" Aqualad noted. "He will regret it…I need to stop him."

"Wait, Kaldur, he is in a rage. It would be best to keep—Kaldur!" Aquaman shouted as his longest lasting protégé rocketed away from their group.

Shaping his Water Bearers into whips, the blonde Atlantian smacked his foes away with swift swings of water. He quickly made his way through the water while dodging stray blasts of ectoplasms. Once he got close to the raging S-rank ghost, Aqualad swung his water whips and wrapped them around the yeti ghost's arms before the ghost could use his claws to tear through one of the ghosts.

"What are you doing?!" Frostbite roared. A wave of blue energy blasted off him. The ice energy spread out and instantly froze the ghosts and demons around them. Aqualad's water whips froze instantly, but the Atlantian prevented himself from being frozen by using his mystical art skills. Electricity danced from his eel tattoos and heated his skin. He still winced as frost still formed over his skin despite his electrical shield.

"Stopping you from doing something you will regret." Aqualad stated. He released the hold he had on the frozen water and used new water to form blades with his Water Bearers. "You are not thinking rationally."

"Of course I'm not!" Frostbite hissed. Cryo ectoplasmic energy focused around his mouth and allowed the yeti to communicate underwater. The temperature of the water continued to fall all around the two allies. "My people and my closest friends are brainwashed and being forced to kill each other!? How would you react?!"

"Possibly the same as you," Aqualad admitted. "But that is why I rely on my friends to keep me grounded and stop me from asking like a wild beast."

Frostbite paused.

"This is not who you are, Frostbite. You are a kind soul, even if you have some wild instincts." Aqualad stated. "Do not let your righteous anger make you do something that is far from righteous."

"…Thank you, young one." Frostbite let out a long breath. "I needed that. Don't worry, I shall control my anger from here on out."

"Good." Aqualad nodded. "Now come and help us. Working together will help create the most beneficial outcome."

"Yes. Of course…"

* * *

Gotham City was a place well known for housing strange people. Before the time of the Batman, it was filled with crimes and different gangs. That was the normal time. After Batman arrived to the scene, thing only got weirder with people like the Joker, Two Face, and the Riddler running around the city. All of that was nothing in comparison to what was happening today, though.

Demons and ghosts flooded the city. They fought and scrambled around the entire city. The chaos this created made even the strange days in Gotham seem normal and safe. Luckily, the people of Gotham City were a rather prepared and ready group. Most people had plans to escape such situations and get to a safe place. Thus, causalities in this city was most like the lease in comparison to most of the cities throughout the world.

There were always problems, though. Some stragglers couldn't get to their homes and were forced to hide in alleys. This was their best chance not to get caught in the chaos. Unfortunately, their planned failed. A pair of demons and ghosts scrambled into the alleys. They bit and clawed at each other in a frenzy. The concrete around them was smashed and clawed to bits. Fortunately, the people in the alley were saved by an unlikely ally.

A man with icy blue skin dropped into the ally. His crimson eyes gleamed in the darkness. Sleek black hair lifted up into two horns. His white body suit and cape flared as a magenta energy danced around his fingertips. That energy was sent out in a pink wave that covered the side of the alley that the civilians didn't occupy. The ghosts and demons dropped to the ground with thick thuds.

Vlad Plasmius glanced back to the civilians, "I made a clear path so some of the buildings. Get inside before more enemies show up."

Not waiting for a response, Plasmius rocketed out of the alleyway. The halfa was a blur as he flew through the city of Gotham. Using his ability to alter his body structure, Plasmius became a cloud of pink smoke. The smoke flew through the crowds of ghosts and demons. Plasmius's limps formed randomly throughout the smoke and began to strike the enemies down.

After a while of this strategy, Plasmius solidified into a whole being. His arms then formed into a silver dense steel. The ghost then struck several of the enemies on the head and slammed them into the concrete below them. The enemies didn't get up from this.

"Ha! Dracula's got moves!" Robin eyed Plasmius as the halfa moved through the streets. The Boy Wonder was using his ectoplasmic equipment to give him an edge against his enemies. He flung shuriken at his enemies, and they collapsed as the shuriken sent jolts of electricity through their bodies. "You're the guy that helped train Phantom, right?"

"Yes…" Plasmius's chest changed into plasma as a demon thrusted its claws through his body. The plasma spread down the demon's arm and formed into a fist. The fist struck the demon in the face several times until black blood spilt from the demon's mouth and nose. "That was me."

"Well, that explains why you're both so freaking badass!" Robin chuckled as he flipped over a ghost and used a Fenton Thermos to capture it.

"Robin, pay attention!" Nightwing chastised his predecessor. The older vigilante send a lightning fast series of blows to the demons in front of him and then flung them into nearby cars. "You keep dropping your guard!"

"Oh, it's not like these idiots have the skill to even lay a hand on me." Robin's smirk screamed arrogance. He pulled out a metal bar from his belt. Two demons rushed at him from both sides. With complete calmness, the Boy Wonder pressed a button on the metal bar and made it extend into a staff. The ends came out and smacked the demons away.

The Boy Wonder then flipped through a crowd of ghosts and swung his staff around with practiced ease. The swings of the staff not only hit the ghosts away; they deflected blasts of ectoplasm away like they were flies. Once done with his tricks, Robin twirled the staff around and smirked at the downed enemies. "They just can't touch me."

"Your protégé is quite skilled, Batman." Plasmius spoke into the Fenton Phone earpiece that fit perfectly over his ear canal.

" _Yes, but he's still too arrogant. That might get him killed one day,"_ Batman grunted. The Dark Knight was using his Batmobile to rush around the city and stop as many ghosts and demons as possible. " _Batgirl, get over to Robin and Nightwing's location immediately. Make sure they don't do anything stupid."_

" _Roger that."_

* * *

"Wow! Torch is glad that Torch came here." Torch twirled his scythe slowly in his right hand. His left hand was extended out controlling the flames in front of him. A massive wall of fire stood in front of him stopping the charging demons and ghosts. "You look like you need help."

"Your shield is not helping," A mechanical voice sounded above Torch. A large red android with a masculine build, a yellow arrow on his head, a blue cape, and T symbol on his chest. "Martians can become catatonic when they even see such intense flames."

"Oh…" Torch pushed the fire shield. The fire spread out and blasted down the streets of Chicago. Different ghosts and demons were sent sprawling in a flaming heap. "Torch's bad. Torch automatically uses fire as Torch's main way of fighting."

"It…is alright." A green skinned man with red eyes groaned. A black body suit and cape covered the Martian Manhunter's frame. "At least you kept the flames from touching us."

"Y-yes," Miss Martian was helped up by her uncle. "Having a flame shield a few meters in front of us is a lot better than be hitting by those flame and smoke attacks…"

"True enough…" Torch watched as Red Tornado flew to go fight more of the foes. "Torch has to wonder if this was the witch's plan, or if this is fate that Torch's minions are here."

"It was probably le Fey's plan," Martian Manhunter as flames burst out several streets away. "She knew that we could not fight against fire users, and almost all of your…minions…have abilities that revolve around extreme heat."

"That is likely…but Torch often thinks that it is the decisions of free choice that lead people to their destiny…"

"Huh?" M'gann blinked. "That's…oddly deep of you, but I don't think now is the time for philosophy."

Torch gave her a side glance. "Yeah…Torch is tired of talking anyway…You should leave the city and fight somewhere else. Most of the ghosts here are Torch's minions."

"There are still some enemies that we can fight. Besides, we can't just abandon the city we have sworn to protect." Martian Manhunter argued.

"Suit yourself. Torch really doesn't care either way." Torch shrugged as he floated up into the sky. "Just don't complain to Torch if you get burned again."

With that, Torch burst away in a blaze of flames. He rocketed down the street to where more of his minions and the demons were fighting. Spinning, Torch swung his scythe around rapidly. A flaming vortex was created. The spinning fire danced all around the ghosts and demons. They were all shouting and screaming in pain as the fire consumed them.

Torch's minions, while injured, would survive such an attack because of their tolerance to heat. The demons on the other hand were another matter. Of course, Torch didn't care if they lived. They could go back to hell as punishment for hurting his minions.

"Impressive…" Red Tornado noted as floated down in a flurry of red wind. The flames started to die down and fade. All that was left was smoking bodies. "You have improved."

"Yeah, that's what Torch does…" Torch mumbled as he swung his scythe over his shoulders and frowned at the smoking unconscious bodies.

"Are you alright?" Red Tornado questioned with a touch of curiosity and concern. "Usually, you are far more energetic than this."

"Torch has had a bad feeling all day. Torch thinks that—" Torch stopped speaking as he urgently grabbed Red Tornado and formed a shield around them.

VVVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Physical manifestations of sound rang through the street. The energy caused the glass window of the buildings to shatter. Glass rained downed like rain, but the shield stopped the sharp blades. Once the glass and sound faded, Torch dropped the shield and allowed Red Tornado to step away.

"What was that?" Red Tornado questioned.

"The sound of rock and roll…" Torch clenched his fists around his scythe and glanced down the street.

At the end of the road was a single girl. She was dressed in black leather pants and top that showed her midriff. A silver belt covered her waist, and silver skull boots covered her feet up to her calves. A black chocker was around her neck. Fiery blue hair was pulled up into a single pony tail. Her makeup was black and left black swirls under her eyes. An electric guitar sat in the hands of the siren ghost.

"Is that not the famous ghost rockstar, Ember McClain?" Red Tornado asked. "Isn't she an ally of Phantom's?"

"She's more than that…Of course, le Fey would send Ellie here; she's a fire ghost after all…" Torch sighed heavily and looked up to the sky. "Torch knew it. Torch felt it in his bones. Fate wanted to kick Torch in the balls today."

* * *

"Dang, man…" Richard panted as he and Virgil hid in a shop. "This…was a bad idea."

"I know, alright." Virgil peaked out of the window to look at the demons and ghosts fighting. "I thought Icon and Rocket would have handled most of this crap by now."

"There's a lot of them, though." Richard looked at his phone. "And this is happening all over the place, so I doubt they'll get any back up from the Justice League."

"Tsk…" Virgil clenched his fists and walked to the back of the store. "Come on, let's go through the back. You said my Mom was close, right?"

"Yeah," Richard pulled off his Back-Pack Tech and examined his radar. "Her phone's a block from here, but…Dude, seriously, I don't think we should go back out there. We'll be killed, Virg."

"Maybe, but I have to do this, I feel it in my gut," Virgil glanced back at Richard. "You can stay here, man. You've done enough."

Richard sighed and walked over to Virgil, "You heard me earlier, man. I'm not leaving you. Now, let's get over to your mom, you moron."

"Right, let's go!" Virgil pushed through the door to the back ally. The two boys rushed through the ally and out into the street. Sticking to the buildings to avoid the ghosts and demons, they managed to avoid being mauled, but there were a few close calls of being hit by stray blasts of ectoplasm.

Eventually, the duo did make to where Virgil's mom was. Covered in the blaring red and blue lights of an ambulance, the African American woman was helping to put an injured man into the back of the ambulance. Her white uniform and wavy black hair were covered in blood, but none of it appeared to be hers.

"It's going to be alright," The woman stated soothingly to the man strapped to the stretcher. "We're going to get you to the hospital."

"Jean! We need your help! There's a couple more injured over here!" One of the other paramedics yelled over to the woman.

"Be right there!" Jean stepped away from the ambulance after her patient got inside and then went to help the over injured civilians.

"Dude, what do we do?" Richard questioned as they hid in another alleyway. "Do you want to go up to her?"

"No…If we do that, she'll just send us away," Virgil frowned. "We have to wait, cause I know something's going to happen, and I have to be here to stop it."

* * *

"I thought you could use some help," Doctor Fate noted as she floated above the streets of Central City. A blast of golden energy in the shape of an ankh spread out from her fingertips and trapped the ghosts and demons in a cage of golden energy. "But it appears that you are doing fine on your own."

"The ghost fighting equipment helps," The Flash was the Fastest Man Alive. He was dressed in a scarlet body suit with lightning bolt ears. A yellow lightning bolt symbol stood on his chest. The speedster held up a fishing rod that contained of ectoplasm empowered wire. "But I wouldn't complain if we got some help from a magic user."

"Yeah, Dr. D.," Kid Flash held a Fenton Thermos in his hands. He used the device to capture the ghosts while he sped through the crowds of enemies. "We could use some help. The numbers of these bozos is nuts, man."

"Very well…" Doctor Fate raised her hands. "Fate shall stop the restless spirits…"

"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Everyone paused. The Flashes stopped running. Doctor Fate paused in her spell. Even the demons and ghosts froze under the sound of a massive roar. All the super-powered beings turned to where the roar originated. They were all shocked by what they saw.

There, towering by several large buildings, was a large monster. It was towering with its massive torso and limbs. The super-powered fighters might have been somewhat intimidate by the creature's massive size if it wasn't for one odd fact. The monster seemed to be made up entirely of meat products.

"Is that a giant monster made of meat?" Kid Flash questioned.

"To my utter disbelief…yes, it is…" The Flash was at a loss for words.

"Is that a demon or a ghost?" Kid Flash questioned.

"A ghost, I believe," Doctor Fate stared as the monster flung steaks as the smaller demons and ghosts. The creatures might have been delighted if the steaks didn't explode on impact. "That's probably the Lunch Lady."

"Huh…Hahahahahaha!" Kid Flash began laughing. "Now that's funny!"

"What's funny?" Flash questioned.

"I was just getting hungry." Kid Flash grinned. "Now I've got a bad guy whose powers are basically to control a buffet of meat. Now this is my kind of fight!

* * *

"Dnib meht htiw sekans!" A magician dressed in a full tuxedo and top hat was floating on invisible energy as he cried the spell out. He extended his wand out and hundreds of snakes jumped out from the stick. The snakes then wrapped around the various demons and ghost around a street in Fawcett City.

"Nrut eht sekans otni epor!" Zatanna shouted out with her hands extended. Her spell turned all the snakes into magically empowered rope.

"Wow! That's awesome, you guys!" A rather bulky man with sleek black hair smiled. He wore a red body suit with a golden lightning bolt on his chest and a white cape over his left shoulder. "You captured so many of them! All I can do it punch them…And zap them with electricity, but that's trickier."

"We all have our talents, Captain Marvel," The magician Zatara noted. He sent out a fire ball to knock several other ghosts away. "It just seems that this time, my talents are more useful in the situation. There are plenty of times that your skills are needed instead of mine, though."

"That's true, I guess…" Even while in deep thought, Captain Marvel was fighting skillfully. He grabbed a large demon and flung it around rapidly. This action created a tornado that smacked all of his enemies away. The man then flung the demon in his hands away like a piece of garbage.

"Hehehe…" Zatanna chuckled. "See. Wish I could do that."

"Oh, you're making me blush—"

"Beware!" A tiny voice called out. All the heroes could only blink as a tiny ghost floated up to them. It was a ghost that didn't even appear to be two years old yet. She wore a pink dress over her blue skin. Freckles danced over her face, and her hair was pulled up into two pigtails. Tiny Box Lunch glared at the heroes. "Beware!"

"Oh! She's so adorable!" Zatanna cheered. "Parw reh ni a teknalb!"

"Ah?" Box Lunch cried out as a magical blanket wrapped around her snugly. "Beware!"

"Oh~" Zatanna smiled at the toddler as she took the toddler in her arms. "I'll beware all right. Cause if I don't, I'll die from how cute you are!"

"That's sweet," Captain Marvel smiled.

"I don't know how to feel about my teenage daughter holding a baby like that…" Zatara muttered to himself.

"Oh…I, uh…I get what you mean…" Captain Marvel blushed and pulled at his collar. While his captain form was that of an adult, his normal form was that of a twelve, almost thirteen, year-old. As such, he was beginning to notice how attractive his female friends were, and the talk his Uncle Dudley had with him didn't help…

Zatara paused, "Wait, why did all the demons and ghosts stop fighting?"

It was true. All of the demons or ghosts were fleeing or cowering. It was odd. Why would they do such a thing?

"Beware…" Despite being the same word as what Box Lunch said, this time the word sounded far deeper and more menacing.

All of the heroes turned to see a very muscular man dressed in overalls. His skin was light blue, and his eyes were red. A gray beanie sat on his head. The most eye catching thing they could notice, though, was that his right hand was missing. In its place was a two way hook. Despite being hypnotized, the Box Ghost was still aware of a few things. One of those things was that strangers were holding his daughter. He didn't like that. "Let…her…go…"

"Hey! I recognize him! That's the Box Ghost! Remember all those stories Danny told us about him! They were hilarious!" Captain Marvel smiled.

"I don't know…He doesn't look as goofy as he was in Danny's stories…" Zatanna felt a strange stir in the air.

"Men often change when their children are born. Their protective instincts and real power can come out…" Zatara eyed the baby in his daughter's arms. "Zatanna, I suggest you put the baby ghost down slowly."

"Isn't that dangerous too, though?" Zatanna questioned. "There are demons running wild after all…Besides, his powers revolve around controlling boxes. How dangerous can he really be?"

The Box Ghost pointed his arms to the side. Green energy began to spread out around the buildings on either side of the ghost. The buildings began to shake and tremor as they began to lift off the ground.

"…You know, buildings have been called boxes that contain people…" Captain Marvel noted as his Wisdom of Solomon came out to play. "And…Considering the circumstances…Morgaine le Fey might have manipulated all this with a little magic to make the Box Ghost more competent and powerful…"

"He wouldn't do anything that would harm his baby, though, right?" Zatanna's question was answered as Box Lunch turned intangible and slipped from her arms. "Well, crap."

With that, the Box Ghost flung the buildings at the heroes.

* * *

"Wow…That was easy…" Troia dead panned. She had a disappointed look on her face, yet it was also mixed with relief. "I do not know how to feel. I missed out on a great battle, yet my sisters beith safe…"

"I understand your mixed feelings, sister." Wonder Woman laughed and patted her sister's head. They all stood on the outskirts of the brick city they called home. The jungle was thick all around them.

"Do not treat me as you would a child, Diana! I am a woman and a warrior now!" Troia hissed as she smacked the hand away.

"Of course, of course…"

"You have my greatest thanks, Pandora," Queen Hippolyta, mother to both Wonder Woman and Troia, was a tall woman with long blonde hair. She was dressed in white robes, golden tiara, and scepter. Despite the fact that Amazonian woman were known for being tall and muscular, Hippolyta looked almost tiny in comparison to Pandora's massive size. "If you had not come, my sisters might have been in trouble."

Pandora smiled as she closed her famous box. "It was nothing. My box was made to capture for situations like this. Chaotic demons and ghosts were one of the reasons my box was made. It was easy to capture them all. Besides…your people look a little disappointed."

"That is just in an Amazon's nature. We do love battle," Hippolyta chuckled as she looked around at the disappointed Amazonian women around her. "But considering the threats of the ghosts and demons, I think that your interference was for the best."

"Well, I'm glad to help. Sorry that I can't stay very long, but I have to go help more of my allies." Pandora bowed her head.

"Of course." Queen Hippolyta nodded.

"Come, Pandora," Wonder Woman approached Pandora. "My invisible plane lies on the shores of Themyscira. We can travel together to the next battlefield."

"Tsk…" Troia muttered under her breath. "I would prefer that not happen. I actually want to experience battle today…" The younger Amazon was ignored, though.

"Right, I'm sure that Vision and Batman will be able to tell use exactly where we're needed. Let's—" Pandora froze. A familiar ectoplasmic signature danced over her senses like the scent of a lost home.

"Pandora?" Troia looked up at the giant woman. "Are thou alright?"

"Nyx…" Pandora gripped the box in her hands tightly. "My daughter…She's here! Nyx is here!"

"Nyx? The daughter that was brainwashed by the Witch Boy?" Wonder Woman questioned. "Why would she be here?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself," All the women turned to see Nyx sitting on the roof of the edge of one of the buildings. She waved enthusiastically. "Hi, Mom! How ya been?"

"Nyx…" Tears began to pool around Pandora's eyes.

"Not good apparently. That's too bad," Nyx shrugged. "Can't always have good days, though, can we?"

* * *

"I found you!" Etrigan shouted out as he held a demon's head down into the concrete of the street. "Did you think that I wouldn't track you down, Ghast?"

"Etrigan, you bastard! You never let us have any fun!" A demon that could only be described a pink furless monkey grunted as he was held down. It had wide eyes and sharp ears.

"Your kind of fun involves slaughtering innocent people!" Etrigan slammed Ghast's face into the ground. "Now where are the other members of the Demons Three?! Tell me, or I'll rip your arms off!"

"They're right behind you~" Ghast chuckled.

It was true. Two more demons that looked similar to Ghast were running at Etrigan's unprotected back. One of the demons had swirl tattoos all across its body while the other had a large green mohawk. They both went to jump on Etrigan's back, but neither of them got close. An explosive arrow hit the first demon and knocked it away. The other demon was hit by a sonic wave and sent flying into a car.

"Idiot!" Etrigan laughed. "Did you actually think I was alone? I know better than that when dealing with you three."

"And here I thought today was going to be calm." A blonde man dressed in a green Robin Hood outfit mentioned. He pointed his green bow and arrow at one of the downed demons. His domino mask covered eyes narrowed. "There goes that thought."

"Suck it up, Green Arrow," A blonde woman wearing black leather and fishnet mentioned. She took a self-defense stance. "Our days are never calm."

"You alright, Blood?" Artemis ran over to Etrigan and used her arrows to keep other demons and ghosts off his back.

"Not a scratch," Etrigan smiled. "I'm just satisfied that I can start capturing the demons again. I've been prepping for a while."

"Damn you, Etrigan! I won't go back to being trapped in your damn books—" Ghast was silenced as Etrigan's demons transformed the smaller demon into a book.

"You were saying?"

* * *

"Gah…" David Cain groaned as he was tossed onto his back. "Ah…reminds me of our first date…"

"What are you doing here, David?" Lady Shiva questioned as she and one of Talia al Ghul's personal guards stood beside her. The female assassin wore dark armor and a dark mask over her face.

"My boss sent me to track a dangerous ghost under le Fey's control…" Cain grunted out a he gripped his cigarette tightly between his teeth.

"And why would le Fay send a ghost to a Shadows hideout?" Shiva questioned as she placed her foot on his chest.

"No idea," David shrugged. "I just tracked it."

"You story is absurd. Why should I believe you?" Shiva questioned.

"Because hiz story iz true."

"Gah!" Shiva cried out as she was sucker punched in the face. The assassin quickly flipped away and glared at Talia's guard. "Why?"

The guard's appearance twisted and changed as she turned back to her original form. Madame Rogue smiled at Shiva. "Because I'm zick of your orders, Ziva."

"Oh, it's you…" Shiva frowned at the other female assassin. "When did Fenton get you into the Shadows?"

"A few monzes ago," Madame Rogue shrugged. "It wazn't zhat hard conzidering hiz connections."

"Did you know about this?" Shiva snapped to Cain.

"Yeah, actually, I did," David grunted as he stood. "Fenton didn't tell you cause he thought you would think you were being supervised."

"Well, I do now." Shiva's anger flared. "Are my motivations not enough for him?"

"No one questions your motives, Ziva. In fact, Fenton probably trusts you the most out of all of uz. My end goal wazn't to get into zhe Zhadows, zhough," Madame Rogue argued. "Fenton wants to get me cloze to zhe Brain to find out why he needs zo much equipment. My current plaze is just a ztepping ztone."

"Yeah, the Light's been pretty tight lipped about all that. But he still could have told me."

"I only know cause we both called in at the same time," Cain grunted and took a drag of his cigarette. "This infiltration hasn't been going on for that long."

"Fine, fine, I get it…" Shiva let her anger drop. "Anyway, you said you were here because of a ghost?"

"Yeah, this ghost can't be tracked normally, but he did agree to having a tracking chip planted on his person so Fenton could find him if need be," Cain explained.

"Who iz zhis ghost?" Rogue was intrigued.

"Get this, Fenton's had another shape shifter on his side. This Amorpho guy can literally change everything about his body to fit another person, even their smell, DNA, and energy signature." Cain mentioned.

"That's…dangerous…" Shiva paled a bit.

"Yeah, usually the kid just uses him as a stand in for him, but he knows how dangerous Amorpho can be. If the ghost wanted to, he could start wars without anyone ever knowing what really happened." Cain gained a troubled look.

"But I ztill don't underztand why le Fey zent him 'er," Madame Rogue stated.

"…The reason I'm here is because some of the Light are meeting here today…" Shiva paused. "I was to help guard them…but the meeting already ended, though."

"Well, the ghost's still here." Cain mentioned as he looked at his tracker. "Let's just find the sucker and find out what he was here for."

* * *

The Royal Flush Gang was not a group of heroes. At best, they could be considered thieves and thugs. At worst, they could be considered terrorists considering their actions against Lex Corp. As such, it was shocking to the people of New York City to see the group get up and fight when the demons and ghosts arrived. It was even more surprising considering the fact that recognized heroes such as Captain Atom, Green Lantern, and the Hawks fought in another part of the city.

Of course, no one stayed around to ask the Royal Flush Gang for their reason for helping. The people of New York City were all too busy running away and screaming. If they did stay close, though, they would have had an answer.

"Dude! It feels so good to fight ghosts again!" Ten chuckled as he trapped a small group of ghosts into an ectoplasm empowered net.

"I know, right?!" Queen was so ecstatic that she ignored being addressed by a term that usual refers to a male. She instead used a bazooka to blast away a few demons.

"The demons are different, though," King commented. He created a shield around himself and rammed into several of his enemies.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!" Jack laughed as he blasted several of the demons out of the air. "They're just more targets to hit."

"Tsk…" Ace looked up at her laughing teammates. "They talk too much."

She did nothing to stop them, though. Ace was the one that wanted to fight after all. Something was going on, and Ace wanted to find out, even she had to break her rule about fighting against ghosts. Luckily, it as rather easy to find out what was happening by using her powers.

"RAW!" A large demon with several horns sticking out of his body charged at Ace. His teeth were sharp and barred at Ace. Despite the danger, none of her teammates made a move to help her. They knew better than that.

One glance was all it took. Ace met the elephant-sized demon's crazed eyes. Flashes blared through their minds. Images of le Fey and Harm flashed into Aces mind as she sent her mental fingers into the demon's mind and stabbed down. The result was a collapsed and drooling demon at Ace's feet.

"Hmm…" Ace pursed her lips. She would have to look into this Morgaine le Fey character.

"That was impressive." A voice right beside Ace mentioned.

Ace jumped in surprise and turned to the dark haired, fair skinned woman beside her. "What? When did you get beside me?"

The woman was silent as she looked at the piles of demons and ghosts that laid around them. "You took out all of them?"

"I did, and I could take you out too if you try anything," Ace threatened.

"I bet you could," The woman didn't seem to care about the threat. Despite her voice being a mere whisper, the sound still rang clearly in Ace's ears. "Your powers are strong. It makes mine seem like nothing."

"So you have powers?" Ace found herself curious.

"Yes, watch," The woman grabbed the large demon by its horns and tossed it with ease into a crowd of ghosts and demons. The shocked supernatural beings were surprised even more when black creatures made of ink and ectoplasm jumped out of the ground and began to attack at them. The little creatures included bats, rats, squids, and other unusual animals.

"That's…a ghost power…" Ace mentioned.

"Yes…" The woman's features bled into something different. Her fair skin was now green. A red cloak with a hood was opened slightly to reveal that her curves were covered by a leather top, tights, and knee high boots. Various piercings were on the woman's person. This included a nose ring, ear rings, and various black spikes that rose from the woman's shaved head. "They are."

"Who are you?"

The woman's red eyes met Ace's own darkened orbs. Normally, doing this led to the threat of falling into madness. Both girls, however, were no strangers to insanity.

"My name is Lydia."

* * *

"Come on!" Jean Hawkins shouted to the man on the ground. She rapidly began to pump his chest. "Breath, damn it!"

She pinched the downed man's nose and forced breath down his unmoving lungs. The paramedic had been at this for a several minutes now. Unfortunately, all the ambulances were full right now, so she could only do CPR until another one arrived.

"Jean," Another paramedic placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "His heart hasn't been beating for fifteen minutes. He's gone."

"I know…" Despite her answer, Jean kept pumping the man's chest. "Damn it…"

"Come on, other people need our help."

"Right, I'm right behind you," Jean stated even as she lingered by the dead body. She had lost people before, but she never had to leave a body like this. It was an unnerving feeling. After a few seconds, she got up and began to walk away.

"Mom! Look out!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Jean was shocked when a rather small figure rammed into her stomach and knocked her to the ground. This happened just in time too. A large ghost the size of a house was about to smash her to dust. The massive creature had deep red fur, four massive arms with claws, and a long tail instead of legs. It meant to crush Jean as it flew by, but she was pushed out of the way at the last second.

"V-Virgil?!" Jean was shocked to see that it was her son that saved her. "What are you doing here!? It's dangerous!?"

"I'm sorry, Mom…" Virgil winced under her glare. His hat flew off when he pushed his mother out of the way, so he felt the flesh of his head when rubbed his head in stress. "I felt like you would be hurt, so I came to make sure that you would be okay."

"Oh, Virgil…" Jean didn't know whether to be angry, sad, or proud. It appeared that Virgil inherited her protective instincts.

"Hey, Mrs. H., I would have to ruin whatever you were about to say, but…" A nearby Richie was shaking as the massive creature turned and flew back towards them. "That thing's coming back!"

Acting on instinct, Jean leapt to her feet and grabbed both the boys. She then began to pull them down the street in a desperate attempt to escape. The Behemoth ghost was too fast, though. It quickly began to catch up to them. The massive creature took up the entire street, so moving sideways wouldn't help. They had nowhere to run.

Jean realized this, so she did the only thing she could. She pulled the boys in front of her and pulled them into a deep hug. The paramedic held the boys tightly and shield them with her body with no fear. It probably wouldn't be enough, but it was the only thing she could do besides pray.

Time seemed to stop for the group as they waited to be crushed or eaten. The boys trembled in fear of their impending death. Jean let sorrowful tears run down her eyes as she realized that her son and his best friend were going to die with her. They no longer had any hope of survival.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

Boom! Crash! Sssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh….

The impact never came. Instead, the group heard a blast and a crashing sound. Peaking open their eyes, the glanced back to where the monster was. Instead of the sight of massive teeth about to bight into their flesh, they saw a smoking and unconscious Behemoth. Feeling a presence above them, they then looked up.

"Are you okay?" Danny Phantom stood above them protectively. His hand was extended and smoking slightly from the blast he used on the monster. Blazing green eyes peered down to them in absolute concern.

"Y-you saved us…" Jean whispered. She began to cry again, but this time it was not out of sadness.

"It's what we heroes do, isn't it, Mrs. Paramedic?" Phantom gave them a soft smile.

"Thank you…Thank you so much!" Jean sobbed as she hugged the boys close to her.

"It was my pleasure," Phantom raised his other hand to reveal the hat that Virgil had lost in the scuffle. He gently placed it on Virgil's head with the bill on backwards. "I saw what you did, kid. Thanks for the assist, I didn't think I'd make it in time."

"N-no problem." Virgil looked up in awe.

"More of the demons and ghosts have probably felt my presence by now. They'll be coming here," Phantom reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal cube. He handed it to Richie, "You look like you're good with tech. This is a miniature energy shield. When I get a few feet away press it, press the red button."

"Y-you got it…" Richie nodded dumbly.

"Good." Phantom stepped away from the three humans and looked down the street. It seems as though all the ghosts and demons that were still active in the city were all rushing at him at once. Some of them appeared to be injured, so they probably just got out of a fight with Icon or Rocket on the other side of the city. "Well…This might be hard. Good thing I got back up, eh RH?"

"You got that right," Red Huntress flew up and came to a halt right beside her boyfriend. In the woman's arms was an unconscious Cujo in puppy form. "Sorry for the delay. Zeta Tube's down here. Had to fly here from another tube and track down Cujo."

"It's alright, you're just in time for the party," Phantom smiled up to his girlfriend, "That shield protecting those three won't hold up if too many of those guys attack it at once. We'll need to defend it until Rocket and Icon get here to back us up."

"Please," Red Huntress grinned. She gently placed Cujo into the bag that hung from her back and then readied her guns, "We'll be done with these clowns by the time those slowpokes get here."

As the duo began to engage the ghosts and demons in a massive brawl, a chime went out throughout the city. It was soon followed up by twelve bells. Midnight had come and ended the day that this miniature war had started on. It was now All Hallow's Eve, the day that the spirits of the damned came out to play. Only this time, there was a force waiting to push them back where they came from.

* * *

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

The wind in the sky roared and blasted with anger. A deep scratching whine danced around his ears. It was as if nature herself knew what was happening this day. The whisper demand that he intervene. It told him that he must stop what was about to happen.

It was almost laughable to Dark Dan. He was a destroyer, not a protector. How he longed to go on a rampage and burn this world to ash once more. That would be a stupid thing to do, though. Death and destruction only made his enemy stronger after all. So, for now, he would keep his growing bloodlust under wraps. At least until Nekron was put to rest once more.

Until then, though, Dan had to make sure that Nekron did not grow too strong too quickly. The alternate Phantom needed time plan. There had to be a way to profit from all this. He knew that much. There was always a way to turn the situation around and make it beneficial. Right now, though, Dark Dan didn't know how this situation would ever be considered beneficial to him.

"Damn it," Dark Dan hissed deeply. He floated high up in the air. The wind and sky roared and cried around him. "How the hell did you know that I would come here?"

"We knew that you would come to the place that would result in the most devastating death." A deep chuckle escaped the being whose long thin body appeared like the night sky except for a long black scar that ran across his torso. His face was colored ash, but his eyes were a deep red with this scar running over his right eye. Two purple curled horns stuck out of his head, but the left horn was merely a stub.

"Son of a…Nekron's a crafty bastard, huh?" Dark Dan let out a long sigh. "He planned it all out, huh? All of this…just to result in the greatest amount of death energy."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" A large dragon flew in a circle above Dark Dan. This ex-king was Aragon. Colored with black scales with a purple underbelly, the flying lizard menacing to the point of being almost demonic with his thick claws, sharp teeth, and muscular body. A dark amulet hung around the dragon's neck. "You act like you're surprised, peasant! Did you think that our Master was a mindless demon of death? No, he's far more dangerous than that!"

"Yeah, I know that much, Nocturne," Dark Dan crossed his arms. "He's just like me. A monster with unbelievable power and an intelligent, cunning mind. That's why he's so damn dangerous…That's why he's the only person in existence that I'm actually afraid of."

"You're a wise individual," A being that could be describe as a muscular mummy nodded. Hotep-Ra floated behind Dark Dan. Bandaged wrapped around his entire body and most of his face. Only his green eyes and long goatee lacked any of the covering. "Even as strong as you are, you still know that you're outclassed by Nekron and the Black Lanterns."

"For now," Dark Dan snarled. "I may be outclassed, but I promise you that will one day change. I will become stronger. In fact, I'll become so strong that not even Nekron can compare to me."

"Coming from anyone, that would sound stupid," Nocturne grunted. "But from you…that's a real threat. That's why Master wants you either under his thumb or dead before you find a way to push past your limits."

"Hehehe…If only I still had to connection to Death that my other self does…" Dark Dan gave a sharp grin. "Then I could whip Nekron's ass with ease. I guess it's too bad that killing my human side cut off that connection, huh? Hindsight's a funny thing…"

"If you want more power, you could just get a Black Lantern ring," Aragon taunted. His slitted eyes danced with glee. "Then you would have even more power."

"And I would be under Nekron's thumb," Dark Dan scoffed. He eyed the Black Ring User's appearance. They all had bloodshot eye, and their veins were black and bulgy. "Not to mention the side effects. Of course, considering my nature, I probably won't suffer from the decay you have to deal with. So finding a way to absorb some of Nekron's power does have some merit."

"Good luck with that," Hotep-Ra stated sincerely. "But I doubt that is possible."

"I think it is…" Dark Dan took a fighting stance. "I guess I'll just have to steal one of your rings and find out if I absorb some of that power without Nekron getting control over me."

"Go ahead and try," With that, all the Black Ring users pointed their power rings at the alternate Phantom and fired blasts of energy at him.

As Dark Dan dodged the blasts and rushed towards Nocturne to instigate the fight, he thought about the real reason he came out all this way. He planned to intercept Harm and the Spectre before they could get to their destination. That way, he could control the Spectre and use the spirit of vengeance as his own weapon.

These Black Ring users ruined that plan, though. While incredibly powerful, Dark Dan didn't like his chances against three Black Lanterns. Even if he found a way to win, he couldn't do it fast enough or get out of the fight with enough stamina left to handle the Spectre. That meant it would fall to someone else to stop the Spectre's rampage.

Glancing over his original destination Dakota City off in the horizon, Dark Dan frowned deeply, "Don't die yet, Danny Phantom. You don't get to die until the day that I punch a hole in your chest and tear your bleeding heart out of your chest."

* * *

 **Next update: "Seeing Red" on July 20, 2015**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	6. Seeing Red

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."

Aristotle

* * *

Chapter 6: "Seeing Red"

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

Several balls of green energy burst out of Phantom's hands and knocked the surrounding ghosts and demons away. This didn't do much to help the situation as a whole, though. Dozens of enemies took their place and kept charging at the Phantom. Before the halfa could react to the danger, Red Huntress quickly jumped into action. She threw a grenade at the enemies. As soon as the weapon made contact, it burst open into several large sprays of ectoplasmic goop which engulfed the demons and ghosts and held them to the ground.

"This isn't working!" Red Huntress yelled as she grabbed a demon and flipped it into a ghost. "We're too outnumbered! We need help!"

Phantom growled as he punched a ghost down with enough force to crack the cement, "I know! But Icon and Rocket won't get to us at this rate! They'll have to force their way through a sea of ghosts to get to us!"

"Then we need to lighten the load!" Red Huntress reached to her belt and pull out two metal cubes. She threw them to ground. As soon as the metal touched the street, the machines shifted into turret gatling guns. The weapons turned to enemy ghosts and demons and started shooting out blazes of ectoplasmic bullets, "What about your catalyst strategy!? Do you think that you can pull it off?!"

"I'm stilling working on the bugs!" Phantom glanced over his shoulder at his girlfriend, "I can't guarantee anything!"

"Well, you do your best work under pressure!" The metal that covered Red Huntress' arms shifted into sonic wave canons. She then began to use sound waves to force the enemies back, "Just try it! I'll cover you!"

Phantom grinned. There wasn't even a hint of doubt in Red Huntress' voice, "Alright!"

At that moment, Phantom's energy changed from a blazing green to a frosty blue. His now ice blue eyes shined brightly in the darkened street as he focused his energy above him. A giant ball of cryogenic energy formed like a swirling, miniature sun at his fingertips. Just as quickly as it was formed, the ball transformed into several ice broad swords and shot out across the street. None of the ice weapons hit the enemies, though. Instead, they sunk deeply into the pavement.

As this was happening, Red Huntress was using every weapon she had to keep their foes away from them and the small group of civilians they were guarding. Rocket launchers popped out of her shoulder pads and shot the various enemies around them. At the same time, Red Huntress' sonic canons and turrets helped buy Phantom some time.

"I'm ready!" Phantom yelled once all the swords were set.

"Do it!"

With a roar, Phantom slammed his hands onto the ground. Light blue energy spread across the ground and covered the area. A slim layer of ice covered the ground. Once the ice touched the swords, the entire street was covered in blue lights. The swords burst out in giant chucks of ice. When the ice touched one of the demons or ghosts, the controlled spirits were instantly halted in their charge. Ice quickly spread up their bodies and froze them completely.

"Whoa…" Red Huntress let out a low whistle as she looked across the rows of ice statues, "Nice work."

Phantom stood upright and smiled, "Thanks. I'm really glad that worked."

Red Huntress chuckled and shook her head, "Please, I knew that you weren't going to fail. You're you after all. Besides, I was right by your side. That made losing impossible."

"I guess it did," Phantom could only smile as he waved the civilians they were protecting to lower the shield.

Virgil jumped up and looked around in awe, "Wow! That was freaking awesome, man!"

"I can't believe it…" Richard was still knelling down examining the ice. "Energy that actually pushes heat away to flash freeze objects. This shouldn't be possible."

Phantom was shocked by the kid's observation, "Most people don't question it…You're a smart cookie, eye?"

Richard blushed as Virgil grinned and elbowed him in the ribs.

"Thank you so much…" Jean looked close to crying again.

Phantom reached down and helped her up. "You're welcome. Here…" A duplicate of Phantom appeared in a blaze of green, "My duplicate will get you three to safety."

"Grab on, and I'll fly you into one of the buildings," The duplicate ordered as he gathered the three civilians to him. He then flew them off to safety.

"Looks like there are no more enemies right now," Red Huntress still didn't drop her guard, though. "We should rondevu with Icon and Rocket while we can."

Phantom nodded, "Yeah. We can come up with a plan then, because we still need to help the people in the city to safety before we go."

"That is already accomplished," A very deep voice spoke out to both Phantom and Red Huntress. The owner of the voice was a large, muscular man with dark skin. A mask covered his eyes while a red and black uniform covered his body. A large, black cape fell from his broad shoulders and down his back.

"The paramedics and firefighters have got almost everything under control from what we saw," Rocket explained, "They got the chance to act as soon as you guys drew the ugos. Um…Sorry about not getting to you, by the way. We couldn't push our way here until you started a new ice age."

Phantom shrugged, "It's fine. So we got all the demons and ghosts?"

Icon nodded slowly, "I believe so. There is no more fighting, and besides from the sirens, the city is quiet."

"Alright, we should do one last sweep before we go help the other groups," Red Huntress suggested.

"Yeah, let's—" Phantom paused and gasped out blue smoke. "Damn, there's at least one more ghost. Is he hiding for sneak attack?"

"No, true vengeance doesn't hide. It wants to see the face of its victims," A new voice called out. All four heroes turned to see an extremely pale man wearing a green cloak with a hood. The front of the cloak was open to reveal a shirtless muscular body and green tights. The man's hood hid most of his face, but a pale chin could still be seen despite the darkness of the early morning.

"Spectre?" Phantom relaxed when he saw his old ally, "Hey! Good to see you, man! It's been a while. Are you here to help us with the ghosts and demons, because we already finished."

"No. That is not why I am here," The Spectre's voice was low and somber.

"Then why are you here?" Red Huntress questioned with crossed arm.

"For revenge," The Spectre rushed forward at speeds that made him look like a blur. He rushed to Icon and sent a glowing green fist at the man's unprotected face. At the very last second, Icon tried to put up a kinetic shield, but it was too late. Spectre's fist already made contact. With a loud crack and a boom, Icon was hit with a massive blast of green energy that sent him flying through a building.

"Icon!" Rocket cried in horror. After the shock died off, she flew off in a burst of kinetic energy to find her mentor and friend.

"What the hell are you doing, Spectre!?" Phantom roared in anger.

"Getting them out of way of my targets…." Spectre slowly turned his head to look to Phantom and Red Huntress. "You two."

* * *

"Damn it, Wulf!" Spirit snapped at her long-time friend, "Snap out of it!"

Wulf's form trembled a bit, but his body still continued to move without his consent, "C-Can't!"

"Crap…" Spirit hissed. She ducked under Wulf's wild strikes. Usually, the werewolf ghost had a bit more finesse to his moves, but his fighting against the brain controlled made him more uncontrolled and open to attack. The halfa girl thought that maybe she could talk him down, but her words proved fruitless. She would have to take extreme measures to stop her friend.

Jumping into the air, Spirit flipped upside down. She placed her hands on one of Wulf's massive arms as the man beast tried to claw her to death. Spreading her legs out in a splits, Spirit began to spin around using Wulf's own moment to help her up. The halfa girl did several helicopter kicks across Wulf's faces. The force of the blows stunned Wulf enough to allow Spirit the chance to do a larger attack.

Spirit turned sideways so that her head was pointed away from Wulf while both her legs were pointed at the werewolf ghost's head. She then thrusted her now ectoplasmic empowered legs towards the side of Wulf's face. Her feet smashed into the side of Wulf's head and sent him crashing into the side of a building.

With that done, Spirit turned to help Raven and Superboy, "Sorry, Wulf. It was a matter of life and death."

The halfa girl rocketed towards her friends. As she went, she was caught up to by Vision. The ghost of strategy had subdued a large number of the enemies with her excellent control of her ectoplasm. The ground was littered with bodies restrained in blazing ropes of purple ectoplasm, "Spirit, can you help handle Youngblood? I need to help Superman. Having our powerhouse out of action will only make this more difficult."

"Of course! I got this!"

Vision nodded, "Good. My visual birds have located Polly. He can't stay too far from Youngblood without breaking the seal. Once I'm done with Superman, I'll destroy the bird, and Charles will change into his adult form."

Spirit didn't want Polly to get hurt, but he was only an extension of Youngblood. The skeleton parrot of Youngblood could be reformed once everything was done. Plus, having Youngblood change into adult form would probably free him of Morgaine's control. That way, they would gain an ally instead of a defeated enemy, "Alright, I'll try to keep the damage to Youngblood a minimum."

With that, Vision departed from the halfa and flew towards the place Superman went. Spirit, though, went to her friends. Raven, the Supercycle, and Wolf, the living wolf that served as Young Justice's pet, were trying to protect Superboy from Youngblood's Kryptonite. Unfortunately, their attempts were being blocked by the dozens of enemies all around them.

The constant threat of airborne enemies made it so that the Supercycle had to continue moving. She couldn't get a chance to get a good shot in to the ground. Wolf was being overwhelmed by the more maneuverable and bloodthirsty enemies that were piling on top of him. Raven was holding her own with her demonic magic. She created a dark void around her that sent out bird claws to catch the demons and ghosts. The claws dragged the enemies into the void and then shot them out in in encasement of black and white energy.

Youngblood managed to avoid the claws and cut them with his hook. He then pushed his way to Superboy and jammed the Kryptonite in the clone's face. This caused Con-El to shout out in agony and flinch under the green glow of the stone.

"Stop it!" Spirit roared as she flew through the opening created by Raven to get to Youngblood. The female halfa then activated her Spectral Claws. She swung them at Youngblood's chest. The child ghost reacted by forming his hook into a jagged machete and blocking the blow. "Leave Conner alone!"

Youngblood struggled against Spirit's pushes. His unfocused eyes examined her face, "D-Dani…"

Spirit beamed with a smile, "That's right! It's me! Come on, Chuck, we're friends! And I know you're strong enough to fight this!"

"Dani…" Youngblood stopped his struggle and let his blade fall to his side, "You…have to…run…"

Spirit blinked as she let her Spectral claw fade, "What?"

"Harm…targeted…you…" Youngblood seemed to struggle with his words, "Told me…to distract you…"

"What do you—Ah!" Spirit cried out in pain as five deep gashes appeared on her back. Green blood began to ooze out of the new wounds. Her focus on Youngblood made so she completely tuned out her Premonition.

"SPIRIT!" Raven called out in alarm as she watched her friend drop to her knees.

"RAW!" The newly recovered Wulf held up his bloody claws and prepared to strike again.

* * *

A green broadsword a miniature pumpkin at the end of the hilt swung through the air and cut deeply into a horned demon with a goatee. Once the blade made contact, the demon disappeared with a pop. That was Soul Shredder's greatest ability. It could send anyone it cuts to a dimension made up by the victim's greatest fears. This function was made to strike terror into the Fright Knight's enemies, but now it was used as a method to avoid killing enemies.

With that enemy defeated, the Fright Knight turned his attention to the three ghosts that jumped at his back. A single slice of his sword hit all three ghosts. They all disappeared with a simple pop, "These foes give no challenge!"

"To be fair, the defense system is doing most of the work. Thus…I'm doing most of the work," J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded out from a rather strange source. A dark metal suit stood in the streets of Amity Park. Dark red x's dotted the suit across the chest, gloves, and boots. A dark coat flowed down the shoulders of the suit, but the black and red utility belt could still be seen through the cloak. A metal helmet with a visor covered with a skull.

"True, the system has lowered the numbers, but…" The Fright Knight cut through more of his enemies, "Could you please not use that voice for the Red X suit!? It doesn't fit the mystique of the costume! It is your duty to fit the role of Red X!"

"Fine, fine…" Red X's voice changed from the feminine version of J.A.Z.Z. to the deeper, metallic voice of Danny when the halfa used the Red X suit. "Happy?"

"Very much so. Thank you, Joy Analyzer."

Red X used the twin ecto-pistols that he always carried on his belt. The A.I. controlled suit shot two demons in the face with blasts of ectoplasm. He then flipped the pistols into the air. As he did this, Red X extended his right palm and shot a gooey, red x out of his palm. The x expanded and caught several ghosts into a single cluster. The suit then grabbed a demon out of the air with his left hand. Electricity shot through Red X's arms and shocked the demon. With that done, Red X flung the demon away, caught the pistols as they fell, and continued to shoot all the enemies around him, "Yes, that is part of my name and my programming. My user's happiness is all that matters."

"I can never tell if you're using sarcasm, or if you're being serious!" The Fright Knight spun his blade and stabbed a ghost behind him, "Either way, I like it. I do enjoy a good mystery."

Red X continued to fight. "Of course you do…"

"How is the machine doing, by the way? Is it almost fixed?" Fright Knight questioned.

"I believe so. It appears that Cyborg and Gizmo are making a lot of progress."

On the top of Fenton Works, Cyborg used his energy canon to blast several demons away. At the same time, a Fenton Thermos popped out of his other forearm. He used that weapon to capture the ghosts in the area, "Connect the blue wire already!"

"I can't do that until I change the configuration!" Gizmo snapped. He kept his attention on the machine despite the distraction.

Rocket launchers popped out of Cyborg's shoulders and shot missiles at the enemies. Satisfaction ran through his veins as his enemies were knocked back by the blue blaze of his explosives, "Then do it already!"

Gizmo growled as he continued to type on the keyboard of the machine, "Hey! You try doing this when you can barely move, Snot Head!"

"Do we need to switch places?!"

"No, Fart Breath! I can't fight now!"

"Then what use are you?! You can't fight, and you can't fix your own machine!"

"Don't insult my skills! I'm better at this than you, Blue Boy!" Gizmo stated as he switched from typing on his keyboard to messing with the wiring, "Just be a good bodyguard and buy me some time! I'm almost done!"

"You better be!" Cyborg momentarily stopped his fighting and turned to the smaller teen, "I have no idea what's happening out there, but it sure as hell can't be good for my friends."

* * *

After a few hours of fighting, the Atlantians and Frostbite retreated in order to come up with a new strategy. While they were doing that, the Atlantian soldiers would hold the enemies at bay. This would buy some time to come ups with a strategy to handle all the ghosts and demons while minimizing the damage and injuries.

"Is it possible to push them to one area?" Tempest questioned.

Aquaman pointed to the map that they placed on the ground, "We could herd them outside the city, then begin to push them to one point."

"That will take a lot of time, brother," Aquaman's brother Prince Orm noted. He a tall man with his black hair slicked back. His eyes were bright blue. Red and gold clothing covered his form. "Many will be injured or killed in that time."

"We could speed it up by creating bate for the ghosts and demons to be attracted to," Frostbit spoke up, "I am a rather powerful ghost in my own right. They will flock to me if I use my full power."

Aquagirl gained a worried look, "That sounds rather dangerous. You will be greatly outnumbered."

"Perhaps some of us could give you backup," Aqualad mentioned, "I volunteer. I have a lot of experience with working Phantom's ice powers."

"The water will get rather chilly around me, can you handle it?" Frostbite questioned.

Aqualad nodded, "I can handle the cold."

"The two of you won't be enough," Aquaman stated, "I shall fight by your side as well. As king, it is my duty to everything I have to in order to protect my home."

"I shall fight as well to make it an even number. Better luck that way," Orm noted, "Tula and Garth can lead the charges on both sides and try to lighten the waves of enemies we have to face."

"Agreed," Aquaman looked around to his companions, "Are there any objections?"

Everyone was silent.

"Then let us go. We have much work to do." Aquaman commanded.

Aquagirl and Tempest swam in different directions while the others moved to the designated point for the bait strategy. Aquaman led the charge while Aqualad and Frostbite followed close behind. Orm, though, staid back a little. He eyed Frostbite and remembered when the yeti ghost went on an anger induced rampage. Everyone was aware of it at this point. If something were to happen to the king during the heat of battle, the blame would immediately shift to the ghost.

The prince that was secretly the villain Ocean Master smiled, "I can use that…"

* * *

A young woman dressed in a more feminine version Batman's uniform jumped into the air and did a split kick on two of her enemies. Her long, blazing red hair flew through the air as she landed in a kneeling position. With sky blue eyes blazing in focus, the woman reached to utility belt and pulled out a few smoke pellets.

The three ghosts that charged at her were all covered in deep black smoke once the woman threw the pellets to the ground. Confused by the smoke, the ghosts could do nothing as they crashed into each other. Even though the smoke was still thick, a blaze of blue could still be seen as the woman captured the ghosts with the Fenton Thermos.

"Batgirl to everyone," Batgirl spoke as her black gloves gained a green tint of energy and allowed her to punch a ghost that was to her right, "I have a problem. The Batcycle was destroyed. I'm stranded on 2nd Street and completely surrounded."

" _Batman to Batgirl,_ " Batman's voice sounded through Batgirl's cowl, " _I already sent backup. They should be there shortly_."

Batgirl ducked under a punch from a demon and flipped backwards to kick the demon on the chin, "Understood, what's the E.T.A.?"

"Right now! Hahahahahahaa!" A light chuckled sounded through the street. As the noise faded, Robin jumped out and kicked a ghost that was behind Batgirl, "Hey, Red! How's it going!?"

Batgirl nodded in acknowledgement, "Brat, thanks for the help."

"It's not just me," Robin gestured down the street. As he did this, magenta energy blazed to life several meters from their location. Plasmius blasted his way through a wave of demons and ghosts.

"Well, that's more backup than I expected," Batgirl mentioned, "Especially because I was coming to help you guys."

Plasmius grinned as he created duplicates to subdue the enemies, "It would be rude to make such a beautiful, young woman come all the way to us without coming to meet her at least half-way."

"Gah, another charmer, eh?" Batgirl rolled her eyes, "Like we don't get enough of that with Nightwing."

"At least he's not trying to get in your pants…" Robin paused in the swing of his metal staff, "You aren't, right? Cause that would be weird."

Plasmius gave him a look of outrage, "Of course not! I've been happily engaged for years!"

Robin laughed as he continued his swing and smacked a ghost away from him, "Afraid to pull the trigger? I don't blame you."

"I can see why everyone calls you a brat…" Plasmius muttered.

" _Nightwing to everyone. Things aren't looking good around the city,_ " Nightwing's voice called through intercoms, " _There's too many enemies. It will take forever to beat them all, and by the time we do that, half the city will be destroyed. Are there any more heavy hitters that we can call to help us speed this up?"_

"Actually, there is," Plasmius mentioned, "I called an old acquaintance before I left. He should be arriving shortly."

It was at that moment that the ground began to tremble.

Robin deepened his stance to keep from falling over, "Whoa! The hell's happening?"

"That would be my acquaintance…" Plasmius paused as the cement below him began to crack, "Let's hope he doesn't get disgusted by Gotham's pollution and leave."

"RAW!" A massive cluster of roots, green vines, and thorns popped out of the ground in the center of the city. They all formed a giant humanoid being with glowing red eyes, "All tremble before the power of Undergrowth!"

* * *

Phantom felt panic rush through him as the Spectre rushed to him. The Spectre was one of the strongest ghosts to ever live. Only Colossus and the Ghost King were ever able to defeat him. That fact did nothing to ease the halfa's nerves.

A large pale fist was sent flying towards Phantom's head. Phantom put up a guard to block the blow but soon found that his block was unnecessary. A bubble of kinetic energy formed around the Spectre. The shield immediately absorbed the kinetic energy of the punch and stopped the Spectre's assault.

Rocket glared at the Spirit of Vengeance. Despite her desire to help Icon, she stopped mid-charge to help her friends. After all, Icon could survive that hit easily, "Yeah, what do you think of that, jackass? Not so tough when we see the punch coming."

Spectre pulled his fist back and examined the shield.

"Rocket, wait, the Spectre has dimension altering pow—" Phantom didn't get a chance to finish the sentence. The Spectre reached out to the shield. The air shifted and altered around him. A crashing noise filled the air as the kinetic shield shattered into shards of glass.

"What?!" Rocket's eyes widened her kinetic energy belt sparked and smoke from the backlash.

The Spectre slowly turned his attention to Rocket. Green energy danced around his fingertips. Right before he sent a ball of ectoplasmic energy at Rocket, Red Huntress used her wrist gun to shoot the crook of Spectre's elbow. The blast caused the arm to move to the side and send the blast away from Rocket. The ball of energy flew past the heroine and obliterated a semi-truck down the street in a burst of green explosions.

During the Spectre's attack, Phantom rushed forward like the Spectre did before. This time, though, Phantom managed to land his blow. His fist smashed into Spectre's face and sent the full ghost flying down the street in a blaze of green. He then turned to Rocket, "Can your belt still work?"

"I…uh…not at full strength…" Rocket winced as she reached down to touch the belt and was shocked, "Or not at all. Damn, that smarts."

"Then go help Icon, and take Cujo with you," Red Huntress ordered as she pulled Cujo out of her bag and handed him to Rocket, "The Spectre isn't someone you can fight with broken equipment."

"I can still fight him up close and personal," Rocket argued even as she took Cujo in her arms.

"That's not a good idea," Phantom stated, "He could throw me around like a ragdoll. A human without a weapon? He'd kill you in one blow."

Red Huntress prepped her guns, "So go. We can't fight him and be worried about you at the same time."

"You sure?" Rocket questioned.

"Yes, go!" Phantom shouted as he saw the Spectre getting up. "Before he comes back!"

"Alright…" Rocket with Cujo in her arms slowly began to retreat, "I…I'll try to get my belt fixed or wake up Icon so you can get some help."

"Thanks! Now go!" Red Huntress shouted.

In the blink of an eye, the Spectre had flew over to them once more. He waved his hand at the ground and commanded it to break apart. Phantom and Red Huntress were forced into the air to avoid the rubble below them. While this was happening, the Spectre flew up to Phantom. As revenge for what happened, Spectre punched Phantom right on his nose.

Phantom felt his nose crack as lights flashed before his eyes. He dipped in and out of consciousness for a few brief seconds. By the time the halfa regained his bearings, he was crashing down the street as if he was a skipping stone in a pond. Flipping over, Phantom pushed his hand down into the cement and dug his fingers down to stop his momentum. After sliding a few meters, Phantom stopped and looked up to reveal the blood pouring down his nose.

As this was happening, the Spectre turned his attention to Red Huntress. He sent dozen of ectoplasmic blasts the size of footballs at the ghost hunter. Red Huntress used her hover board to fly around and dodge the attacks. She then activated the bazooka attachment to her back and sent several blasts of her own shots at the Spectre. All of the blasts bounced off him like balls of paper against a chalk board.

"Is that really all you have?" Spectre questioned with a raised eyebrow, "You weak humans are disappointing to fight. All you have are useless tricks. I'm already bored, but I suppose I'll push through it. This is necessary for Harm's revenge."

"Damn, it Spectre, you don't have to follow his commands. You're strong enough to fight against the mind control," Red Huntress argued.

"I am indeed strong, but without my human anchor, all I have is the thirst for revenge," The Spectre explained, "Harm gave me a chance to take revenge on someone. Phantom's death will be the thing that hurts his deepest enemies the most overall."

"Yeah, I get that…" Red Huntress sighed, "Then I guess we have no choice do we?"

"No we don't," The Spectre raised his arms once more. "I shall—Ah!" Phantom had rushed from his position down the street and returned to send an ectoplasmic empowered knee into the Spectre's spine.

Red Huntress smiled and aimed her bazooka at her enemy's head, "That's called stalling, Spectre! It's one of the useless tricks we humans use to fight enemies stronger than us!" With that, she fired her weapons and nailed the Spectre with an explosive blast of ectoplasm.

* * *

Harm stood several miles away from Dakota city. On the edge of cliff, he had a perfect view of the chaos that was happening in the city. The sight brought a psychotic grin to his face, "It's beautiful, isn't it the secret it?"

Secret and her group stood several meters behind Harm. They had successfully tracked him and might have set up a sneak attack if they didn't know that Harm could sense them easily, "No, Billy, I think this is disgusting."

"Don't call Harm by that name!" Harm snapped and whirled around, "Harm is Harm! Billy is dead!"

"No, I don't believe that. I know my brother is in there somewhere," With a hand on her silver amulet, Secret was about to take a step forward but was stopped by Black Bat.

"Don't get too close. He's dangerous, and we have no idea where the Spectre is," Black Bat stated as she held Secret's shoulder firmly.

Harm smiled, "The Spectre? It is no secret where that it is. It is in the city killing the Danny Phantom it."

This caught Jinx's attention, "What?"

"The Spirit it judged Harm so harshly in Harm's attempts to be pure," Harm explained, "Now the Spirit it shall taste was the purity of losing a sibling is like."

"I see…" Dusk then formed his Burst Gauntlets around his arms, "Then the Spectre can't stop us from getting to you, right?"

Harm reached behind him and pulled out his enchanted sword from its sheath, "Harm doesn't need the Spectre it to protect Harm."

"Dusk, wait, let me talk to him," Secret pleaded as she turned to look at the halfa.

"Greta, I promised to keep him alive, so that's what I'll do," Dusk stated, "But Mentor cannot hold off the Spectre forever. We take Harm down first, get the jewel, then you can talk to Harm."

"…Fine." Secret reluctantly agreed.

"This shouldn't take too long," Jinx did a fake yawn, "I've watched footage of this guy. He's good, but he can't take all of us at once."

"That is true," Harm admitted, "These numbers do not favor Harm. That is why Harm brought a few ghost its to help Harm."

As soon as Harm stopped talking, Dusk's ghost sense flared. Two ghosts turned visible right behind Harm. One was a dirty blonde haired man dressed as in a biker jacket. The other was a red eyed woman with wild green hair. She wore a red jacket over a black top that showed her midriff and a red skirt with fishnet leggings underneath it.

"Johnny 13 and Kitty?" Dusk asked in confusion. While stronger than humans, neither of those ghosts were the best at fighting. If Dusk was picking bodyguards, he would definitely choose different ghosts, "Out of all the ghosts you could choose, why choose them?"

"Because there is something off about them," Secret spoke, "I can see it in their souls. Something is wrong. It's like…they're not really themselves."

"Not themselves?" Black Bat looked to Secret. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, you its are about to find out," Harm pointed his sword at the group of four in front of him, "Attack, its. Kill your master's enemies."

* * *

After hours of trying to force Morgaine le Fey to let him out of the weird pocket dimension, Colossus decided that he should try other options. He tried to fly to the edge to break a wall, but found that he just went in a big circle. Then, he tried to send out massive shockwaves to destroy the pocket dimension. That didn't work, though. Thus, he went with his last option.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Morgaine blinked at the sight of Colossus yelling out to nothing, "What are you doing?"

"I saw this on TV!" Colossus explained, "If I yell loud enough, I can tear a hole in time and space to escape!"

"That is literally the stupidest thing I have ever hear of," Morgaine le Fey noted.

"Well it may be stupid, but it's also dumb!"

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

"I know! But I'm out of options, and I'm frustrated damn it!" Colossus roared. He then sighed and sat cross-legged in midair, "I don't know how to deal with situations like this."

"That much is obvious. In fact…." Morgaine trailed off, "Ah, I see. It's begun. Time for the next phase of my plan."

"Eh?" Colossus looked over to le Fey and saw her summon an amulet in a burst of magic, "Wait, I know that thing. It belonged to Dora before she became Doctor Fate. I thought Vision had it."

Morgaine smiled, "Yes, she did. But I had an ally get if for me while everyone was distracted." In a blaze of red energy, the amulet disappeared.

"What? Where did it go?" Colossus questioned.

"I returned it to its owner," Morgaine then lifted up a hand to her mouth and giggled, "And with that, all the beings that can interfere with the Spectre have effectively been distracted."

"What?!" Colossus' indignation spiked when the Spectre was mentioned, "What the hell does that mean?"

"You'll see once this is all over."

* * *

"Ah...Where did the meat monster go?" Kid Flash took a big bite out of the stake in his hands.

"It appears to have teleported magically," Doctor Fate closed her eyes and focused on the energy around her, "I sense Morgaine le Fey has done something."

"But why?" Flash questioned, "It really doesn't make any sense. It would have taken more time for us to defeat the, err, Lunch Lady," Well…He heard weirder names than that. One of his rouges called himself Captain Boomerang after all, "Why suddenly move her and let us go help other people?"

Doctor Fate shook her head, "I have no idea. Perhaps it is merely a distraction or a fake out. Either way, we should—"

The ghost, magic user hybrid paused when red energy flared around her. She tried to shield herself with some golden energy and seemed to stop whatever was attacking her. Unfortunately, something slipped through the shield. It was something that her energy recognized as an ally. It was Dora's golden amulet that allowed her to change into a dragon.

As soon as the amulet wrapped around her neck, Doctor Fate let out a scream. Red energy blared around her in a blaze. In mere seconds, she disappeared from the sights of the Flash boys. All that was left in her place was the Helmet of Fate.

Kid Flash dropped the stake in his hand. It landed on the ground with a solid splat, "What…what the hell just happened?"

"I have no idea, Kid," Flash knelt down and examined the smoking helmet, "But something tells me that it's not good."

* * *

"RRRRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Etrigan blinked up to the dragon roaring in the sky, "Haven't seen a sight like that in a while."

The large dragon had light blue scales and a thick underbelly. Her curved horns were green like the spikes that came out of her spine. Large, thick wings lifted her muscular body off the ground.

"Wait! I recognize that dragon!" Artemis lowered her bow, "That's Dora! But why isn't she Doctor Fate?"

"Based on the feel I get from her and the magical glow around her…I would guess le Fey had something to do with this," Etrigan noted, "She always did love her dragons."

"But how could she do overcome Doctor Fate's power?" Black Canary questioned.

"Every way of living in the physical plane is risky," Etrigan noted, "Doctor Fate uses bodies as physical anchors, so Namu gains the weaknesses of that body, including death and the tendency to overlook what is familiar to the body. But I bet only Morgaine le Fey could pull this off."

"That's all really fascinating, and I would love to hear more but…" Green Arrow pointed at the dragon, "She's coming right at us! Everybody move!"

Green Arrow and Black Canary rolled to the right side of the street. Artemis and Etrigan rolled to the left side of the street. They managed to get out of the way just in time. Dora flew over the street and blew out green fire across the cement. The flames blazed and forced the heroes to shield their eyes from the heat.

"She's most likely in a dazed state from le Fey's influence!" Etrigan shouted to his allies, "It might be some time before the influence fades! We have no choice but to fight!"

"I heard about Dora's dragon form from Danny!" Artemis roared as she readied her bow, "Aim for the amulet! If we get if off, then Dora will change back to normal! That way, we don't have to hurt her!"

Green Arrow readied his own bow, "Sounds like a plan! Let's do this!"

* * *

Phantom crashed into a car with a loud creak. He sat on the dented side of the vehicle and let out a deep breath to try to forget the pain in his rips, "Damn, he hits hard…"

At that moment, the metal of the car twisted and came to life. The right front tire reached up and pushed the halfa into the ground. In response, Phantom turned intangible and fazed through the ground. He then burst out from the side. Sending out a blast of ectoplasm, Phantom caused the possessed car to burst out in a blaze of metal shards and flames.

"OW!" Phantom eyes rolled back into his head a bit as the Spectre sunk his fist into Phantom's spine. The Spectre then grabbed Phantom's head and began to push it to the ground. As he did this, a fist made of cement rose from the ground and met Phantom's face as as the ghost fell. The halfa's head smashed through the fist and continued down to smash into the street. The entire street to crack and crumbled beneath the force.

"Don't let your guard down!" Red Huntress roared as she got right behind the Spectre. She held a Fenton Thermos in her hand and pushed it against Spectre's back. In a blaze of energy, the Spectre was captured into the Thermos.

Kneeling down, Red Huntress began to help Phantom, "We did it, Danny. We got him."

Phantom looked to Red Huntress as he was helped up. He was the one that fought the Spectre up close and took all of the damage from the fighting. The halfa was well aware that his girlfriend was tough, but one of the Spectre's attacks could basically shatter her. Even though his endurance was over a dozen times better than a normal human, Phantom's face was bloodied and bruised, many of his ribs were broken, and his right shoulder was cracked, "Good…That's good…"

"You okay?" Red Huntress questioned.

"No…" Phantom let out a groan and fell back down. Red Huntress was instantly by his side. As she did this, she placed the thermos behind her, "Damn. He got me good."

"Can't you just use your regeneration ability?" Red Huntress questioned, "I know it uses a lot of energy, but it's not like you can go around like that."

"Yeah…" Phantom nodded as his wounds began to knit themselves back together, "Maybe I should start carrying ectoplasmic boosts like Dusk to regain energy."

Red Huntress smiled at her boyfriend, "Knowing your luck, you'd just break or lose them before you could use them."

Phantom let out a chuckle, "Yeah that seems to happen to everything I own."

"Come on," Red Huntress helped Phantom up once more, "Let's got check on Rocket and Icon. The probably—"

Red Huntress froze when the thermos behind them began to shake and rattle. Before the two of them could turn around, the thermos meant to contain the most powerful of ghosts shattered. In a blaze of green the Spectre formed in front of them once more.

"How?" Red Huntress was gob smacked, "The thermos never broke before…"

"It is impressive that it could contain me for even a few seconds. It seems that no amount of raw power can help a ghost escape," The Spectre admitted, "But you forget, I can distort inanimate objects to follow my will. A container with no life force in it could not hope to contain me."

With that said, the Spectre reached out. His glowing green fingers seemed to distort the air around them as they reached out for the Red Huntress. Acting quickly, Phantom flung his girlfriend back and ducked under the hand.

Phantom had a few aces up his sleeve. One of his favorite was the Ghostly Wail, but that was too dangerous to do with all the frozen and unconscious ghosts around. The sound waves would kill them. Thus, Phantom resorted to an ace that he only used in battle once. He would combined his powers.

His right hand blazed in a combination of green and blue energy. The skin beneath the energy began to peel and rip away from the contradictory combination of hot ectoplasm and freezing cryoplasm. He ignored this, though, and continued with his attack. Phantom punched up at the Spectre's head with the intent of finishing this. The only problem was that the Spectre dodged.

With his head tilted to the right, the Spectre looked behind him. There was a giant, smoking crater covered in ice right behind him. The crater was five times the size of the Spectre. Eyeing the crater, the Spectre knew that even he would have been injured by that attack, "Very impressive. You combined your contradictory energies to create an explosive reaction. Ingenious, yet…" The Spectre eyed Phantom's shattered, bruised, and bleeding arm, "Dangerous. That arm does not look usable anymore, and your energy levels are dangerously low."

Sweat poured down Phantom's brow. His arm fell dead to his side. He trembled in exhaustion and a little fear, "Damn it, I—"

The Spectre reached out once more. This time, he managed to grab the halfa and silence the words, "My apologies, but I don't have all day. I'll end this quickly."

Phantom's world erupted into a blaze of pain and agony.

* * *

Torch brought up his scythe to block the swing of Ember's guitar. Blue flames met red fire and began to push against each other. Using his greater physical strength, Torch pushed Ember back. He then began to spin and swing the side of the scythe that had no blade at the female ghost. Each swing was blocked by Ember until she moved back to gain some space.

The siren ghost then brought hands across her guitar strings and sent a wave of sound energy at the other fire ghost. Torch responded by thrusting his scythe forward and creating column of fire that consumed Ember's attack and rocketed towards Ember. Another swipe of the guitar strings created an ectoplasmic shield around Ember.

Ember was surprised, though, when Torch charged through his attack. He forced the blade of his scythe into the shield of sound and tore it apart. After that was done, Torch raised his foot and kicked the guitar in Ember's hand up. The siren ghost managed to keep a hold of the guitar, but her guard was wide open.

Torch took advantage. He spun one last time and used his momentum to thrust a palm at Ember's midsection. As the attack flew forward, it was encased in fire that seemed to take the shape of a roaring chimp. Torch was prepared to tear through Ember with that attack. At the last second, though, Torch looked up to see Ember's face.

" _Trever, I'm going to be the greatest rockstar in the world! I don't care what Dad says. You follow your dream, and I'll follow mine. And, in the end, I'm sure we'll come out as legends._ "

The flames around Torch's arm died away. He stopped the momentum in his arm and gently placed his hand on Ember's stomach. Then, he pushed the girl away from him. She flew several feet and stopped in midair.

Torch looked like he was about to say something, but he didn't get the chance to. Ember was quickly blown away by a twister. She went flying down into the street below.

"It looked as though you could use some hel—" Red Tornado was silenced when Torch whacked him over the head with his scythe.

"Stay out of this fight!" Torch hissed, "This is Torch's fight. If you interfere or hurt Ellie, Torch will kill you."

Red Tornado rubbed the cracks that appeared over his head, "This is unusual behavior for you. You're holding back against her and threaten me if I hurt her. To my knowledge, she is not one of your 'minions.' Is she a lover of yours?"

"That's sick!" Torch snapped.

"Then what is it?"

"Don't worry about it," Torch grumbled as he twirled his scythe, "Just leave Ellie to Torch. She's my responsibility, and Torch will save her without hurting her."

* * *

"Where did the meat monster come from!?" Captain Marvel questioned as he dodged the Lunch Lady's massive meat fist while trying not to drop the building he caught from the Box Ghost. The Lunch Lady randomly appeared in a blaze of magical energy. Her combination attack with the Box Ghost was surprisingly whelming.

"Euqebrab eseht krop spohc!" Zatanna cried as she extended her hands. Fire erupted from her arms and roasted the flying wads of meat that were flying at her. When the piles fell to the ground a safe distance from Zatanna, she spoke again, "Okay, ghosts are really weird. Controlling boxes? Forming giant monsters of meat? Could there be weirder powers?"

"Do not underestimate them," Zatara pointed his wand at the smaller meat monsters that spawned from the giant monster and shouted, "Etucortcele meht lla!" Electricity shot out of the wand and obliterated the monster in a blast of lightning.

Zatanna flipped back to avoid being smashed by the giant monster of meat, "Yeah, I know that. The powers may sound dumb, but they're dangerous."

"Dumb but dangerous…"Captain Marvel paused after he placed the building down as gently as possible, "Dang, there's so many people I could make fun of right now. Who to start with?"

"Captain Marvel, stay focused!" Zatara yelled out. A bubble of energy formed around the magician to protect him from the giant meat monster.

"Huh?" It was at that moment that Captain Marvel was blindsided when the Lunch Lady's massive foot crashed into the magical man and send him flying into a building. He crashed through a wall and was smashed under a pile of concrete and brick.

For a second, Captain Marvel just lay there under the pile of concrete. He deserved that. Taking his eye off the ball was a rookie mistake. This was his punishment. He shouldn't get any relief, even if it didn't really hurt him.

"Get...off…digging."

"I…digging….dunderhead!"

Captain Marvel felt the weight on top him lighten. Someone seemed to moving the pieces of wall off of him. He wasn't sure if it were his friends or civilians, but considering that they going through the trouble of helping him, he should probably be nice enough just to lie there like a log

Sitting up, Captain Marvel pushed the concrete off of him and looked to who was helping him. A thirteen-year-old girl and a boy of the same age stood before the captain. The girl had curly black hair, while the boy had shaggy brown hair. Both of them were dressed in simple sweatshirts and jeans.

"Are you okay, Captain Marvel?" Mary Bromfield questioned. She leaned in to the point that she was invading his personal space and examined his face.

The boy in the blue hoody, Freddy Freeman, scoffed, "Of course he's okay. He's invincible, right?"

"Not completely, but pretty close, Freddy," Captain Marvel stated without thinking.

"You know my name?" The boy's bored looking eyes widened slightly.

"Err…I saved you once…" Captain Marvel lied about the fact that his secret identity, Billy Batson, was close friends with Freddy.

Freddy obviously didn't buy it, but Mary seemed to, "Yeah! It was a few years ago! Oh my gosh, I can't believe you remember us!"

As Mary talked, Captain Marvel looked around to see a lot of people huddling and hiding. It appeared that they had taken refuge in this building to get away from the fighting.

"Beware," The Box Ghost's voice sounded out through the room. It was then that the entire building began to shake and trembled. The walls began to curve as if they were sides of a box being folded.

Captain Marvel jumped to his feet, "He's going to bring this place down! Everyone out now!"

The chosen person of Shazam quickly ushered the people out of the room. They exited through the whole in the wall and the main entrance. Under his guidance, almost everyone got out of the building. Like in every situation, though, there were people who didn't leave immediately.

"Come on, Freddy!" Marry called to her friend.

"One second!" Freddy reached under a desk and pulled out a five-year-old girl with blond curls. "Now's not the time to hide, stupid!"

"Don't call her stupid, she's scared!" Mary argued as Freddy began to carry the little girl to the entrance.

"No excuse to do something dumb. I—" Freddy's eyes began to widen as the hole in the wall began to collapse. Out of reflex, he flung the little girl in his arms out of the hole and into safety. He did this just in time, because the hole fell as soon as the girl was outside.

Captain Marvel, who was at the other entrance, looked over to see that Freddy and Mary had yet to escape. He instantly began to fly to them with the intent of covering them with his body. "I'm coming!"

Both teens saw him coming and moved to meet him part-way. Before they could move far, though, a large piece of concrete fell to where Freddy was standing. Seeing this, Mary pulled Freddy out of the way with as much force as she could muster. As she did this, she tumbled and fell pulling Freddy with her.

Freddy looked around and realized that Captain Marvel was too far away. They were doomed, "Well…that sucks…" Closing his eyes, Freddy hugged Mary close in a desperate attempt to shield her from the damage.

"Mary! Freddy!" Captain Marvel shouted. He was almost there. With his arm outreached, Captain Marvel flew to cover the two. As the ceiling finally came crashing down, though, he was mere fingertips away. Mary had reached out to him in a sign of trust and belief, but he wouldn't make it in time. "NO!"

Electricity sparked between Captain Marvel and Mary's fingers. The electricity spread through her body and then moved into Freddy because of his hold on her. The two teens were filled with magical energy and power they never realized existed. Neither of them knew why, but a single word popped into their head. They felt compelled to say it. The word was almost instinctual as it left their lips.

"SHAZAM!"

* * *

"That girl is your daughter?" Queen Hippolyta questioned, "Normally, I would celebrate such a moment, but I don't feel as though this is a good thing."

"It's not, Mother," Troia took a battle stance, "That girl is under the control of the enemy."

Queen Hippolyta looked at all some of the unconscious bodies on the ground, "Like the other ghosts?"

"No, Mother. Nyx is controlled by a different enemy," Wonder Woman explained.

Queen Hippolyta nodded slowly "Hmm...The workings of Man's World are very strange."

Pandora ignored this exchange and looked to her daughter, "Nyx, I implore you. Come home! Klarion has twisted your mind! You're not thinking straight!"

"Oh? Because I think my mind's never been clearer," Nyx gave a smirk, "I have always been drawn to chaos. Everyone I know will admit that much. Sure, Dad did start the spark, but I'm the one that turned into a firestorm. The whole reason I was created was to destroy and to cause mayhem. All I'm doing is living in my true nature."

"You're wrong! Nyx, you are just as much a part of order as you are part of chaos!" Pandora argued with passion in her eyes, "I raised you to have a sense of justice and love for the world. You may not be perfect order, but you're also not perfect chaos. You are the perfect combination of the two. From the beginning, you've been controlled chaos. That is who you are, my daughter."

Nyx had a bored look on her face as she cleaned out her ear with her pinky finger, "I'm sorry, did you say something? Cause all I hear was 'wah wah wah'."

Pandora clenched the box in her hands.

"Oh? Are you thinking about using that box on me?" Nyx gained an amused look, "You just said that I'm divided between chaos and order. What do you think will happen if you try to take that chaos? What will happen if you rip my soul in half and put it in that box?"

Pandora looked down in shame.

"I thought so," Nyx let out a giggle, "You're so predictable, Mom. That's the problem with order. You always know what's going to happen next. Anarchy is so much more fun. That's why people clamor for it in some way. Without a desperate struggle or an endangered world, all that would be boredom; and no one would like that."

Pandora looked on the verge of tears.

"That look just proves my point. You know that I hated living with you. I felt like I was going to die of boredom—"

"ENOUGH!" Troia roared.

Everyone looked to the young Amazon in shock. Donna had a look of pure outrage on her face. Her body was struck with tremors, and her breath was coming out in heaves.

Nyx raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"I said that was enough!" Troia exclaimed. "Can thou not see how much thy words hurt thy mother!? And it is not because any of that crap is true! It is because thy words are not thy own! The sight of thee being under the control of another pains her to no end! That is why that look is on her face!"

Nyx's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, "Oh really?"

"Yes, she sees how deep thy suffering is right now," Troia explained, "To have no control of thy actions or words…It is a pain that I cannot hope to understand. But I can certainly do my best to ease this burden."

"Ease this burden? The hell does that mean, Princess?" Nyx questioned.

"I challenge thee to a duel!" Troia took a sword from one of her Amazonian sisters and pointed it to Nyx, "We shall fight, and I shall beat the evil influence out of thee!"

"Donna, what are you doing?" Wonder Woman questioned, "You do not have to fight alone. We are all here to help you."

"I am aware of that," Troia did not take her eyes off of Nyx, "But this is the only option we have. If more than one of us attacks her, then she will flee. She is not stupid enough to fight against all the warriors of Themyscira at once or even more than one at once. This is the only way to get her to fight."

"Are thee sure about this, my daughter?" Queen Hippolyta questioned, "I sense a great power from her. I do not think that skill alone can best her."

"It has to be me, Mother," Troia noted, "Pandora has the most ties with Nyx, but it would be cruel to ask a mother to do such a thing to her daughter. After her, though, I am the only one with a connection to Nyx. She is my teammate's close friend. As such, she is my friend as well. This duty falls on my shoulders."

Queen Hippolyta gained a proud look, "Thou have grown much, Donna. Thy words make me proud."

"But still…" Wonder Woman eyed Nyx, "A combination of Pandora and Klarion the Witch Boy? Can anyone warrior best her?"

"I have to try," Troia stated with resolve in her eyes.

"Troia…" Pandora muttered, "Thank you, but you don't have to do is."

"But I do," Troia's resolve did not waver, "This is a matter of pride and honor. I cannot back down."

"Wow, that was a really moving speech, Princess. Only one problem…" Nyx pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue, "Why should I even fight you? I won't get nothing from fighting you on your home turf."

Troia seemed shocked. It hadn't occurred to her that Nyx wouldn't want to fight merely out of pride, "Very well. What do I need to offer in order to get thee to agree to do battle with me?"

"Hmm…" Nyx's eyes swept over Troia's form. For some reason, the Amazon felt very uncomfortable under the gaze. It was familiar for some reason. Satisfied judgment trickled through Nyx's eyes as a smirk donned her face. Oddly enough, Donna recognized that look. It was the look she received from…

"That rope," Nyx finally stated as her eyes settled on Donna's waist, "I want the rope that makes it so people can't lie."

"What?! Why?" Troia demanded.

"Simple. Without lies, all there is left is the painful truth, and often times, people can't take that," Nyx explained, "Think of the chaos that I can cause with that thing."

Donna looked at the Lasso of Truth at her waist. It wasn't the original lasso, but it was still a gift from her mother. The weapon meant a lot to her, but this was a matter of pride now, "Very well. If thou wins, then thou gets the lasso, but if I win, thou will return to thy mother and must reveal all the secrets thee knows about the Light and why they would have thee scout both Atlantis and my home."

"Seems like a fair bet," Nyx let a crazed grin cover her lips, "Let's fight then, Princess. Be careful not to chip a nail."

* * *

"I got an open view of the courtyard," David Cain whispered into his voice piece. He was perched on a tower that over looked the courtyard of the Shadow's compound. All the assassins and shinobi were called for an announcement of strategy. Normally, Cain would be salivating at the cash he would receive from the juicy info he could sell to Fenton, but right now he had a mission to do, "I got everyone in scope. Just give me directions, and I'll shoot 'em with a trank; then one of you drag 'em out before Ra's realized anything is going on."

Lady Shiva had to fight not to look at David's position. The towers a good place for a sniper, but one wrong move could reveal his location. That was why she didn't speak back to Cain. It would be too suspicious if she spoke to no one.

This would not be an easy task. Everyone that was located at this compound was in the courtyard for this announcement. This included Ra's Al Ghul. As such, this would be the place Amorpho would strike no matter what his goal was. Either he was after Ra's or the Lazarus Pit. No matter what Amorpho was really after, Ra's was a necessary target to guard.

Madame Rogue had blended in with the crowd, but Shiva followed her movements. The shape shifter looked for anything unusual in the crowd. That was a problem. Everyone was the same. They all looked up to the steps leading up to the compounds main building made out of stone. It was akin to a castle in many ways, which was suiting considering Ra's status.

Shiva stood behind Ra's Al Ghul. He was a man who appeared to be middle aged spoke. He had black hair with streaks of grey, long black mustache, and long black eyebrows. The man wore a regal green cloak with black clothing underneath. Despite appearing somewhat young, Shiva knew that this man was well over 600 years old.

On Ra's right was another woman. This woman appeared to have Arabian heritage. She had high cheekbones, green eyes, and long dark hair. Her leather outfit was revealing, but not overly so to the point that it would hinder her movement. She was Talia Al Ghul, Ra's Al Ghul's daughter and trusted right hand.

On Ra's left was a large, muscular man. Towering over Ra's, this man looked intimidating with his massive muscles, shaved head, and mean expression. This man, Ubu, had his arms crossed over his sleeveless black shirt. Ubu was Ra's most trusted and loyal servant.

Frowning, Shiva looked across the crowd. They only had one shot so they had to take down the right person. Once Cain made his shot, Shiva could cause a distraction while Roque quickly dragged Amorpho out of the compound. If everything went perfectly, Ra's wouldn't even know about Amorpho's presence.

Even as Ra's began speaking, Shiva focused on her search. All of the people at the bottom of the steps were too far away to charge at Ra's and not get stopped by a crowd of assassins. Plus, considering Ra's ability to sense presences around him, he would notice if Amorpho tried to get close using invisibility. How exactly did Amorpho expect to get to Ra's? To get the jump on the Great One, the ghost would have to right by Ra's…

Wait.

Shiva's eyes glanced back and forth between Talia and Ubu. Neither of them had the tensioned look of being overshadowed by a ghost. Could Amorpho have done a sneak attack on one of them and replaced them? Amorpho was a good actor, so it was possible. If that was the case, though, then Amorpho was standing right next to his target.

They had act quickly. Morgaine le Fey was master manipulator. She probably had something planned to get control of Ra's. If that was done, she would gain complete control over an army of assassins. They could not let that happen.

'What can I do? What Morgaine has planned could be very subtle. Just physical contact could put him under Morgaine's control if the sorceress planned things out smartly. We have to take Amorpho down right now.'

There was only one problem, the new target to take down was one of Ra's Al Ghul's most trusted friends and followers, and they were standing right next to the man. He would surely notice if they did anything, and if Shiva got caught, she would be questioned as to how she knew about Amorpho and why she was working with David Cain, a known criticizer of the League of Shadows.

And if they found out the truth that she was working as a spy…She and her daughter would be killed.

'Damn it…'

* * *

Red Huntress had been pushed back hard enough by Phantom to send her sliding back several meters. By the time she steadied herself and looked up, a massive crater had formed behind the Spectre. Phantom had missed in his last desperate move.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Cries of agony beat against Red Huntress's ears as the Spectre grabbed onto Phantom's face. A swirling green energy bubble appeared around them. The inside of the bubble looked hollow, but the air seemed to distort and twist around the ghost. Spectre didn't seemed affected by the dimensional ripping, but Phantom was taking the full brunt of the pain.

His skin twisted and pealed. Bones rattled and cracked. Green blood oozed out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. He clawed desperately at the Spectre's arm, but he could do nothing to break the hold. All he could do was regenerate his injures and endure the agony of having his body torn apart nerve by nerve.

Red Huntress instantly went into action. She deployed two more turrets and allowed them to fire at the Spectre. The ghost hunter then formed her hover board under her feet and flew around the bubble. She shot at the Spectre in a desperate attempt to free her boyfriend. All of her attempts to free Phantom proved fruitless, though.

The bubble reflected all ectoplasmic attacks and bullets. Guns, explosions, and even blades bounced off the shield as though they were nothing. None of her ranged tactics seemed to work, so Red Huntress did the only thing she could. She flew straight up to the bubbled and attempted to pull Phantom free.

As soon as Red Huntress reached a single hand into the bubble, she regretted it, "AH! What the hell!?" Pulling her hand back, Red Huntress looked at her hand. The armor on her arm was cracked and bent. She could feel the skin underneath the armor blister and boil in pain. She wasn't as hurt as Phantom was because of her armor, but that still hurt like hell.

'He must feel like he's being tortured,' Red Huntress realized. If she was in this much pain from a second of the pain while protected by her armor, Phantom's pain must have been enough to kill someone several time over, 'I have to get him out of there!'

Ignoring her own safety, Red Huntress plunged her hands into the bubble. Shouting from the hot needles that seemed to be stabbing into her arms, Red Huntress had to fight the urge to pull her arms out. Instead, she focused on saving Phantom and pushed her way further into the bubble. Fighting not to let tears fall from the shear torment of the attack, Red Huntress managed to fully submerge herself into bubble of dimensional distortion.

It took everything Red Huntress had not to pass out from the pain. She fought against blissful unconsciousness and endured the suffering. Red Huntress went to attack Spectre, but she found that her weapons were all destroyed by the dimensional distortion. Thus, she did the only thing she could. She ripped off a piece of her shoulder armor and used it as a dagger to stab the Spectre in the arm. Surprised by Red Huntress' bold actions, the Spectre released his hold on the halfa.

Seeing this, Red Huntress instantly grabbed onto Phantom and began to pull him out. As she did this, though, the Spectre reached out with his other hand and grabbed onto the back of her helmet. Now unable to move out of the bubble, Red Huntress did the only thing she could think off before the Spectre could grab Phantom once more. She used all the energy she had left and pushed Phantom out of the bubble.

Phantom landed on the ground clumsily. His skin was raw and aching. His energy reserves were at zero. He could barely think straight, and moving was a tedious process. It was almost like he was swimming through honey. Despite all this, he attempted to turn back around and reach into the bubble. His thoughts were only to save his girlfriend, but before he could reach the bubble, it faded.

Focusing his vision, Phantom looked up from his position on his ground to see the broken form of Valerie Gray. Her armor was cracked and broken to the point that it was falling off. The broken portions of her armor revealed that the skin underneath a cut and bloody mess. The worst part, though, was where the Spectre was grabbing.

The force of the Spectre's grip shattered Red Huntress' helmet to reveal Valerie's face and dark, wavy hair. Phantom cried out as he saw Valerie's face. It was bruised, cut, and bloodied to the point of beyond recognition. The single eye that still shown on her face was filled with agony and suffering.

"Valerie," Phantom began to cry as he reached up slowly and took her hands in his, "W-why? Why did you take my punishment?"

"I…refuse…to…abandon…you…" Valerie's words came out as pained heaves. Her voice was cracked and barely audible, "Not…like…last…time..."

"Specter, let her go!" Phantom begged desperately. He tried to pull Valerie away from the Spectre, but he barely had the energy to hold onto Valerie, "Please! She's innocent!"

"No one is innocent," The Spectre's words pierced Phantom's heart like a spear. His arm clinched and bent as he prepared to toss the broken girl away like she was a piece of trash. Still, Phantom did not let got. He would never let go.

"Danny…" Valerie could no longer breathe correctly. Words felt painful as they left her lips, and she lacked the energy to speak much more. There was so much she wanted to say to Danny. She wanted to proclaim her love for him. She wanted to say how proud she was to be able to fight as he equal. She wanted to thank him for making her into a better person. The ghost hunter could say none of these things, though. Her body wouldn't let her say more than one more word, so she gave him one last loving look and said the one word that explain exactly how she felt about Danny, "Yes."

As soon as that was said, the Spectre tossed Valerie away. Phantom did not let go, so he was dragged with her. Because of his lack of energy, though, Phantom could not stop their momentum or even pull his girlfriend close to shield her from the impact. Thus, he could do nothing as Valerie's unprotected body crashed through several buildings, landed with a solid crack, and then rolled into a broken, unmoving heap.

* * *

 _Still not letting go of Valerie's hands, Phantom crawled his way up to her side and sat on his knees next to her, "Oh God, Valerie…"_

 _There were no words to describe the state of Valerie's body. The mere sight of her shattered form caused bile to crawl up his throat and tears to pour down his face. Phantom was in no way a medic, but there was no question that she was dead. Part of him wanted to go into denial, but the truth was right in from of him. Death stood before him._

" _Danny…" The girl in front of Danny appeared as a teenager that was close to adulthood. She was pale and was wearing pure black clothing. A black ank hung around her neck. In fact, black seemed to a consistent color for her with her black hair and makeup. Her voice was filled with sympathy as she spoke to him, "I'm so sorry, Danny."_

" _Don't take her," Phantom sobbed desperately. He clenched Valerie's hands tightly and looked into her wide, unfocussed eyes, "Please, not her. I love her so much…"_

" _I know, but there's nothing I can do," Death explained as she shook her head, "It's just her time."_

 _Phantom whipped his head up to the standing girl and roared, "But that's not fair! She's young! She's a hero! She deserves to live!"_

 _Death gave him a look of complete disappointment, "Danny, I'm disappointed in you. You, more than anyone else, should know that I am fair. It is life that isn't fair. But for me…for the last force a soul will ever have to endure, everyone is treated equally. Not everyone can live a long and fulfilling life, but everyone dies. It doesn't matter who you are. That is why Death is the only true fair thing in this universe."_

" _I know…I know…" Phantom sobbed, "But…I…I can't…just...She said yes."_

" _I know, Danny," Death placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, "I know."_

 _Still crying, Phantom gently placed Valerie's right hand down. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box that he kept with him at all times during the past couple of weeks. Inside the box was a golden ring with a diamond on top. Taking the ring, Phantom gently placed it on Valerie's ring finger, "I-I'm sorry I didn't get propose properly. But you still knew. You were always so good at reading me..."_

" _Oh my god…" A gasp appeared behind Phantom. It was the woman that he saved before, the medic. She probably saw the crash and came to see if they were okay. She was still flanked by the two children who looked in horror at the scene, "Let me take a look at her! Maybe I can do something!"_

 _Phantom shook his head. He gently placed her down and closed her unfocused eyes. "No…She's gone, and she's not coming back."_

" _But…"_

 _Phantom took of the remains of his torn coat and placed it over Valerie's corpse, "Please, look after her."_

 _He wasn't sure who he talked to in that moment. Perhaps he was talking to the medic. Maybe he was talking to Death. Or he might just be berating himself in his failure._

" _O-okay," Jean Hawkins knelt down next to the body, "I-I will."_

" _Don't worry, Danny," Death gave him a gentle smile, "She's going to a good place,"_

" _That's good…" Phantom mumbled as he began to walk back through the holes that they created in the crash, "Because that's more than I can say for the Spectre."_

* * *

Phantom walked slowly back to the street that the Spectre was waiting. The halfa's head was bowed as silent tears continued to fall.

"Are your ready to die now? Because I grew tired of waiting for you," The Spectre gestured to the shattered statues of the ghosts and demons that used to be down the street, "I decided to reap some revenge while I waited. Now, it's only us."

"Idiot."

The Spectre raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"You're an idiot," Phantom stated. He came to a halt right in front of the Spectre, "You let your instincts cloud your judgment. You forgot everything about who I am…So let me remind you."

"Your words make no sense," The Spectre reached out once more. He planned to finish Phantom with the same attack that he used before. This time, though, the Spectre didn't manage to grab his enemy. With a shocking amount of speed and power, Phantom dodged Spectre's arm, moved forward, and punched the spirit of vengeance in the face.

The Spectre went crashing down the road. He bounced several times before coming to a halt. With a look of shock, he looked up to see Phantom with his arm still extend.

"My name is Danny Phantom. I have survived more near death experiences than I can count. You want to know why?" Phantom lowered his arm, "The closer I am to Death, the stronger I get, because my existence is connected to Death like yours is connected to vengeance."

"No…" The Spectre whispered as he remembered what Phantom was talking about, "When ghosts die, you can absorb the energy…but that's only when they allow it…"

"Not just that anymore…" Phantom stated, "You've been gone too long, Spectre. I've delved more into my existence. You see, I learned more about my powers. It doesn't matter who anymore. If someone, anyone that uses ectoplasmic or magical energy dies, I can absorb their energy temporarily. It doesn't matter who they are, I can make their energy obey my will. And guess what, Spectre…Ghosts and demons are dying all over the world right now!"

The first sign of energy the Spectre saw was a simple stand of green energy rose from Phantom's form. It was quickly followed by a few more. Then came dozens, hundreds, thousands of blasts of energy that bled together and form a green halo around Phantom.

"You like vengeance, right?" Phantom roared. He took a deep stance and snarled at Spectre. Despite the deep rage that gripped his heart, the tears of sorrow continued to flow, "Well guess, what! You got vengeance! I'm gonna punch a hole in your goddam chest!"

* * *

 **Next Update: "Freedom" on August 3, 2015**

 **It seems like Danny's relationship with Valerie is defined by not being able to give her a ring. True fact, during my first re-read of the chapter, I considered re-writing it or even changing the rating of the story. In the end, though, I decided to hold out on it for now, because I don't think this is the most emotional part of this arc, let alone the story as a whole...No, I'm not joking. Seriously, just wait until (insert spoiler) happens.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	7. Freedom

*In honor and memory of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. April 17, 1954-July 31, 2015. Only he could play a bad guy most of his life and still be so beloved and respected.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free."

Rosa Parks

* * *

Chapter 7: "Freedom"

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

Dusk swung around a bo staff that was black with green stripes running down the side. Named the Scribe Staff after the name of a fallen ally, the staff was different from Dusk's other weapons in that it was not created to take down enemies. As Dusk swung the weapon, it left a trail of thick ectoplasm as if Dusk was writing in midair.

Usually, the youngest halfa used this weapons to block multiple, small blows and to trap his enemies. Right now, though, he was trying to slow down Harm as much as possible. Using the reach of the staff to redirect the attacks of Harm's blade, Dusk continued to move around the psychopath and left trails of ectoplasm as he moved. At the same time, Secret, who was fighting at a farther distance, controlled her smoke to float around Harm and slow him down.

None of this seemed to slow Harm down, though. Covered in magical electricity, Harm forced the energy off of him so that the smoke couldn't grab onto him and solidify. At the same time, his enchanted sword easily cut through the trails of ectoplasm that Dusk tried to use to cage him in. Yellow energy danced around the blade, and Harm, with a swing of the sword, created an arc of energy that cut through all of the traps that Dusk and Secret crafted around him.

Dusk was forced to jump back and duck under the arc of energy to avoid damage. As soon as the arc passed him, it flew up into the air and began to cut through the clouds. Seeing that Dusk had retreated a bit, Secret rushed to him in order to come up with their next plan.

"This isn't working? What do we do?" Secret questioned.

Dusk's eyes flared around. He evaluated the situation to see if he could get any help from the others. It didn't look like that would be possible.

Jinx arms flared with pink energy as she traded blows with a large shadow creature with green eyes and sharp teeth. Normally, her powers made it so she could fight ghosts rather well. Unfortunately, the shadow had powers with similar effects to her powers. They both had the power of 'bad luck.' As such, their powers canceled each other and made it so they would have to rely on a fist fight.

The Bad Luck Shadow was surprisingly swift as it was vicious and powerful. Jinx, however, had far more skill and grace in her attacks. She danced around the Bad Luck Shadow. Her blows were a blur as she punched, kicked, and smacked the shadow around. As she did this, the Shadow used his superior size and bulk to block and counter attack. He didn't manage to land a blow, and he was slowly building up damage; but he was still fighting on.

Johnny 13's motorcycle roared as he circled the fighting. At random intervals, he would rush in and force Jinx to retreat. This was why the fight was taking so long. Jinx had never faced a foe that could fight so well against her abilities. The two-on-one scenario and the lack of effectiveness of her powers slowed down her progress and made it so that the fight would take a bit more time.

As this was happening, Black Bat was basically owning Kitty. Using her ectoplasmic empowered gloves and boots to beat the ghost down. Kitty's main power of banishing men to an alternate dimension was useless against Black Bat, and Kitty lacked the fighting skills to keep up with Black Bat's lifetime of training. From first glance, it looked like Black Bat would easily win the fight.

Something was wrong, though. None of the attacks seemed to do any damage. Kitty shook off the punches and kicks. She continued to rush forward to do wild strikes. Black Bat was baffled by this. Nothing was working, and she couldn't turn away without the threat of Kitty's blows hitting her. She would have to figure out what exactly Kitty was doing before she could help her allies.

Dusk glanced back at Secret, "I don't think going with the subdue tactic will work. We need to use more force."

"The its are only trying to subdue Harm? Fools…Harm cannot be subdued," Harm let out a laugh and pointed his sword at the two ghosts that stood before him, "Without the intent to kill, the its shall be crushed beneath Harm's power."

"Please, brother," Secret placed a hand over her chest, "We're just trying to help. If you continue this path, then you won't survive."

"Shut up! The Secret it knows nothing!"

"You're the one that knows nothing, Harm," Dusk shook his head, "Morgaine le Fey is just using you. She doesn't care about you. This has happened hundreds of times before with other men. She is a master manipulator."

"The it does not get to speak of Harm's mistress like that!" Harm roared. Electricity blared off him angrily, "Harm's mistress is not like that! She made Harm pure!"

"Pure or empty?" Dusk questioned.

"Silence!" Harm rushed forward once more. His eyes blared in anger.

Giving one last glance at Secret, Dusk formed his Burst Gauntlets once more. Secret understood his strategy. They would make Harm sloppy through anger and disarm him. Without the sword in hand, Harm had no magic. He would be easier to take down like that. Of course, the anger did make Harm more vicious and bloodthirsty, so they would have to be careful not to let the psychopath cut them down.

* * *

Green blood was pouring down her back as Spirit desperately rolled to the side. She managed to avoid Wulf's follow up attack but only by a small amount. The halfa girl felt the rush of pass by her face as Wulf's claws swiped down to where she was just at. As she rolled to her feet, Spirit saw the five deep gashed that appeared in the cement. That attack would have almost cut her into two pieces.

Spirit was not given time to rest. Before she was ready, Wulf attacked again. He rushed to her with his claws blazing once more. With the blood now completely soaking her back, Spirit forced herself to keep moving and dodge each blow. She tried to counter-attack, but every time she tried, a jolting pain rushed up her spine and forced her to stop. As of right now, she was completely on the defensive.

"Spirit! Hold on!" Raven cried out. She tried to use her spells to get to the halfa girl, but the ghosts and demons continued to pile up on her to keep her from moving. It was almost as if they were creating a wall between the two girls, and Raven would have to slowly push her way through.

Youngblood was frozen at his spot. He seemed to be struggling to move, but he couldn't overcome Harm's control. As the child ghost was forced to watch as Spirit fought for her life, a parrot that was completely a skeleton flew up and landed on his shoulder. Polly looked to be under mental control as well, but there was flashes in his eyes to indicate that he was fighting it.

Ducking and weaving under the attacks, Spirit weighed her options. Raven and Youngblood couldn't help her right now. Talking Wulf down obviously wasn't working, so that was off the table too. The only option left was Vision and Superman. Superboy was still too weak from the Kryptonite to help her, while Sphere and Wolf were being held down by piles of ghosts and demons. Vision probably felt the change in her energy after taking such a devastating wound. She was probably rushing to Spirit's location right now even if she didn't get the chance to help Superman.

Spirit would just have to keep moving until Vision arrived to help. That was easier said than done, though. Her injury was rally taking its toll. Pain and sweat rolled down her in waves. It was already hard to move. Luckily, her flesh was already knitting back together. Her regeneration ability wasn't as fast as Danny's, but it was still extremely quick.

'Jump on girl's back. Jump on girl's back. Jump on girl's back.'

Spirit flew up into the air to avoid the several ghosts and demons that tried to tackle her. It seems that they trying to work together now, because as soon as Spirit was in the air, they began to follow after her. Trembling and breathing in pain, Spirit forced herself to speed up and dodge the crowd trying to grab her. She had to avoid being slowed down. If that happened for even a second, she was dead.

"Raw!" Wulf seemed to have no regret in slashing away at the demons and ghosts that got in his way. He seemed to have at least enough of a state of mind to try to take out the extra enemies and give Spirit a chance to survive this encounter.

'Come on, Mom! I need some help here!' Spirit cried mentally as she rolled in midair to avoid Wulf once more. Now to the side of Wulf, Spirit debated if should get a small attack in with her Spectral claws and make his arm temporarily useless. Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance. Wulf had anticipated where she would move. His leg lashed out and kicked Spirit square in the stomach.

"AH!" Spirit yelled out in agonizing pain as she the force of the blow traveled through her stomach and to her back. Unable to focus, Spirit could not control herself as she was sent flying downward without a way to stop her momentum.

* * *

Gizmo grunted as he laid down on the top of Fenton Works, "Alright, I finished. All we need now is the jewel, and I can stop le Fey's orders."

Amity Park was filled with silence once more. Because of the preparation with the city's defense system, the fight had been rather short. For the most part, they managed to subdue the ghosts, but most of the demons and some of the ghosts had perished in the conflict. This left a heavy and sorrow filled atmosphere in the air.

A scratched and battered Cyborg looked down at the smaller teen, "What are you planning to do? Send the signal off the through our communication system?"

"Yeah, that A.I. is connected to it all, right?" Gizmo questioned as he rubbed his temples, "Using that, we can hopefully connect to the area around your friends and bounce the counter signal to make the fighting stop."

"Your plan is sound," Red X noted as the Fright Knight dropped him off on top of the building. "We can finish this all at once. Did you plan all that out as you were working?"

"Naw, I was planning how to take le Fey down since she captured me," Gizmo let out a deep frown, "But stopping her isn't enough. I'm going to make her pay for humiliating me like that. No one makes me look bad except for me."

"Now that is a moto to live by," The Fright Knight noted. Like the others, his armor was dented and scratched. He looked exhausted, "Your enemies should pay for stepping on your pride."

"Exactly," Gizmo sighed, "But I'll worry about le Fey later. Now, I just want to take a damn nap."

"Very well. You earned that much. Before you do that, tell me, when can we use this machine?" The Fright Knight questioned, "We don't have to charge it or anything do we?"

"As soon as your friends bring the jewel to me, I can stop the Snot Head ghosts and demons," Gizmo stated, "Those guys better freaking hurry though. This place may have been ready for a full scale attack, but very few cities were. I'd hate to see the casualty list when this is all over."

* * *

Frostbite was the type of person that usually lived by his instincts. Even when he first became a ghost, he made his choices based on his gut instinct. It was something that never failed him. This was especially true with people. When meeting people such as the Great One, Lady Spirit, and Lord Dusk for the first time, he instantly knew that they were trustworthy and deserving of respect.

Other times, though, he met people that he knew was rotten in their core. At first glance, he knew that Nekron, Freakshow, and Icicle Sr. were beyond redemption. They delighted in their own corruption, and Frostbite felt this instantly. It was only a matter of time before they proved just how right the yeti ghost was.

It was this kind of bad feeling that Frostbite got from Prince Orm. This wasn't something that could be explained. It wasn't Orm's body language, smile, or eyes that gave it away. Instinctively, Frostbite knew not to trust Orm. As such, he did not turn his back to Orm.

Even as the group of four fought together, Frostbite made sure not to face away from Orm. It didn't matter that they were surrounded at all sides and fighting to keep all the enemies back. Frostbite kept an eye on Orm the entire time.

His instincts proved to be right. Just as all the traffic of enemies was directed towards them, but before the backup arrived to assist them, Orm struck. Both Aqualad and Aquaman were too busy fighting to notice, but Frostbite was ready. Orm turned from his fighting momentarily towards the unprotected back of Aquaman. With a wicked grin, Orm went to stab his brother in the back with a golden trident.

Frostbite acted immediately. Before, he controlled his energy to make it so that water didn't get too cold for the Atlantians. While they had thicker skins and a tolerance for the cold, there was only so much a living body can take. Considering the situation, though, Frostbite would have to take a chance.

The temper of the water dropped immediately. Icicles formed all around the area. The water grew thick and heavy to the point that it was almost like swimming through cold syrup. This caused everyone in the area to become practically immobile, except of Frostbite. He moved with ease through the slush and ice and came right up to Orm and stopped the back-stabbing.

Holding the end of the trident with his ice arm, Frostbite glared at the prince, "What are you doing?"

Both Aquaman and Aqualad slowly turned to see what was happening. Despite be freezing cold, they could still somewhat move because of their Atlantian bodies. Their enemies didn't seem as lucky, though. All of them were frozen in place and unmoving.

"Brother?" Aquaman stared in horror at the trident that was only a few inches from him.

"Prince Orm…What is the meaning of this?" Aqualad was in shock.

"The prince isn't what he seems apparently…" Frostbite noted. "He was never loyal to you."

Seeing that he was discovered, Prince Orm decided to drop the act he kept for so long and vent out every frustration had had over the years, "Of course I wasn't! Why would I ever be loyal to a half-breed who stole my place as heir to the throne!?"

"But…Brother, we have fought beside each other for years…" Aquaman argued desperately, "You were there for the birth of my son…I shared everything with you!"

"I do not wish to share! I want to be king!" Orm snapped, "I was born and raised to be king, but at the last minute, you are introduced as the heir! You, who lived on the surface world all your life, became king overnight!"

"That was to help unite our world with the surface world!" Aqualad defended his king.

"Unite? We should not unite with them! We should rule over them! This world is mostly water! Our domain is dominant!" Orm gained an enraged look, "And I was going to make sure that happened! But you…you ruined that, Arthur Curry. Your passive nature made it so that we are still at the bottom. Almost everyone on the surface world looks down on us. All, except an enlightened few. The few friends that can see the truth. See the Light!"

"No…You're not…" Aquaman grew very pale.

Frostbite was surprised when the water began to swirl around Orm. It seemed that whatever magic he was using was overpowering the freezing water. After the cyclone had died down, Orm was replaced by Ocean Master. Covered in blue armor that covered his entire body, it was easy to see why no one could tell that Orm was always this villain. Nothing was shown through the armor except the mouth. Not even the eyes could be seen through the red lenses of the helmet.

Ocean Master let go of the trident and moved back. The armor around him seemed to protect him more from the cold, "And my friends will make it so that I replace you, half-breed. I thought that could happen today, but I underestimated this ghost. That's fine, though. I no longer need to keep up this hoax."

"King Orin, what do I do?" Frostbite questioned. He could rush forward to stop Ocean Master, but this was Aquaman's brother. It was the King's decision to decide what to do, "Do you want me to attack him?"

Aquaman was still in silent horror.

"My King…" Aqualad looked to Aquaman, "Please, now is the time to act."

The response was more silence.

"Soon, I'll be king. The plan is already in action," Ocean Master gloated, "Soon, when the Sorcerer Initiative is complete, you will be dead, and I will be king."

The water began to shift around Ocean Master once more. Seeing this, Frostbite decided to act. He could no longer wait for Aquaman's permission. He swam forward with the intent of cutting Ocean Master down, "Stop!"

"Until next time, brother," As he disappeared, Ocean Master smiled. Aquaman might not be dead, but his spirit was broken. That would make the takeover all the easier.

Frostbite tried to claw at Ocean Master, but all he got was water. The villain was now gone.

"Damn it…" Frostbit grunted out. He let the cold temperature rise to ease up the pressure on his allies. Fortunately, the enemies around them were already frozen, so they wouldn't be attacked immediately. He could see that more enemies were on the way. Luckily, backup was arriving as well.

"My King!" Tempest swam up as he led the reinforcements from the right.

"What happened!?" Aquagirl led the reinforcements from the left, "The water became unbearably cold, and we saw Ocean Master!"

"It…It is hard to explain…" Aqualad eyed his King in concern.

"The explanation will have to wait," Frostbite gained a determined look, "The last of the enemies approaches, and your King does not have the mindset to fight. We need to protect him while taking down our foes. Can you do that?"

"We will protect his Majesty with our lives," Tempest noted.

"Good…" Frostbite nodded, "The battle will be over soon. We just need to endure this last bit."

* * *

Plasmius had grabbed Robin and Batgirl and pulled them up onto the highest of the buildings. They were quickly joined by Batman and Nightwing. The five of them stood and watched as Undergrowth's plants fought off the enemy.

"This is unexpected," Nightwing crossed his arms, "And a bit ironic considering how we fought against him a few years ago."

"Huh?" Robin looked over to the person who previously held his title, "You fought him before?"

"That's in the classified files," Batman noted, "I'll let you take a look later, but long story short, he was originally part of the Injustice League."

Robin frowned, "I don't remember that."

"No one outside our allies remembers that," Plasmius mentioned, "Reality was changed so it never happened."

"Um…I don't get it…" Robin looked confused, "What does that even mean?"

"It's part of the classified portion of his origin," Batman explained, "It will be easier to explain it all once this is over, and I can show you the files in the Batcave."

"Hey, shouldn't we still be fighting?" Batgirl spoke up, "We can't let Undergrowth do all the work, right?"

"That will be difficult," Plasmius mentioned, "Undergrowth doesn't play well with others. He would recognize that we're not enemies, but he would still try to trap us in plant pods for safety. If we want to avoid that, then we should stay out of his way. Besides, he can handle this. His plants are suited for taking down multiple enemies. He's causing a lot of property damage, of course; but he's not hurting civilians, and he's keeping most of the enemies alive, so it would be best not to interfere."

"Well, if he's got this, then shouldn't we go help in a different city?" Robin questioned.

"I don't trust Undergrowth completely," Batman noted, "I won't leave my city in his hands, and in case something happen, I need you all here to stop him."

"He's right," Plasmius nodded, "While tamer, there's still knowing how much Undergrowth has changed from his other self. We need to keep an eye on him. Right now, he's saving lives. But if that changes, we need to stop him."

"So…We're just going to stand here and wait?" Batgirl questioned.

"Yep," Nightwing nodded, "Not like we have a whole lot of other options."

"Great, just great…" Robin sent a large spit wad off the edge of the building and frowned, "Just when I was having fun, I get stuck with borderline patrol duty…again. This sucks."

* * *

There were very few times that Dusk's Matter Make weapons were broken. As condensed ectoplasm formed into matter, the weapons were incredibly durable. It would take an absurd amount of force to break the weapons. Magic and ancient weapons, though, had more of an effect. The Fright Knight's Soul Shredder for example could leave deep gashes in the ectoplasmic metal.

Harm's blade seemed to be able to cut through Dusk's weapons pretty easily. Each time Dusk's Burst Gauntlets met Harm's artificial Sword of Beowulf, the metal cracked and faltered. That just showed the raw magical power of Morgaine le Fey. She knew how to make an excellent weapon, and Harm's incredible skill just made things more difficult.

As the two fighters continued to trade blows, Dusk was forced to continually repair his weapons. He could feel his energy levels dip with each repair. Considering the way this fight was going, that wasn't going to change. Without a doubt, his energy levels would go into dangerously low levels. If that happened, Dusk's form would become unstable, and he might dissolve.

Secret was attempting to help the best she could, but her fighting style did nor revolve around raw force. When unable to subdue an enemy with her smoke, she shifted more to a support fighter. The blonde ghost used her smoke to try to slow Harm down while using it to lighten the air pressure around Dusk to increase his speed.

Only half of that strategy seemed to be working, though. Dusk was moving a bit faster. Harm, however, didn't seem influenced by the smoke at all. Like before, the magic seemed to push the smoke away from the psychopath.

Knowing the current strategy wouldn't work, Dusk decided to change weaponry. As he ducked and dodged Harm's blade, he absorbed his right Burst Gauntlet. A Pendulum Nunchuku formed in the Gauntlet's place. Pushing energy into his left Burst Gauntlet, Dusk blocked one of Harm's downswings. The sword cut into the weapon, but that's what Dusk wanted. He rapidly repaired the weapon around the sword and trapped it there.

Then, the halfa swung the Pendulum Nunchuku. The chain extended and rapidly wrapped around the blade. Once that was done, Dusk began to pull at the magical sword and shouted, "Now, Secret!"

Secret appeared from the smoke around the two fighters. She flew towards Harm and went to punch her brother in the face. Harm saw this coming, though.

"Too slow," Harm drawled before yellow magical energy burst out from all around him. Both Secret and Dusk were sent flying backwards. They landed in the dirt and rolled a few times before coming to a halt.

As Dusk pushed himself up and helped Secret up, he examined his now shattered weapons, "Well, that's some energy I won't be getting back."

"Ah…" Secret looked over to Dusk. They were both covered in small burns and injuries, but lacked anything major, "Are you in the danger area?"

"Not yet, but I will be soon at this rate. I still have two ecto-boosts just in case, but I won't be able to use them while fighting this guy," Dusk stated and then looked to Harm, "We have to finish this fast."

"Harm will be the one ending this quickly, it," Harm smirked and twirled his sword around, "But Harm is curious about what makes it so confident."

Dusk eyed the sword in Harm's hands, "If we can't disarm Harm, then we need to destroy the sword."

"Destroy Harm's sword!?" Harm let out a large laugh, "Now this Harm has to see."

"Can you do it?" Secret questioned.

"Yes," Dusk took a deep horse stance. He punched his arms out forward. Energy formed around his arm. Four different stands burst out all around Dusk and locked into the ground. Black metal with green lines down the side extended forward from his arms into one long gun barrel, "I can with the Twilight Canon."

All the fights around him stopped and stared. This weapon was very different than his other weapons. Until this day, no one had seen Dusk create a gun with his Matter Make ability.

"What…What is that?" Secret blinked at the gun that seemed to originate from his arms.

"I began to develop this after I met with Dark Dan. I realized I needed something more…powerful to fight some enemies," Dusk explained. He pushed energy into the weapon. It began to glow and spark.

"Harm thinks that the it is compensating," Harm mocked.

"Believe what you want," Dusk stated uncaringly, "Secret, stand back. Trust me, this isn't going to be pretty."

* * *

Spirit landed on the cement with a solid crack. Pain shot through her in waves as her wounded back shattered the street below her. The shock and pain was so great that Spirit began to feel her vision began to fade. Her mind danced between the realms of dreams and reality for a few brief seconds.

 _ **Hey, kid. Now's not the time for this. Sis would have a heart attack if I let you fall asleep and die like this. Wake up, would ya?**_

Spirit's eyes snapped open instantly. Her Premonition began screaming at her. The message was lost to her, though, to the blazing stars in front of her eyes and terrible ring in her ear. Out of raw instinct, though, Spirit shuffled to the side. Even if she couldn't hear the message from her Premonition, she still that it usually meant that she had to move.

The complete message became clear, though, when Wulf crash landed on top of her. She was instantly grateful that she moved a bit. Wulf had been aiming to jam his claws into her head. Her shuffling made it so the claws missed their target. Unfortunately, she still took damage as the dimension ripping claws jammed into her shoulder.

Once again, agony rushed through her, but she fought to stay focused. Spirit tried to force the claws out of her shoulder; but she couldn't use the now injured arm, and Wulf's full weight was pressing down on her wounds. She then tried to activate the Spectral Claws in her uninjured arm, but she couldn't focus enough to make that ability work. Thus, all she could do was claw desperately at the arm that was stabbing at her.

"RRRAAAWWW!" Wulf looked up to the darkened sky and howled.

Spirit looked around desperately. No one was able to help her yet. She was still alone, and she had to way of protecting herself.

With another roar, Wulf raised his free hand far above his head. His sharp as daggers claws gleamed brightly in the moonlight. Spirit could only look on in terror as Wulf's claws pointed down at her head. Her attention was moved away from the claws, though, when she felt tiny droplets of water fall onto her cheeks.

Ashamed tears ran down Wulf's fur covered face. He shook and sobbed as he fought to stop himself. His raised claws slowly began to descend despite his fighting. In a desperate attempt to stop Wulf from killing her, Spirit reached up and tried to push Wulf's arm away from her with her only working arm. Despite all this effort, though, the claws continued to lower down to Spirit's forehead with the intent to tear the life out of her.

* * *

The entire street was on fire. Blue and red flames danced around each other in a dance of heat. The blaze was so intense that even from half a city away, the Martians flinched and shook under the heat. Even Red Tornado had to keep his distance from the heat so that he wouldn't melt.

Inside the blaze, Ember began to sweat and breathe heavily under the intensity of Torch's fire. While she was used to her own fire, she still preferred to use her sound attacks more. As such, Torch was far more advanced in his flame control and intensity. She couldn't compete in that, so she tried to retreat to use her guitar. Torch wouldn't let her do that, though.

Staying close to Ember, Torch rapidly swung his scythe. Ember was forced to block dozens of blows from all directions. Each blow was barely stopped, but for some reason, though, both she and her guitar had yet to be damaged. Every strike was just slow enough to block. The fire seemed just cool enough not to burn her. In fact, everything Torch did was right below the line of hurting her.

One thing that it was doing to her, though, was tiring her. Her arms ached. Her body sagged. She felt like was about to collapse under the intensity of Torch's assault. At the same time, though, Torch seemed to be wearing down slowly. Going at such a high, non-stop pace was burning his energy away. He didn't seem to care, though, because he didn't even slow down a little.

After a few minutes, Torch stopped his rapid swings. He hooked the blade of his scythe around his guitar and pulled. At the same time, the fire ghost used his foot to push Ember away. This combination plus the exhaustion in Ember's arms made her do something that she would never do in any other circumstance. She let go of her guitar.

With a swing of his scythe, Torch threw the guitar away and then jammed his scythe into the ground. Then, with a spin, Torch lunged forward to Ember. The siren ghost tried to escape, but she was too exhausted to move. She tried to punch him back, but Torch used his superior strength to knock the fist away and continued forward to…hug Ember.

Torch held her tight. Ember began to thrash around. She kicked, clawed, and head-butted the taller Torch to make him let go. He weathered the storm and refused to let go, though, despite the pain.

"Shh…" Torch whispered in her ear. The fire around them continued to dance. The blue flames were violent and angry, but red flames seemed to be calm as they tried to force the blue flames down.

Ember refused to calm down, though. She yelled and screamed at him. In her rage, she even began to bite into her shoulder.

Torch winced. He thought maybe he could subdue her without hurting her or buy enough time for the others to stop the mind control. This didn't seem to be the case, though. Ember would keep fighting until she couldn't get up. Eventually, Torch would either get hurt or be forced to hurt her, and he couldn't bring himself to hurt her.

In that moment, he knew what he had to do. Torch would have to wake her up through shock. She already almost had enough control to fight the mind control. He had to give her that last jolt if he wanted to keep her uninjured, even if he didn't want to.

"Ellie…" Torch mumbled.

Ember froze.

"You're stronger than this, Ellie. Don't let the witch control you. You're the world's greatest rockstar, right?" Torch hugged her close, "And rock stars don't let anyone tell them what to do. That's what you told Torch at least. Fight the power. Fight le Fey's control."

Ember's eyes began to clear up. The flames around them faded down and eventually died down to leave a smoke slowly rising from the street. Seeing that she was no longer struggling, Torch released her and stepped back. Ember looked at him with wide eyes and a shocked awe on her face.

"Trever?"

* * *

Artemis really hated her job sometimes. Most of the time, she loved what she did. Saving people, stopping bad guys, and kicking ass was her favorite things to do. It was days like today, though, that made her want to quit.

"I don't get paid enough for this!" Artemis shouted. She and Green Arrow were on the rooftops shooting their arrows up at Dora to get the amulet off her neck. While this was happening, Black Canary was protecting them from the stray ghosts and demons that tried to sneak up on them.

Up in the air, Etrigan was fighting against Dora. The demon seemed to be holding his own against the dragon, but he was obviously having a difficult time avoiding hurting her. He was used to mauling his enemies, but during this fight, he was just trying to distract her. Etrigan flew above the dragon so that none of the fire would fall on the city. He did have hurt her a bit with a scratches and gashes to keep her attention though.

Both of the archers continued to try and shoot the amulet. The managed to get close, but the dragon was high in the air and kept moving. In addition, they had to avoid shooting their ally, which made their job all the more difficult.

"You don't get paid," Green Arrow noted.

"Exactly," Artemis grunted, "No health benefits, no pay, but I have to fight a dragon with a bow and arrow. I should protest."

"Good luck with that," Green Arrow mentioned, "Superheroes don't get union reps."

"Would you two stay focused?!" Black Canary snapped as she finished her latest Canary Cry, "You two still haven't gotten the amulet off yet."

"We're trying…" Artemis reached up to her ear and pressed her Fenton Phone earpiece, "Etrigan, can you get her down lower? You're barely in range."

" _I'll try,_ " Etrigan mumbled. The demon then rocketed down at Dora. He smashed into her back and forced her down a few dozen meters. Before she could fall too far, he grabbed some of her thick, scaly skin and held her up for a moment.

"Perfect!" Green Arrow yelled as the demon put the dragon down to the perfect height. The archers then readied themselves to shoot the amulet, but they stopped when Dora suddenly twisted around. She flared about randomly and smacked Etrigan away. Dora then turned to the archers. She raised a claw to cover her neck and glared down at them.

"That's not good…" Green Arrow muttered.

"Nope," Artemis drew and arrow and shot towards Dora's eyes. The arrow struck the large, slitted eyeballs and erupted into giant wads of foam. This caused the dragon to roar in confusion and claw at her face. Unfortunately, she still covered the amulet with her other hand.

"Damn, we got to move," Green Arrow mentioned.

"But we're so close to stopping her," Artemis frowned, "If only we have a clear shot."

"I do…" Black Canary stepped forward, "One Canary Cry, and she'll stay down."

"Dora might just go deaf from that, though," Artemis noted, "Her hearing's enhanced in that form, right? If we do that, then she might no longer be able be Doctor Fate."

Green Arrow's eyes narrowed as Dora pulled the foam of her eyes and prepared to breath fire down at them, "Looks we don't have a choice anymore. I don't want to be a shish cabob."

"Alright," Black Canary took a deep breath for her Canary Cry. She paused, though, when Dora suddenly froze.

The golden amulet slipped down from behind her claws. A red arrow stuck out from the hook of the jewelry. As the amulet fell, Dora shrunk down to her normal form. A light blue dress covered her green skinned form, and her blond hair was pulled into one long braid. Now free from control, Dora slipped into unconsciousness and began to fall. She didn't get far before Green Arrow rushed forward to catch her.

"Gotcha!" Green Arrow had to reach over the edge of the building to catch the ghost, "Whew…I definitely prefer the beauty to the beast. She's a lot lighter like this. Cuter too."

"I'll ignore that," Black Canary mentioned.

"What happened anyway?" Artemis' eyes followed the path from which the arrow originated. Across several rooftops, she saw another archer, "Roy?"

Red Arrow eyed his previous teachers and teammate. He held his bow in front of him and, as always, had a serious look in his eyes. At his side was a confused Etrigan who he caught before the demon could fly too far way.

"Gah…" Etrigan looked up from his spot on the floor up to the archer, "You have my thanks."

"Thank Danny," Red Arrow mentioned as he lowered his bow, "He's the one that called me and asked me to come help out here."

"That guy…" Etrigan let out a laugh, "He sure knows how to bale me out of trouble."

* * *

Phantom felt power rush through his entire. Energy flowed out of him just as quickly as it was absorbed from the air. The halfa used this power to bombard the Spectre with hundreds of blasts of ectoplasm, bone crushing punches, and violent moves designed to cause as much pain as possible.

His lasted blast of ectoplasm sent Spectre crashing into the trailer of a semi-truck. The entire bent under the force of the crash. It cracked and slid a few yards before coming to a stop. Before the ghost of vengeance could recover, Phantom was on him once more.

"Gah!" A small amount of blood and spit rushed out of Spectre's mouth as Phantom's fist rammed into his stomach. This repeated dozens of times as Phantom sent rapid, hammering blows to his midsection. The force of the blows caused the trailer to bend and crack even more around the Spectre.

After a full minute of this, the trailer finally gave way to the force behind Phantom's blows. The Spectre crashed through shards of metal as Phantom's final blow cut the trailer in two. Spectre landed on the ground and skipped a few times before landing on his face. The damage done to the Spectre could not be seen through the rising smoke from his body.

Once again, the Spectre tried to get up. Phantom, again, prevented that. The halfa landed on top of the Spectre and caused the cement to crack below them. He then grabbed the back of the Spectre's head and repeatedly began to ram the Spectre's head into the ground to the point that the street seemed to have an imprint of the old ghost's face.

After one last shove, Phantom held the Spectre's face down and began to move. He dragged his opponent's face to the ground and left a long trail of broken cement behind him. Phantom dragged the Spectre like this for several blocks before the halfa spotted a condemned building. With a roar, he pulled the Spectre's head up and flung the ghost of vengeance into the building in a blaze of green. The sound of crashes and a collapsing building brought a satisfied smile to Phantom's face.

Nevertheless, Phantom felt sweat pour down his face as the exhaustion from going all out for a long period of time began to take its toll, "How do…pant…do you like that, you bastard!"

"I will admit, that was impressive."

Phantom could only look on in horror as the Spectre's form rose from the wreckage. While he was covered in small bruises and burns, he lacked any injury that would be considered above an annoyance to the ancient ghost, "How? I hit you with everything I had."

"Fool, I am one of the strongest ghosts in existence," The Spectre shook his head, "Your power is impressive, but it's still nothing in comparison to me."

"Well…maybe it is…" Phantom admitted, "But I know a power that exceeds even yours!"

Energy blazed off of Phantom. He yelled out as he absorbed as much energy as he could. The halo of energy expanded rapidly and began to increase in its glow. Soon, strands of white and gold energy began bleed into the blaze. Phantom's eyes flashed white for a few brief seconds. Then, with one final yell, Phantom began to pull that power into him...

…Only to find it to disappear completely...

Gasping in sudden exhaustion and loss of breath, Phantom dropped to his knees and clutched his chest, "W-what? H-How? It never…I never…"

"Do you take me for a fool, Danny Phantom?" The Spectre questioned, "You were the one that reminded me of your ability to absorb energy of the deceased. From there, I recalled just how powerful you could become if I let you, and I did not wish to test myself against the power of ascended ectoplasm."

"But…how did you stop it?" Phantom gasped out. His exhausted eyes began to lose focus as he eyed the Spectre.

"By creating that," The Spectre pointed up. Phantom followed the gesture to see a thin dome covering the entire city, "While you were bombarding me, I spread my energy out around the city. Once you tried to absorb more energy, I willed my energy to create a dimension altering shield around the entire city. While in here, the outside energy of the deceased cannot enter. I activated the shield at the opportune moment. While you were absorbing more energy, I left you without a source to draw energy and pulled the energy you borrowed out, effectively making you helpless."

"No…" Phantom whispered in horror.

"Yes, and now…" The Spectre disappeared in the blink of an eye. He appeared right in front of Phantom and sent a massive uppercut to the halfa's stomach. The force of the blow lifted Phantom up, concaved his stomach, and caused a fountain of blood to pour out of his mouth. Phantom's eyes quickly became unfocused and hazy as the pain rattled his very soul, "It's time for you to die."

* * *

Zatanna decided that today was up there on weirdest day list. It wasn't exactly worthy of the top five list. No, most of the days that far up were reserved to her first few months in Young Justice. Compared to those days, every other day was normal. Today, though, still ranked pretty high up there in the top ten region for two simple reasons, or more specifically, two new people. There were now three Captain Marvel's flying around. That was definitely two more than normal.

It started when the Box Ghost collapsed the building that Captain Marvel was in. Lightning crashed down from the sky and consumed the falling rubble in blinding light. For a brief moment, Zatanna felt her heart stop as the thought of Captain Marvel turning back into his thirteen year old form and getting crushed. Her worries were quickly crushed when two beings rushed out from the rumble in a blur.

She wasn't the only one shocked by this development, though. The Box Ghost didn't know how to react when he was rushed by a dark haired young woman in her late teens and dressed in a feminine version of Captain Marvel's uniform complete with a skirt. He was even more shocked to see a man who appeared to be a slightly younger version of Captain Marvel but with a blue uniform.

The shock and sheer speed of the attacks caused the Box Ghost to freeze. He was quickly beaten down by an assault of two Captain Marvels. The blows were hard and devastating. In a few brief seconds, the ghost that had caused them so much trouble was left a bruised and bleeding mess on the ground.

The two knew Marvel heroes then turned their attention to the Lunch Lady. Both of the magical brawlers flew to the giant meat monster with a sonic boom. Covered in magical electricity, they rocketed through the giant meant monster. Once they passed through it, they turned around and flew back the same way. They continued this several times until the meat looked more like swish cheese.

Eventually, the form of the monster had to give way from the lack of stability. The meat collapsed downward in a wave. The Lunch Lady was dragged with it. The female Marvel saw a glimpse of green, though, and went to intercept her. With the force of a rocket, she rammed into the Lunch Lady and caused the female ghost to cry out in pain as her ribs cracked. In a blur, she was sent flying towards the new male Marvel. The new guy raised his arms to knock the Lunch Lady down to the street below.

"STOP!"

Freddie froze in his swing. Instead, he allowed the Lunch Lady to ram into him and caught her instead of hitting her. He was shocked to see her hurt and broken from.

Captain Marvel, carrying the unconscious and bloody Box Ghost, flew up and frowned at the two new Marvels, "You can't just go all out like that. I may not know what happened to you exactly, but if you have my powers now, then I know the damage you can do. Look at them. This is what happens when you lose control."

Both Mary and Freddie looked in horror at the Box Ghost. He looked like he had been run over by a monster truck several times. His face was covered in blood, and his left eye was swelled and smashed.

"Right now we don't have time to figure all this out," Captain Marvel stated sternly, "I need you to go direct the civilians. Be careful with your strength if you touch anyone. One wrong move, and you'll break someone's bone."

"Ah…Okay, Captain…" Mary lowered her head in shame.

"Right…I, uh, we'll just do as you say," Freddie clenched his fists in anger at himself.

Sighing, Captain Marvel took hold of the Lunch Lady and gently lowered the ghosts to the ground.

"What was that?" Zatara questioned with wide eyes.

"I have no idea. I was trying to save some…friends, and I think they received a copy of my powers," Captain Marvel shook his head. He gently placed the ghosts down next to each other.

Zatanna brought over Box Lunch, who she managed to get a hold of during the chaos and put the baby in between the injured parents, "Is that really possible? Did you know that could happen?"

"I didn't know at all. It's weird. There's no way that should have happened, but when I reached out to Mary…" Captain Marvel looked at his fingers.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. I guess I felt something familiar. Like some sort of connection. I think the powers of the wizard transferred through that connection and surged into the Freddie during the process." Captain Marvel frowned, "The only question is what was that connection?"

* * *

Troia felt beads of nervous sweat roll down her face. She slowly circled a very relaxed Nyx. Her pride ached by Nyx's casual stance and lack of carrying about the whole situation. She did not register as a threat to Nyx, and Troia really couldn't blame the other girl. She had seen what a regular ghost could do. A ghost that could use both ectoplasmic and magic like Doctor Fate did? That was a terrifying opponent.

Yet, here Troia was facing her. She really needed to work on her tendency to rush into situations. It seemed to always get her into situations that were above her head. Damn pride. No wonder it was considered a sin.

"Are you going to attack me, or are you just going to dance around me all day, Princess?" Nyx mocked and did a fake yawn.

Deciding that she stalled enough, Troia rushed forward. She sent a powerful punch to Nyx's form, but it didn't get close. Nyx's shadow jumped up and formed a wall in front of the ghost. The Amazon's brick shattering punch was stopped with ease. The block seemed almost effortless too.

Out of raw instinct, Troia flew backwards to avoid the spikes that suddenly burst out from the wall. As quickly as possible, Troia zoomed around the shadow and went to kick Nyx in the side. With black electricity dancing around her arm, Nyx blocked the blow by merely extending an arm. Troia expected this, though. She already knew that she could not with brute force. Thus, she fought with skills that she spent years building.

Hooking the arm with her foot, Troia pulled her foe forward. She then twisted herself and kicked Nyx in the face with her free leg. Nyx was sent flying back. The Amazon went to follow the ghost but was shocked when Nyx's body disappeared into the ground as a shadow. Troia tried to follow the shadow, but she couldn't stop it from getting right behind her.

Nyx popped out of the ground, wrapped her arms around Troia, and then sent magical electricity through the Amazon's body. Troia cried out and shook in pain from the magical attack.

"I guess I underestimated you," Nyx mentioned as a small trickle of blood fell from her lips, "Good job hurting me. You showed some real skill there, but all the skill in the world falls before raw power."

"Says…thou!" Troia rammed her head back. The back of her skull rammed into Nyx's face. This instantly caused Nyx to release her hold. Troia swirled around. She began to rapidly punch her opponent's form. For a few brief seconds, she had the upper hand.

This moment of dominance was instantly shattered when Nyx retaliated. Troia's own shadow seemed to jump out of the ground. It shifted and took the form of a large cat. The tiger shadow bit Troia in the shoulder and pulled her back. Thanks to her durability, Troia's skin was not completely torn from the bone, but blood began to pour from the wound.

The pain only continued as the shadow tiger began to scratch and claws at Troia's back. She would have flipped the shadow creature off of him, but she wasn't given the chance. Nyx took advantage of the situation. She grabbed Troia's head and began to repeatedly knee the Amazon in the face.

"Kekekekekeke! You're actually pretty damn good! You made me go all out here!" Nyx didn't stop her assault on the Amazon as she spoke, "I'll kill you quickly as a reward—"

Nyx paused when she felt a spear pointed at her back.

"That's enough, Nyx," Pandora ordered her child.

"Please, I know that you won't actually hurt me, Mom," Nyx snorted.

"No, it is clear that I could never bring myself to harm you, but…" Pandora glanced around. The various Amazons around them had a look of murder in their eyes and had their weapons ready to attack, "I can't say the same for them."

"So this is your attempt to save me from the bloodthirsty Amazons?" Nyx let go of Troia and dismissed the shadow tiger. This caused the bleeding Amazon to fall to the ground, "Thanks, but I don't need your help. I could run away the moment they tried anything."

"I know…" Pandora frowned, "But my actions aren't about rationality. It's about love."

"Love? That's funny," Nyx let out a chuckle, "Is love what makes you point your spear at me? Is love what makes the Amazons so filled with rage that I hurt their precious princess?"

"Yes."

"Then it's stupid," Nyx shook her head and reached down to grab Troia's lasso, "I won this. It's mine now."

"Gah…" Troia looked up as Nyx took the lasso, "Very well. That was the agreement. I'm sorry that I could not save thee."

"Save? I don't need saving," Nyx mentioned, "It's you Amazons that need saving. Cause soon, you're all going to be wiped out."

"What?"

"Just a little spoiler for fun," Nyx's grin was almost wide enough to split her face, "I wanted to see what your face would be like. I'm not disappointed. I can't wait to see it again when the real fun happens. But until then, I've got work to do."

"Wait! What does the Light have planned!?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" With that, Nyx disappeared in a swirl of black electricity and shadow. She left a silent and somber island in her wake.

* * *

Shiva had to make a choice now. Ubu or Talia. She had to direct Cain to one of them right now. The problem was that she couldn't tell which one was Amorpho and which one was real. In any other situation, Shiva would have praised the ghost for creating such a perfect disguise. Right now, though, she was cursing him to the pits of hell.

'Damn it. There's no way to use reason. I just have rely on chance. I hate relying on chance,' Shiva hissed mentally. She was a person that always relied on skill alone. Luck was never part of the equation. Considering this situation, though, she might as well flip a coin like Two-Face.

Just as Shiva was about to choose, an explosion went off at the far wall. Reacting out of pure instinct, Shiva jumped in front of Ra's to protect him from any follow-up attack. Ra's didn't seem surprised at all by Shiva's actions. Talia didn't give Shiva a side glance either, but someone did. Ubu with a single hand raised, looked with shocked eyes as Shiva moved Ra's back away from the large man's head. Shiva could see a small black chip in Ubu's hand.

With a determined face, Shiva shifted her body weight and subtly gestured to Ubu. Cain acted immediately and shot the disguised Amorpho in the neck with the trank. The dart hit the assassin, and he tumbled down like a ragdoll.

Shiva caught Amorpho and addressed Talia, "I have Ubu, get the Great One out of here."

Nodding, Talia followed her father as he rushed to avoid sniper fire. As they did this, Shiva dragged Ubu away. Despite the scramble of assassins, she could still tell that Madame Rogue was no longer among them. She must have seen Shiva's distress and went to do something to give her an excuse to act.

'I'll have to buy her a drink later,' Shiva's mind was filled with relief. Her cover was safe, David probably already escaped, and now there would be an excuse when Ubu awoke later with a headache and no memory of what happened. Considering that subtly of Amorpho's mission, Ubu was probably just drugged instead of killed. She would have to find the real Ubu once she moved Amorpho out of the compound. It would be hard to explain why she supposedly dumped Ubu in a closet or empty room.

Right now, though, she had question she needed answered. Taking the dark chip away from Ubu, Shiva was surprised to see that it looked like a black tentacle with pulsing wires in it. It was a black version of the infamous Starro Tech, the mind control devices that once allowed the Light to control the entire Justice League and Danny Phantom. Even without sensory abilities, Shiva could feel something off about this chip. It was wrong, corrupted…evil.

'If Morgaine got this on Ra's, the whole world could have been thrown into chaos,' Shiva realized. She then remembered something else, 'Other members of the Light were here earlier. What if he managed to get one of these chips on them?'

* * *

"Come on, it!" Harm laughed as he rushed forward, "Try and use the big, bad weapon on Harm!"

"Stability: Set. Energy level: 50%. Target: Acquired," An eye piece rose from the gun and targeted Harm. Green energy sparked off the weapon. Raw heat and steam could be seen rising from the weapon. Even from a distance, the other fighters could feel the raw energy coming off Dusk's newest weapon, "Twilight Canon…Fire!"

The boom of the canon was so loud that even the veteran assassins flinched under the sound. In a blaze of green, a concentrated beam of energy fired out of the canon. It caused the air to flee and the ground to give way. Almost instantly, the concentrated blast of energy closed the distance to Harm. In alarm and fear, Harm tried to use his blade to block the beam. A magical energy shield appeared around Harm and attempted to protect him.

Harm was shocked as he and his shield were pushed back. The beam didn't stop. It didn't even slow down. The attack continued forward as if Harm was merely annoyance. Fear sparked down his spine as his magical shield began to crack. Under the force of the canon fire, the shield began to break apart it as it was pushed back. In mere seconds, the shield shattered like glass.

All that was left to guard Harm from the attack was his blade. Even as he felt his feet skid back, Harm did not drop his guard. He continued to push back against the attack. His shock turned fear immediately began to change into sheer terror when his blade began to crack as well. The sword that Morgaine le Fey enchanted to be as strong as the Sword of Beowulf began to brake under the power of the Twilight Canon. Then, just like the magical shield, the sword shattered, and Harm was consumed in a blaze of green.

The following explosion was so bright that everyone had to cover their eyes. Soon, the light faded and left a blanket of smoke in dust in the air. Without even hesitating, Dusk absorbed the canon and began to walk forward through the smoke. As he moved, the blanket of dust faded to reveal a downed and defeated Harm. Small burns and cuts covered the psychopath's body.

"Oh my god…" Secret's whisper was barely audible, but it still rang loudly through the now silent cliffside, "How…What was that?"

"Like I said, I designed to Twilight Canon to take down stronger enemies," Dusk stood in front of the downed Harm, "Instead of finesse and technique, the Twilight Canon uses raw power. An unbelievable amount really. There are problems, though."

Dusk knelt down and began to look through Harm's pockets, "The first problem is mobility. That gun has one hell of a kick, so I need to anchor myself to avoid being flung back. As such, I can't move it all that quickly. Luckily, this moron didn't even try to move."

Dusk found the Infi-map and le Fey's gem in Harm's trechcoat and began to pull them out, "The second problem is energy. I use myself as a power source, and using that thing is a pain on my reserves. As of right now, I'm completely out of energy, and I only used half power. I'm right on the line of the danger zone. If I try to use even the most basic of my powers, I'll begin to decompose."

Dusk stood and raised Morgaine le Fey's mind control jewel into the air. Both Kitty and Johnny looked to the jewel and were released from their brainwashing, "The third problem comes from the design. That weapon is designed only for the purpose of taking enemies that are stronger than me down. One wrong move…One wrong calculation, and the enemy might die. Especially if I use this on anyone that's durability isn't superhuman. Luckily, Morgaine's magic protected him for the most part. Sorry, Secret. I know that I said that I would try not to hurt him, but this was the only way."

"That's fine…Hurt is better than dead…" Greta gave him a grateful smile, "Thank you, Joel."

Dusk felt contentment fill his heart, "You're welcome. We'll take Harm and the jewel back to Amity Park. Then you can try to talk with him if you want—"

"Dusk, look out!"

In his exhausted stated, Dusk forgot to tie Harm's limbs. As such, when Harm regained consciousness, he could still move. He immediately went into a craze. The psychopath pulled an all too familiar dagger from his boot and lunged at Dusk. Surprised, Dusk raised his arms to block the descending blade. He would get cut, but Greta was there to heal him, so he wasn't too afraid.

There was a problem, though. Harm never got to Dusk. Someone jumped in between the two fighters.

"Johnny, no!"

* * *

Spirit desperately tried to push Wulf's claws away from her with her still active arm. Blood continued to pour out of her open wounds and take her remaining strength with it. Feeling weak, Spirit could not fight the arm anymore and just clung to it.

At the same time, Wulf continued to lets tears run down his face. He couldn't stop himself. Morgaine le Fey's control was too strong. His claws were going to cut down no matter what. Wulf knew this even as his arm trembled and clenched from his attempt to fight the control, "No…Please, no…Not my friend…"

"Wulf..." Spirit gasped out, "Just, hold on a little longer. Mom's coming. I know it. Just a few more seconds."

"I can't!" Wulf sobbed, "I can't fight it anymore!"

"Please! Just a bit more!" Spirit pleaded.

"I…I don't want to kill you!" Wulf whined in despair, "But…I don't have a chose! I'm sorry!"

"It's not your fault," Spirit let her arm drop in acceptance. The claws continued downward toward Spirit's forging eyes, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you and Youngblood. Live on for me and tell the others that I love them, okay, Wulf?"

Memories flashed in Wulf's eyes. He remembered the circumstances of his death. Soldiers attacking that poor girl. He stepped in. They arrested him. Prison. Prison. Prison. Execution. Acceptance. Smile.

Wulf's eyes flashed. Not like this! Not with his friend! "NO! I REFUSE TO OBEY YOU! I WILL NOT HURT MY FRIEND!"

Green claws became a blur as Wulf stopped fighting. They swung downward and curved so that they missed Spirit's head. Instead, they swung upward and…

Right into Wulf's own chest.

* * *

 _Green blood poured down Wulf's hand and arm. Droplets of blood fell from the arm and began to paint the shocked girl below the beast. The tears that flowed from Wulf's eyes stopped. His grimace changed into a smile of victory, "I...did it…"_

 _The pain and closeness to Death's door broke Wulf free of le Fey's control. Using the last bit of energy he had left, Wulf retracted his claws. The claws removed themselves from Spirit's shoulder and Wulf's chest. This caused blood to platter and covered Spirit's form in the green liquid._

 _With that done, Wulf was out of energy. In exhaustion, he collapsed forward and landed on top of Spirit in a heap. Spirit would have grunted in pain if it wasn't for the complete horror and shock that was running its way through her system._

 _After a few brief seconds, Spirit came to enough of her senses to begin to push Wulf off of her. With her one working arm, Spirit began to roll Wulf off of her as gently as possible. She managed to get Wulf on his back and saw the gruesome wounds in Wulf's chest. Instantly, the halfa began to push pressure on the wound despite Wulf's cries of pain._

" _Damn it!" Tears now ran down Spirit's still horrified face, "Why the hell did you do that?!"_

" _I…had to…" Wulf's breath came out in wheezes, "I couldn't hurt a friend. If I did that…Then I wouldn't be able to live with myself."_

" _But...That was never your obsession…" Spirit began to sob, "You were meant to run free! Unchained, and free! That was what you wanted, right?! How can you be free in life if you kill yourself for me!?"_

" _I was free…only because of you and Danny…" Wulf let out a deep chuckle, "Without you, I wouldn't have ever had the chance to get out of Walker's prison. That's something…I could never repay. To come and go as I please…but also having a family to come home to…That's true freedom. I could never get enough of it. I could never willingly move on…"_

" _Right! It's not enough!" Spirit argued, "You can't die! Not yet! Not like this damn it!"_

" _Hehehe…There's never a right time," Wulf's body began to dissolve, "But I've always been prepared. I'm not afraid, and I really have no regrets. And that's good enough for me."_

" _Please, Wulf!" Spirit begged as placed her head down and cried into his chest, "I'll get a medic! Don't give up!"_

 _Wulf gently placed a dissolving hand on her head, "I'm sorry. This isn't what I wanted. Tell everyone I said thank you. The past three years have been perfect for me."_

" _No! Nononononono!" Spirit shouted, "Don't die! Stay with me! Come on, Wulf! What will we do at if you're not here!? We can't protect Amity Park without you! Home won't be the same without you! Who will I fight with over who gets the last strip of bacon!?"_

" _I'm sorry, but this is it for me…" Wulf's body was almost gone, "It may not have been perfect…but it was good enough. I'm so grateful..."_

 _With that, Wulf was gone. His form dissolved and spilt through Spirit's fingers to the street below. All that was left was a puddle of ectoplasmic ooze that rippled as Spirit's many tears continued to rapidly roll down her face and fell down like tiny rain drops._

* * *

"Dani! Dani, you have to get up!" Vision's voice called out as various ghosts and demons began swarm around the mentally distressed girl, "I know that the loss hurt, but you can't let yourself get killed!"

Spirit ignored her mother. Instead of getting up, she wrapped her arms around herself and began rocking back and forth. She didn't even try to fight against her mental breakdown.

"She's not listening!" Raven yelled.

"Keep going!" Superboy roared, "We can save her!"

Everyone had been trying to get to Spirit and Wulf for several minutes. When Wulf met his end, they were all shaken to their core. Most of them burst into tears as Wulf slowly dissolved. Their first instinct was to stop out of shock and despair, but they forced themselves to keep going in order to save Spirit.

The ghosts and demons all focused on stopping their charge, though. Not even Vision or the injured Superman could get through the wall of enemies yet, even as they continually knocked enemies away with ease. They would soon get to the center, but by the time they did that, it would be too late. If only Spirit would fight from the center, she could be saved. It seemed as though the halfa no longer cared.

"Fight, Spirit!" Superman shouted, "If you don't fight, you'll die!"

Spirit didn't seem to care as she hugged herself. She did nothing as the ghosts and demons finally got to her. The halfa refused to protect herself, and there was no one ready to protect her.

…Or so everyone thought…

A large flash of green light blasted out from where Dani was. Waves of righteous anger and protective feelings washed over the area. Giant blasts of ectoplasm spread out from the center of the chaos. A man wearing brown, leather cloths designed to look like a pirate stood at the center of the explosion. A large, thick green beard covered the man's face. His hand and foot which were once covered by a hook and peg leg was now covered by large ectoplasmic canons that continued to fire at the enemies charging at Spirit.

After a few seconds of fighting from both sides, all the enemies in the area were defeated. All the fighters from the outside were shocked to see the man.

"Youngblood?" Raven questioned with wide eyes, "How…How did you break from the mind control?"

"I was always trying to fight against it," Youngblood, in adult form, stated, "But le Fey's control was strong, and I couldn't beat it in my child form. And when I tried to break the seal holding me in my child form…"

"You couldn't," Superboy stated as he panted from his injuries. Both an injured Wolf and a barely functions Supercycle stood beside him, "She commanded you not to break the seal, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then how did you manage to get free?" Superman questioned.

"I heard something that was louder than le Fey's control," Youngblood turned to look at the downed Spirit. Everyone looked at the halfa girl and saw a heart breaking sight. She looked completely broken and destroyed by Wulf's death. Now that that they no longer had to fight, they allowed themselves the time to let the situation wash over them.

Wulf was gone forever. A friend and ally died on the field, and none of them could have stopped it. Raven felt bile rush up her throat as she began to say her magical chant to avoid having her emotions go haywire. Superman and Superboy bowed their heads in respect. They didn't know Wulf all that personally, but they respected the werewolf.

Spirit was sobbing. This was so hard! Why?! Why did he have to die!? She didn't mean for him to get hurt like that! She was trying to protect him! Why did this have to happen?!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The halfa girl screamed up into the heavens.

She could feel their eyes watching her. Her friends...her comrades…they didn't understand. Yes, they were saddened. Yet, they didn't truly understand. They didn't know the true extent of what happened.

Spirit had just caused a ghost to give up his obsession.

"Dani…" Vision stated gently. She knelt down next to her daughter and held out a hand. The woman had unshed tears in her own eyes, but she refused to let them fall just yet, "I know that you're hurting, but now it not the time to mourn. We can cry over Wulf later. He would want us to—"

"Don't tell me what he would want!" Spirit snapped as she violently slapped the arm away, "I know what he wanted! And he gave all that up for me! That damn fool! I never asked him to do that! I didn't! And now…and now he's gone because I refused to stop him with force! Aaaaaahhhhh!"

"Dani…" Vision muttered sadly.

"If only I wasn't so weak minded! If only I was willing to knock the sense back into him! I was so stupid…Talking wasn't going to help him! I knew that, yet I tried it anyway!" Spirit wailed. The hot tears felt like they were burning her cheeks.

"It's never wrong to try and talk down your enemy," Superman noted.

"Shut up!" Spirit violently shook her head, "I knew talking wouldn't help, but I did it anyway! I didn't do what I had to because I didn't want to hurt him, and now he's dead! He died because of my weakness…"

"Dani, it's not your fault. You tried your best. You're a good person that tried to save your friend without hurting him. There's no sin in that," Superboy tried to reason.

"That's right…" Youngblood spoke up, "You're the kindest person I know. You care, and that's why you're crying. But Wulf's death isn't your fault."

"No…It is…But not completely," Spirit looked. Slowly, her look of despair and grief morphed into anger and hatred, "Harm and Morgaine le Fey are the ones that started this. They're the ones that deserve to be dead, not Wulf."

"Dani, don't let your anger guide you," Superboy warned, "Trust me on that. It doesn't pay off."

"I don't care," Spirit hissed, "They're the reason Wulf is dead. They deserve to pay," Spirit looked to Youngblood, "Youngblood, do you know where they are?"

Youngblood frowned, "I don't know where le Fey is…but I do know where Harm is. They weren't very quiet about their plans around me. He's right outside Dakota City, and…OH Hell, I forgot! He was going to use the Spectre to kill Danny!"

"What?!" Everyone snapped.

"NO!" Spirit roared, "I won't let them take someone else from me! Raven, can you use your magic to teleport us to Dakota City?"

Raven nodded, "Yes."

"Wait!" Superman glared at them, "I can't let you go. Not only is it too dangerous, but I can't in good conscious let you go kill him out of revenge. It's not the right thing to do."

"No…It think it is…" Spirit frowned, "The one time I didn't follow my instincts, a friend died. This time, I'll listen to my heart…and kill Harm."

"Spirit, you'll regret that," Superboy glared, "Come on, Raven, you have to agree with me on this. Don't let her do this."

"Sorry, but I agree with Dani on this one," Raven trembled as she forced her rage down, "My demon side is screaming out for blood, and I'm inclined to allow it."

"If that's the case, I'll have to stop you—" Superman paused when Youngblood pointed his hook canon at the Kryptonian's head.

"Sorry, but the ladies have made their decision. As their friend, I side with them," Youngblood stated, "You can try to fight, but trust when I say I'm one opponent you can't beat. I'll de-age you until you can't even walk on your own."

Superman frowned. He knew Youngblood was right. Time was a power not even he could fight.

"I got your backs," Youngblood addressed the girls, "Take me with you. I have been a crappy friend these past few years. I think it's time to make it up to you."

"Right," Spirit nodded. "Raven, take us there."

"Hold on," Raven's eyes glowed white, "Azaroth Metrion Zinthos!"

In a flash of black and white energy, they were gone.

Superman turned and glared at Vision, "Why didn't you stop them?"

"…I saw my daughter in pain…" Vision stated, "I didn't have the heart to stop the one thing that could make her feel better. Besides, I'm not the person to say that revenge is wrong. I have killed many of enemies in cold blood before. Besides, it sounds like Danny is going to need all the help he can get."

"But why not go with her then?" Superboy questioned, "If you support this decision why let her go alone. I would have gone, but they knew I'd just try to stop them."

"And leave you here alone? You're still weakened by the Kryptonite," Vision shook her head, "There are still enemies here. If I left, one of you might die, and I won't let another ally die because I couldn't help."

"But what if they kill Harm?"

"Then we will have one less psychopath in the world," Vision stated coldly.

* * *

 **Next update: "Goodbye" on August 17, 2015**

 **In the end, Wulf refused to have his life dictated by the manipulation of others. He chose the path of freedom. Unfortunately, the price of freedom is always death, and the people that pay it never get to see what the fruits of their sacrifice.**

 **What is a hero without a villain? What is Batman without Joker? What is Superman without Lex Luthor? Like I say every time, I don't like to force my weird love of profesional wrestling on anyone. Unfortunately, another beloved legend has died. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper was, is, and always will be the greatest heel in wrestling history. And for those who don't know him from wrestling will know him from one single movie. They Live. "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." I like to think that's what Piper said the moment he entered the afterlife. Goodbye, "Hot Rod." We already miss you so much.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	8. Goodbye

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it."

Trey Parker

* * *

Chapter 8: "Goodbye"

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

If there was anyone on that Earth that understood what it was like to beaten down in a fight, it was Danny Phantom. He could say without a trace of embarrassment or shame that he got his ass handed to him an almost uncountable number of times during his time as a vigilante. From his first fights as a half-ghost to his time in Young Justice, Phantom was often beaten the point of not being to move. Despite every beating and defeat, though, he could with certainty say that this was one of the worst beatings he had ever taken. It was up there right next to his fights with Agent Z and Freakshow.

The Spectre's arm wrapped around Phantom's right arm like a snake. The tension in the grip caused the bones in the halfa's arms to crack and break. Phantom couldn't focus on that, though. Spectre's real attack was doing far more damage than the grip on his arm. The Ghost of Vengeance's free hand rammed into Phantom's face multiple times. Each devastating blow crashed into the halfa's face with a spray of blood. With a broken nose, bleeding mouth, and cut open head, Phantom's entire face was covered in green blood.

After a few more of these blows, the Spectre released Phantom's arm. He then brought his arms to the halfa's ribs. Green energy burst out from the Spectre's palms and smashed into both of Phantom's sides. As all of his ribs were smashed to pieces, Phantom's head snapped back in a silent scream. His eyes began to roll into the back of his head.

Before he could lose consciousness, Phantom was snapped back to reality when the Spectre's fist crashed into his stomach. He could feel the knuckles of his enemy dig into his stomach and push back so that the shape of a fist could be seen on the halfa's back. Collapsing forward, Phantom gagged as blood began to drip out of his mouth. Barely conscious, Phantom was only still off the ground because the fist digging into his stomach was holding him up.

Seeing this, the Spectre reached out with his other hand and grabbed Phantom by the throat. He then lifted the halfa high above his head and began to squeeze, "Interesting. Your endurance is awe inspiring. I have inflicted enough wounds to kill you several times over. How do you keep yourself stabled—"

The Spectre was interrupted when Phantom used his uninjured fist to punch the Spectre square in the mouth. He then repeated this action as quickly as he could. With as much force as possible, Phantom tried to hurt the Spectre the same way he was injured merely seconds ago.

In a blur, the Spectre slammed Phantom into the street. He then tossed Phantom away just like he did to the Red Huntress not long ago. Like before, the halfa went crashing into a building. With a loud crash, the building collapsed around him.

The Spectre lifted his head to show that Phantom's attacks did nothing to injure him, "Is that all you have? Too bad. Looks like this fight is over."

* * *

Dusk barely knew Johnny 13. The most interaction they ever had was a passing glance during special events in the Ghost Zone. Of course, Dusk wasn't the most sociable person in the first place, so it wasn't unusual for him not interact with most people, especially people not close to his family. As such, the surprise of having Johnny 13 risk his life to save him was shocking.

"Gah!" Johnny groaned in pain as the knife dug deep into his chest. Green blood splattered out and landed on Harm's face. In order to avoid having the knife pulled out and stabbed down again, Johnny grabbed Harm's arm tightly and refused to let go.

"What?" Harm's eyes were wide and confused, "Why would the it do that?"

"Don't know, man…I just moved…" Johnny coughed out blood, "I saw the kid in danger and remembered…and remembered…Who did I remember? I don't…"

"Stop trying to confuse Harm!" Harm desperately tried to pull his arm free, but Johnny wouldn't let go.

"I've always been a screw up…Bad luck always followed me…" Johnny refused to let go of Harm, "Even back then…I was stupid…Shouldn't have taken that risk on the motorcycle…They needed me, and I failed them…"

"Just shut up already!" Harm began to kick and head-butt Johnny.

Shocked and exhausted, Dusk's body refused to move at first. He felt as though he was moving through syrup. Nevertheless, he knew he need to act. He glanced at Secret in order to signal her to get ready to heal Johnny and prepared to move forward to strike Harm back. Before he could do that, though, a powerful force began to weigh down on him.

A Haunting Aura of anger, confusion, and madness swept across the area. Everyone froze from the sudden weigh pushed onto their shoulder. Their eyes turned to the source of the strange aura of insanity that was assaulting them.

"Ah! Johnny!" Kitty had collapsed to her knees. She held her head in agony as her eyes stared at the sight of the metal sticking out of Johnny's chest. Red streaks ran began to bleed down Kitty's green hair, "Not again! Don't leave again! We need you! We can't survive without you!"

Black Bat was still the person closest to Kitty. She peered at Kitty curiously and slowly stepped back. Kitty had given her bad vibes throughout their entire fight. Now, though, those bad vibes were now screaming instincts of caution. She had to get away from this crazed ghost.

Her instincts proved right when green energy blasted off Kitty in a massive wave. The ground shattered. The air itself split. Green knives and sickles appeared from the energy and began to swipe around randomly. Most people would have been sliced to bits by the dance of knives. It showed Black Bat's skills that she managed to keep her cuts to a minimum. Never the less, the cuts she did receive instantly began to bleed even as she threw herself back to avoid more damage.

With a roar, Kitty lifted her head to show her red slitted eyes. A sonic booms sounded out as she threw herself forward to Harm and Johnny's location. Jinx found herself in Kitty's way. The bad luck user decided to use both her skills and powers to protect her. Lunging back, she covered herself in pink energy to protect herself. As Kitty passed by, the knives and sickles cut across the pink energy. Jinx was shocked to see her energy cut away by the energy blades, even if her body was still protected.

"YOU!" Kitty roared. Her blades turned to where Harm, Johnny, and Dusk were located. They were all prepared to stab in their general direction. It seemed that in her crazed state, Kitty completely forgot about why she was angry in the first place. She was going to cut down her boyfriend just like the other two ghosts, and all of them were too weak to stop it, "You'll pay for hurting us!"

Just before Kitty could attack the three men, a bird of magical energy popped out of the ground. A large figure rushed out of the magical animal and rocketed toward Kitty. The woman screamed at the figure and swung her blades at him. They were all stopped, though, when the figure extended his arms and sent a massive green wave of light at the woman. Everyone was forced to shield their eyes from their miniature sun that blazed across the cliff side.

* * *

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" The sound of a baby crying sounded out as the green light faded. The source of the sound was a tiny infant with green hair and red eyes.

Youngblood peered down at the infant that was cradled in his arms. His face was more wrinkled than before and gray streaks ran through his hair from having absorbed Kitty's age to prevent her rampage from continuing, "Ah, the irony is thick today, don't you think? Just like way back when…"

Kitty's response was to continue to cry.

"What?" Jinx blinked at the show of power, "What the hell was all that? Do all the ghosts have insane unconventional powers?"

"And this coming from the bad luck user…" Raven muttered dryly as her magic faded away, "You're the last one to talk about—"

Crack!

All eyes turned to the source of the sudden noise. Spirit had tackled Harm to the ground. This allowed Dusk to catch Johnny 13 and lower him to the ground safely. Secret quickly rushed to heal Johnny as Dusk pulled the knife out. That wasn't what the sound was from, though. No, that noise was the sound of Harm's nose shattering into one hundred pieces as Spirit savagely punched down at Harm's head with her uninjured arm.

This wasn't the only time, though. Standing dominantly over Harm, Spirit continued to punch down at his unprotected head. Each blow struck with bone breaking force. Blood splattered and teeth flew out from Spirit's vicious assault.

"Spirit, stop!" Secret cried in shock and horror even as she tried to focus on Johnny's wound. She was ignored, though, as Spirit continued to strike Harm's bleeding face.

"She said stop, Spirit!" Dusk lunged forward and grabbed onto the other halfa, "You'll kill him, damn it!"

"That's the plan!" Spirit hissed as she violently pushed Dusk away only for him to come back and grab her again.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Dusk was completely confused by Spirit's actions. He looked over to the others and added, "Someone help me!"

Youngblood and Raven just stared at him. Secret was busy with Johnny. The two assassins didn't truly understand what was happening so they decided to observe for now. As such, Dusk received no help.

"Just let her do it," Raven's dull look darkened, "The world will be better without him."

"What are you saying?" Dusk frowned, "What right does anyone have to say that?!"

"We do!" Spirit roared. Her bloodshot eyes glared at Dusk, "Wulf is dead!"

"W-What?" Dusk felt his body go numb. He suddenly realized that Spirit was covered in dried ghost blood.

"Wulf is dead because of this piece of trash!" Spirit once again broke free from Dusk. She twirled around and snarled at him, "He refused to kill me, so Wulf killed himself! If Harm hadn't ordered my death…Wulf would still be with us!"

"Wulf…" Secret quietly sobbed at the realized the consequences of her brother's actions. Despite the grief of losing her friend, she continued healing Johnny. Her tear dropped down to her glowing green hands.

"That…That might be true, but…You can't just kill Harm," Dusk reasoned despite the hollow feeling in his chest.

"Says you! I think I do it pretty easily!" Spirit's Spectral Claws blazed out, "One swipe and everyone that lost their lives today is avenged!"

"We aren't about vengeance. We're about justice," Dusk argued, "If we start killing, we're no better then the people we fight. You'll be no better than Harm."

"You and Secret are the only ones here that think that," Spirit argued, "Everyone else wants him dead."

"What the majority wants isn't always right," Dusk clenched his fists.

"It is in this—"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

As the two halfas were talking, Harm had managed to reach over to his broken sword. While broken, it still had a sharp blade. It would easily cut through the flesh of his enemies. Just as he grabbed the broken blade, though, electricity surged through him and forced him to let go of the blade.

"You see! Even now, he's trying to kill us!" Spirit's face twisted into an enraged look, "How can you defend that?"

"I always defend the right to life," Dusk stated as he walked over to the blade that Harm dropped.

"Harm…doesn't understand…" Harm mumbled as he lay injured and beaten on the ground, "Why does the blade reject Harm now? Harm is pure."

"Pure is a strange word," Dusk mentioned as he eyed the broken blade, "It means unaltered and without another substance in it. The thing is…I don't think there are many things that are truly pure. Pure good…pure evil…they don't exist. The only things that can be truly pure are our intents, our dreams…our beliefs…"

"But if your mind wavers for even a second, that purity disappears. And how can you be pure in your selfish actions when so many people show pure concern for others? Seeing so much unselfishness would cause doubts to even you, Harm. Me on the other hand…" Dusk reached down. He grabbed the blade. Like with Harm, yellow electricity sparked from the blade. This time, though, the energy accepted its wielder instead of rejecting it. Pointing the broken blade at Harm, Dusk finished his sentence, "I never waiver on my beliefs. All life is precious. I will never kill. Even if that person deserves it."

Everyone was silent as they stared wide-eyed at Dusk. None was more shocked, as Harm, though. He was slack jawed and wide eyed at the young teen.

Dusk turned to Spirit, "That is why I can defend him. Because that is what I really believe."

Spirit frowned, "You wouldn't be saying that if you watched the life drain from Wulf's eyes. You wouldn't be on a soapbox if you were drenched in your friend's blood because they refused to watch you die. Until that day, don't preach at me, because you don't know what it truly means to want someone dead."

Dusk paused for a brief second before nodding slowly, "Perhaps. Maybe I'm deluded instead of pure. Perhaps I haven't felt true hatred enough to know what it means to want someone dead…But I believe that's a discussion for later. We still have business to take care of, so at the very least let's put a pin in Harm's fate, okay?"

Spirit sighed, "Right. Youngblood told me about Danny fighting the Spectre. He needs our help first. So…I'll settle for this right now." The female halfa kicked Harm in the head and finally knocked the man out.

Dusk shook his head at the sight, "Fine," He then pulled out Morgaine le Fey's mind control jewel and the Infi-Map from his pocket and tossed it to Raven, "Take those to Amity Park. They have a machine ready to reverse the effects of the mind control."

"What about the Spectre?" Raven questioned as she looked at the jewel in her hands.

"I doubt it will work on stopping him from getting revenge. He's too strong for that," Spirit looked over to Dakota City, "Harm's control only worked because it directed the Spectre's obsession instead of trying to completely control it."

"Are you two thinking of going alone?" Secret questioned as she finished healing Johnny, "That's too dangerous."

"It's not like they got a choice, aye?" Youngblood placed the baby Kitty down by the unconscious Johnny, "I'm too weak from using my powers on her. The Spectre will target our medic the moment he sees ya. And the assassins…"

"We have to go…" Jinx mentioned as she looked at her communicator, "We'll being called back by the Shadows. It looks like Ra's Al Ghul was attacked, and it will be suspicious if we don't get back within the next few minutes. Besides…" Jinx eyed the bleeding Black Bat who was silently trying to stop the bleeding in her various small cuts. "I don't think we'll be a big help against any more ghosts after that fight…Especially if that Spectre is powerful enough to beat Danny."

"Here," Secret stood and walked to Black Bat, "I'll heal you before you leave."

"I'm going to need your to heal me too, Greta," Spirit noted, "I'm pretty banged up."

"So, go. All of ya," Youngblood sat down beside the unconscious Johnny 13 and Kitty, "I'll protect these two while making sure that Harm doesn't go nowhere."

"Right," Raven nodded and disappeared in a blaze of magical energy.

Dusk pulled out one of his remaining ecto-boosts and handed it to Spirit, "Here. I'm running on empty and need a boost before we go."

"What about the sword? Doesn't it give you power? Can't you use that?"

"I'm going to save it for later."

* * *

The Spectre approached the fallen building. He was not surprised when he saw Phantom dragging himself from the rubble. It should be a surprise considering all the damage Phantom had received during the fight, but Phantom had surprised him enough during this fight that the Spectre decided to not make any assumptions until Phantom dissolved in front of his eyes.

"I do understand why you're fighting," The Spectre noted as Phantom pushed himself to his hands and knees, "Vengeance is a powerful driving force. Nevertheless, it is obvious that I am beyond your current level of ability. It would be easier on you to just give up and join your beloved in the next world."

"Moron…" Phantom gritted his teeth, "I can't die yet. I made a promise to you that I have to keep. Until then, I refuse to let Death take me."

"You act like that is possible. You are already at Death's door. One more attack, and you're dead. As of right now, you are officially defeated. Despite your words…" The Spectre pointed a glowing green hand at Phantom, "There is no possible way for you to defeat me."

Phantom looked up and gave the Spectre a smirk, "Alone maybe…But if I had some help…"

"Wha—"

The Spectre never got to finish that sentence. He was suddenly hammered with two different strikes. One was a round house kick to the head while another was a Burst Gauntlet empowered punch to the ribs. The combined force of the blows sent the Spectre rocketing away from Phantom at breakneck speeds.

"Didn't see that one coming, did you, jackass?!" Spirit shouted at the Spectre as he crashed into another car to become a casualty to the fight.

Dusk rushed to Phantom's side and pulled out an ecto-boost needle, "This is the last one, Mentor. We need to make it count."

"Don't worry…" Phantom felt energy flood his system once more as the ecto-boost was injected into his neck, "I will."

"Sorry, we're late," Spirit glanced back to her adopted brother, "We needed to get healed and deal with some stuff before we could even have a hope of helping you."

Phantom shrugged, "Well…Better late than never."

Down the street, the Spectre easily pealed himself out of the car. The blows he took were surprisingly painful. That meant either the children had incredible power within them, or he was growing weak. Actually, it could be both considering the circumstances.

Slowly, the Spectre began to float over the halfas once more. As he approached them, he noted that Phantom's regeneration ability had kicked in full gear. The wounds that the Spectre causes all began to knit themselves back together again. The dried blood on his features didn't fade away, but besides that, Phantom looked as good as knew.

"I suppose I should have modified the dome around the city to keep ghosts from entering the city," The Spectre noted, "Oh well. It is not like your help will mater. You'll be crushed beneath my power just like all of the enemies that came before…you…"

The Spectre paused in his speech as he drew close enough to see the halfas' blazing green eyes. He was surprised by the raw anger, resolve, and power that radiated in all three pairs of eyes. Considering the events of the night, the Spectre thought that the halfas would be near broken mentally. This was the complete opposite of that, though. They looked ready for war.

It was in this moment that the Spectre experienced something that he never felt before. Even when facing the Ghost King Pariah Dark or Colossus, the Spectre always remained calm. He never once flinched under the glares or Haunting Auras of foes that could match his power. It wasn't in his nature to cower, but under the glares of three people who lived on the border between life and death, the Spectre felt his stomach crawl. Standing side-by-side with absolute trust in each other's abilities, the halfas' sharp glares and confident stances invoked a feeling that should not exist in the Ghost of Vengeance.

For the first time in his existence, the Spectre felt intimidation and fear.

"That's where you're wrong, Spectre," Phantom's calm voice caused a shiver to roll down the Spectre's spine, "Individually, we might be no match for you. But together, we can kick your ass no problem."

* * *

Raven appeared on the top of Fenton Works in a swirl of magical energy. In her hands was Morgaine le Fey's mind control jewel. She quickly rushed it over to Cyborg and stated, "Here. Hurry up and hook that up."

"Huh?" Cyborg blinked, "I though Dusk and Secret were going after this? How did you get it?"

"It's a long story, and we don't have time for it. Hook it up to the machine," Raven glared.

"Why give it to him?! It's my machine!" Gizmo sat up and grinned at Raven, "You should be handing it to me, babe."

"Oh god…why are you here?" Raven face palmed. While she did owe Gizmo a debt for helping save her life during the Battle for Amity Park and thus tolerate his presence, she still hated being around the little pervert.

"I was fixing the machine to reverse the effects of the le Fey's jewel. It was so boring doing it with all of these ugly mugs, but you being here makes it all worth it," Gizmo gave Raven a wink, "So…How you doing?"

"Hundreds of men have fallen victim to le Fey's charms…" Red X noted from the side, "Knights, noblemen, kings, and legends have all fell under her spell. How in the world did you, someone who's so easily smitten by women, resist her charms?"

"I'm not into older women," Gizmo shrugged.

"Just get the machine ready. The both of you," The Fright Knight glared at the two tech wizards, "We don't have time to waste."

"Err…right…" Gizmo pushed himself to his feet.

"Why is he getting mad at me…" Cyborg muttered as he moved over to the machine, "I didn't do anything…"

Fright Knight looked over to Raven, "Do you have any idea what's happening out there? My senses have been going crazy all night."

"Right…Halloween…" Raven nodded slowly, "Your powers are enhanced, right?"

"Yes, but with so much energy being released around the world, I can't get an accurate read, even though I have felt like those that I have sworn to protect have all been in danger."

"There…have been problems…" Raven looked down in mourning, "But I think we should wait until everything is over with before we go over that."

"I see…"

"If it puts your mind at ease, though, Phantom, Spirit, and Dusk are safe."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and they're fighting together. So that means, there's nothing that can stop them now. I almost pity their enemy."

* * *

(Play: Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce)

The battle was started when all three halfas rushed towards the Spectre. Phantom did a straight forward charge while Dusk and Spirit took a more roundabout route from either side of the Spectre. They were trying to flank the Spectre from three sides. Most opponents would have been fearful of the situation, but the Spectre remained calm.

Raising his hands, the Spectre sent a massive wave of ectoplasm out that was large enough to hit all three halfas. Each one of the ghouls were hit by the wave and consumed by the green energy. Surprisingly, though, Dusk's charge was not halted. The youngest half-ghost formed his Reflect Shield and used it to absorb the energy that would have it him. The shield then blasted the energy back to the Spectre as Dusk continued to rush forward.

Raising a hand, the Spectre blocked the energy wave without even forming an energy shield. Dusk didn't seem to care about that, though. He continued it charge and prepared to bash the Spectre with his shield. The Ghost of Vengeance didn't seem concerned about this, though. He merely closed his hand to a fist and prepared to break the shield with his raw power.

Before he could do that, though, he was suddenly struck from behind. Sprit rushed forward during Dusk's distraction and sent a flying knee to the back of the head. The force cause the Spectre to bend over in pain and stop his attack on the youngest halfa. Dusk quickly took advantage. He swung his shield up and knocked the Spectre's arms into the air.

Now unprotected, the Spectre could do nothing as Phantom rocketed forward and sent a glowing green uppercut to his unprotected stomach. The blow cracked against the Spectre's stomach and dug deeply into the skin. It was even strong enough to cause the Spectre to gasp out in pain and spit out a bit of blood. That wasn't the final blow Phantom did in that moment, though. The halfa sent another uppercut to his opponent's stomach with the same force as before. Then, he sent another. Soon, he was hammering the Specter with blazing uppercuts that moved so fast that they could barely be seen as blurs.

Eventually, the Spectre got enough of his bearings back to retaliate. He moved his arms forwards to grab Phantom's head and cause a dimensional shift like the one that caused the Red Huntress to become defenseless. Before he could do this, though, the other two halfas reacted. They attacked on either side of the Spectre. Spirit sent a massive side kick to the left side of the Spectre's face. Dusk formed a Burst Gauntlet and sent a devastating blow to the opposite side of his enemy's face.

The two blows struck simultaneously. The Spectre's entire head was covered in green light. Groaning in pain, the Spectre felt his vision blur as his jaw cracked and his teeth were loosened. Any normal or even regular super powered being would have died from such an attack. It showed the Spectre's durability that not only was he alive, but he was still conscious.

Phantom wanted to put an end to that, though. He stopped his rapid blows to the Spectre's midsection and instead formed a green ball of energy in his hands. The halfa then thrusted the ball of energy forward into the Spectre's chest. In a blast of energy, the Spectre was sent flying up into the air above Dakota City.

Once a few miles above the city, the Spectre finally managed to stop his moment. With a wave of his arms, he dispersed the energy and smoke to reveal his burnt chest. He had no time to dwell on this, because the halfas were on the attack once more. They had followed after the Spectre as he flew above the city. Dusk and Phantom grabbed either of Spirit's arms. With all the power they could muster, they threw Spirit towards the Spectre as the female halfa used her own speed to rocket forward. This cause nothing short of a sonic boom to shatter the atmosphere as Spirit flew towards the Specter at speeds only a speedster could follow.

Covering herself in green energy, Spirit made herself a human missile. Like a comet, she soared across the sky towards the injured Spectre. The Ghost of Vengeance knew this was coming, though. He created a straight beam of dimension ripping energy and fired it at Spirit. The two attacks met and came to a standstill. With a roar, though, Spirit continued to push herself forward and through the attack. Shocked at seeing his attack defeated, the Spectre could do nothing as Spirit rocketed towards his face.

With a battle cry, Spirit sent punch with the force of a missile at the Spectre's head. The blow struck with a blast of green energy. Her fist sunk into the Spectre's face causing his nose to shatter, teeth to break, and jaw to dislocate. Barely conscious, the Spectre did the only thing he could and leaned back to lessen the rest of the blow. Spirit rocketed past him as he turned his back to the ground below him. He instantly wished he hadn't done that.

Dusk and Phantom did not stop in their charge after they threw Spirit. The youngest halfa formed his Scribe Staff. Instead of trailing the energy of the staff behind him, he used it to push the staff forward. The wind retreated away from the staff as it swung forward and stuck the Spectre in the back. With a groan, the Spectre arched back in agony as the staff imbedded itself in his back and almost shattered his spine.

Once again, the Spectre wished he took another course of action to relieve the pain. Phantom had rushed above him and was ready to attack. He grabbed the Spectre's green cloak and sent a powerful elbow to the Spectre's chest. The blow received a satisfying crack as the Spectre's internal organs seemed to shift from the blow. With the blow, the Spectre went flying away again. This time, though, Phantom held onto the Spectre. He made it so that the Ghost of Vengeance didn't fall too far. After falling a few meters, Phantom managed to stop the retreat.

The Spectre wanted to retaliate, but Phantom didn't give him a chance. With his allies behind him and the city at a far enough range to avoid most of the damage, the halfa decided to use his greatest attack. Letting go of the Spectre, Phantom flew up a bit and took a deep breath. In the next moment, Phantom opened his mouth and roared out the deadly Ghostly Wail.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**

Weakened and bruised, not even the Spectre could fight against the wail of death. The sound waves slammed into him without any resistance. He felt each of his nerves begin to scream in agony. This attack was different from other attacks the Spectre had taken. It wasn't designed to maim or even kill. The purpose of the Ghostly Wail was to erase everything in its path slowly and painfully.

Unable to fight against the attack, the Spectre could do nothing as the Ghostly Wail continued to bombard him and fling him into the city below. He crashed into the street caused the cement to crack and shatter around him. Before the Spectre could recover, the halfas were on him once more. They had once again followed after the Spectre as he was flung away. This time, Phantom caught up first. The oldest halfa in the fight landed on the Spectre's chest with a massive elbow drop. He then quickly rolled away as Spirit flew down and delivered an axe kick to the same area. Like her brother, she rolled away just in time for the next blow. Dusk rocketed down towards the Spectre with two Burst Gauntlets blazing. He rammed the weapons into the Spectre's chest and stomach.

With a creak and a crash, the street finally gave out and shattered in a blaze of green. The Spectre could do nothing as the rubble piled up around him. In seconds, he was covered completely by the broken cement. This didn't last long, though. With a wave of his hand, the Spectre disintegrated the cement and burst out of the rubble. Knowing that that the damage he had taken had piled up to a dangerous level, the Spectre decided to end this in one blow.

He raised his arms forward and began to concentrate on the thin energy dome he placed around the city. His intention was to condense the energy and cause a massive explosion. The blast would obliterate the city and the halfas with it. Fortunately for everyone in the city, there was a fighter present that could hear the Spectre's intentions. Spirit knew what the Spectre was going to do before he even started his attack. She had rushed up to him from his blind spot. Twirling in front of him, Spirit flipped upside down and used her legs to kick both of the Spectre's arms on the inside of the elbows.

The force of the kicks caused the Spectre's arms to swing to the sides wildly. He felt his bones crack and groan from the blow. With his guard now open, the Spectre could do nothing as Spirit flipped once more and brought her arms up with her Spectral Claws blazing. The claws cut across the Spectre's torso and chest in an x pattern. Adding to the previous damage he received, the Spectre was easily cut open. With a shout of pain, green blood blasted out of the new wounds and fell to the ground.

The Spectre quickly followed the blood downwards as Phantom flew above him and sent a strong hammer strike to the back of the Spectre's head. Unlike the last time he fell, though, the Spectre managed to barely avoid crashing into the ground. Just before making contact with the cement rubble, he stopped his moment and floated just off the ground. Normally, he would have turned his attention to his bleeding chest and close the wound, but the Spectre actually had a bigger problem to deal with before he could focus on his current wounds.

Dusk stood down the street on top of one of the largest pieces of rubble. His arms were extended forward and encased in the Twilight Cannon. The weapon was already completely charged and then some. The broken copy of the Sword of Beowulf was clenched in between Dusk's teeth where he put it after pulling it from his belt. The sword channeled energy into Dusk and to the Twilight Cannon. This caused the weapon become charged past its normal full capacity. Even with the words muffled by the sword hilt in Dusk's mouth, Spectre could still make out the halfa saying something about the energy level being at 200%.

Knowing that he couldn't dodge the attack with his current level of speed, the Spectre decided to focus on blocking the blow. Crossing his arms and clenching his muscles, he began to create an inter-dimensional shield in front. The air shifted as an energy shield about the size of the Spectre's body appeared in front of the ghost. At the same time, green energy wrapped around the Spectre like a cocoon. It was the perfect protection. He was sure that no matter what how much power this attack had, it wouldn't be able to hurt him.

Dusk's determined look said otherwise though. The sound of the Twilight Cannon firing was so loud that the crack of the explosion traveled far past the city's boundaries. A straight beam of concentrated energy rocketed towards the Spectre. The beam was exactly the size of the Spectre's body and cocoon shield. In a blaze, the beam met the shield and began to push against the foreign energy. At first, nothing happened, but slowly, the shield began to crack. Then, to the Spectre's utter shock, the shield shattered like class. The Twilight Cannon's blast did not stop there, though. It continued until it hit the Spectre.

Once the blast made contact with the enemy, it began to peel away the cocoon of green energy that the Spectre wrapped around himself. Soon, all of the Spectre's protections faded away into nothing, and all that was left to absorb the attack was the Spectre's body. The energy covered the Ghost of Vengeance's body completely and began to burn way the flesh of his body.

The sound of an explosion sounded out once more across Dakota City. This time, a blinding light accompanied it. Once the light and noise died down, all that left was a low ringing noise and dark smoke reaching up lazily to the sky above. In the middle of the dark smoke was the Spectre. His body now had various burns across his body along with the other injuries he suffered. The Spectre's arms, now abused beyond their limit, fell to his sides lifelessly.

Gritting his teeth in unbelievable fury, the Spectre began to cause dimensional shifts all around him. Buildings twisted and bent. The ground and air began to tremble and shake. Tears into the Ghost Zone appeared all across the city. Once again, the Spectre was going for one last kamikaze attack. This one, however, could not be stopped as easily as the last attack.

Both Spirit and Dusk knew that they were at their limit. Neither of them had energy left to spare, and the broken copy of the Sword of Beowulf had disintegrated after the last attack. They could do nothing as the Spectre prepared to kill them along with the rest of the city. Thus, it fell to Phantom's shoulders to stop the Spectre.

Landing a few meters in front of the Spectre, Phantom began his charge. Focusing the rest of his energy around him for one last attack, the oldest half in the fight rushed forward with his right fist ready to strike. The Spectre saw this coming, though. Just as the Phantom was about to get close enough to strike, the Spectre sent a concentrated blast of dimension ripping energy at the halfa. The nature and power of this attack was enough to tear Phantom to pieces if it wasn't stopped. In his current charge, Phantom had no way to block or dodge the blow. Luckily, his intention all along with this attack was an all or nothing blow.

Phantom's blue cytoplasmic energy and green ectoplasmic energy blazed from Phantom's arm. The two contradictory energy met and began dance around each other in a show of beautiful lights. Phantom then punched forward with his glowing arm. His fist met the Spectre's attack and cut through the wave like it was only air. The attack then continued forward until it met the Spectre's injured and bleeding chest.

His face twisting in agony, the Spectre let out a scream of pain. A layer of frost formed over his skin as green energy burst out from different veins across his body. After the attack had died down, the Spectre was covered in a combination of burns, blood, and ice. All of that paled in comparison to the gaping hole that now existed in the Spectre's chest. Phantom's fist had literally punched through the Spectre's chest and out the back of the Ghost of Vengeance.

With a somber expression on his face, Phantom held the Spectre up so that he would not fall over yet. He then leaned over to the Spectre's ear and stated, "See? I'm a man of my word."

With that said, Phantom then pulled his arm out and viciously pushed the Spectre to the ground. The Ghost of Vengeance landed with a thud that seemed even louder than the explosions that happened only moments earlier.

* * *

" _So…you got your revenge," The Spectre noted as he lay near motionless on the ground, "How does it feel?"_

 _Phantom peered down at the now dissolving ghost, "Hollow. Sad. Unfulfilling."_

" _Yeah…" The Spectre let out a chuckle, "That's vengeance. It never really satisfies, because you never get back what you lost for the sake of revenge. Enough is never enough. I always hated that part of it, but I could never get away from it. Vengeance is my very nature. It only causes chaos and destruction. That was why…I made sure to put a restraint against myself."_

 _Phantom looked over his shoulder to see Dusk and Spirit approaching them, "Then I pity you."_

" _You pity me? I was born to take this path. You, though, had a choice in the matter," The Spectre noted._

" _I did. My intent from the beginning was to kill you," Phantom admitted. He idly noted that Death did not show up for the Spectre's demise. Perhaps it had to do with the Spectre's special state of being, not a true ghost, but more of being similar to that of a lord of a vengence, "Of course, even if I didn't want to kill you, I still would have to stop you from taking out this city."_

" _But if I didn't threaten the city? If you were able to subdue me without killing me, what would you have done?" The Spectre questioned._

" _I don't know. I've wanted to kill you out of revenge before," Phantom noted, "But I forgave Agent Z and Freakshow when given the chance. Who knows what I would have done. Maybe in the last moment, I would have shown mercy. Maybe I would have killed you just to ease a bit of the pain you caused. I don't know for sure."_

" _Interesting…That is a truthful answer…I respect that," The Spectre closed his eyes and relaxed, "You do realize I'll reform within a century or two. What will you do then?"_

" _Right now…I say that I would kill you all over again," Phantom stated, "But give it time. If I'm still around, maybe I'll greet you as a friend again."_

" _I see…" The Spectre's words became faint as his form began to fade completely, "Then I will look forward to the day that I can receive my answer. Until then, Phantom."_

" _Until then, Spectre."_

* * *

When the Spectre's form completely dissolved away, Phantom had to fight not to spit on to the pile of ooze on the ground. Even if he hated the Spectre right now, his honor demanded that he show respect to a defeated enemy. That was his way, even if every fiber in his body demanded that he curse the Spectre to the pits of hell right now.

Turning, Phantom began to walk back to where he left his coat. He was quickly followed by Spirit and Dusk.

"Mentor…Is what you said back there true? Would you have killed him in cold blood if his death was avoidable?" Dusk questioned. Dark Dan's words rang through his mind. They had to keep the powerful people alive according to the evil Phantom. He had no idea why, but for some reason, Dusk had a gut feeling that the Spectre's death was harmful in multiple ways. Of course, even the life cherishing Dusk knew that Phantom had no choice but to kill the Spectre. It was either the Spectre or the city at that point, and he knew that killing the Spectre was the right answer even if it left a horrible taste in his mouth and a terrible knot in his gut.

"Maybe. Like I said, I don't know," Phantom shook his head.

"I have a better question. One I know you can answer," Spirit had a serious look about her. One that showed flashes of dread and grief, "Why would you want to get revenge on the Spectre?"

Phantom paused for a second and looked back to the younger ghouls, "Call Rocket. Her gear got damaged so we had her guard Cujo and Icon."

"We?" Dusk felt his heart sink.

Phantom ignored the question, "Tell her to Zeta to Amity Park. Then…alert everyone in the Family and on the Team. It's a code red meeting. Everyone has to meet us in Amity Park as soon as possible."

"Why everyone?"

The halfa turned one last corner to reveal Jean Hawkins still guarding the corpse of Valerie Gray.

"That's why."

* * *

Dark Dan felt his wounds ache as rested on a fallen tree. The fight he had with the Black Lanterns had not gone well. He could have handled one Black Lantern no problem, but three ghosts with powers amplified by the black power rings was a major problem. The alternate Phantom struggled to keep up from the staggering numbers. This was especially true when the fourth Black Lantern arrived.

"Didn't think he would be one…" Dark Dan wiped the blood from his cut lip, "Damn. It's always those unexpected attacks that get me."

Luckily as soon as they felt that the mind control of the ghosts was released, the Black Lanterns seemed more passive, if only for a moment. It seems that heroes weren't as completely useless as he thought. At least they provided him with a distraction. That allowed Dark Dan to flee without having four Black Lanterns determined to kill or capture him. They didn't desperately search for him, so either Nekron had lost most of his interest or planned to attack Dan later.

Looking into the direction of Dakota City, Dan let out a deep scowl. The Spectre was dead. He had been killed by the three youngest halfas. That idiot Dusk failed to enforce his warning. Although, it probably would have been worse if they just let the Spectre kill an entire city, but the Dan felt like blaming someone. The stress was getting to him, but he couldn't just go on a rampage and relieve the tension. Not yet at least.

Overall, today was his loss. So many people had died, and Nekron had absorbed the energy from all of them. Now, he would be even goddamn stronger when he finally decided to act. Dark Dan was beginning to think that his plans were doomed to failure. Nothing he wanted to happen was going right.

Dan remembered in his own timeline when he dealt with Nekron. It wasn't long after his transformation and removal of his humanity that he met the ghost of death. The other Nekron tried to recruit him just like in this time. Back then, though, Nekron was still weak, and Dan killed the ghost before he could regain a full body back.

Now, that wasn't an option. Nekron had a body, four bodyguards, and a ton of power to fight. A direct conflict would be suicide even for him. That was why he came up with his plan to interfere with Nekron's plans and find a way to gain some allies of his own while finding a way to become even stronger.

Unfortunately, all of those things proved difficult. Everyone on Earth was aware of his nature. Even the Light knew not to trust him. They probably reasoned that if he killed them all in one timeline then he'd do it another. Thus, he was stuck with no allies, a failed plan to stop today's massacre, and only a small idea of how to gain more power; and he wasn't sure if that would be possible considering the amount of attention Vision would keep on the Ghost Zone from now on.

"I'll think about that later…" Dan sighed and rubbed his temples, "The first phase of Nekron's plan is basically over, but…there's still one more person that can die."

Harm was now at the mercy of the halfas. Corrupted and filled with Morgaine's magic, Harm's death would be another huge blow against Dark Dan. It was doubtful that he would be an ally in any circumstance, but his death would empower Nekron even more.

Showing up and trying to stop Harm's death would only cause more problems for him. The halfas would turn their full focus to him, and Dan didn't like those odds right now. While the halfas were exhausted, so was Dark Dan. The numbers game would catch up for him, and he might be killed.

"My only option is to hope that their heroic nature overcomes their hate-filled rage," Dark Dan muttered.

* * *

When the three halfas arrived back to the cliffside, they were met with stares. Actually, it was more Phantom that was met with stares. It was easy to see that bundle in his arms was in the shape of a body. His coat covered most of the body, but a single arm slipped through a hole in the fabric to reveal red and black armor.

"No!" Greta instantly burst into tears, "Valerie!"

"This day just keeps getting worse…" Youngblood muttered with a lowered head. Despite this, he did not move the blade he had in his non-hook hand. The curved sword was pointed to the now conscious Harm who sat a good distance from the still unconscious Johnny 13 and baby Kitty.

Collapsing to her knees, Greta began to openly sob and bawl at the loss of another friend. The entire time that the halfas had been gone, she had silently cried over the death of Wulf. Two deaths of loved ones in one night was too much to bear. Dusk instantly rushed to Greta's side and hugged her so that she could sob into his shoulder.

Phantom stopped in his tracks in front of them all. He just looked down at the cold, unmoving body in his arms. The halfa looked like he was about to cry too, but the tears refused to come.

Spirit took a very different action than the rest of the halfas. She walked over to Harm and pushed him down onto his back with her foot. Youngblood made no effort to stop her. In fact, he lowered his sword and stepped back to give her some room.

"What are you doing?!" Dusk hissed to the female ghoul.

"I'm doing what I promised to do," Spirit held Harm down with her foot and activated her Spectral Claws, "I'm going to kill this piece of trash."

"Harm is already beaten! We don't have to hurt anyone anymore!" Dusk would have rushed to stop Spirit if Greta wasn't clutching herself to him.

"No, we don't have to, but we should," Spirit looked back to Dusk, "Just think how many people would still be alive today if I just killed this piece of shit three years ago. If I stopped Harm permanently, then Wulf and Valerie would still be alive."

"You don't know that!" Dusk argued, "For all we know, le Fey would have just gotten another pawn instead of Harm."

"Please, I know that Harm was researching le Fey during his time in Belle Reve. He contacted her. He gave her this idea. He is responsible for all of this," Spirit shook her head, "Like it or not, it's the truth when I say that all of this could have been avoided if I killed him before. And now…And now I'm going to correct that mistake. I'm going to kill Harm to avenge the people that died and to make sure he's never a threat again."

"None of us have the right to do that! We aren't judges, the jury, or the damn executioner!" Dusk shouted out loudly, "And we sure as hell aren't gods…So none of us have the right to kill someone that has already been defeated."

"So you want to risk this happening again?" Spirit questioned.

"No, but…There has to be a better way. A way to help him to redemption," Dusk stated.

"No…Harm is past redemption. Harm has chosen this path, and Harm refuses to stray from it…" Harm gritted his teeth and glared up at Spirit, "Go ahead and kill Harm! Harm no longer has a purpose! If doubts truly do cloud Harm's heart then Harm doesn't want to live! Harm sacrificed everything to be pure! If Harm doesn't have that, then Harm has nothing left to live for!"

"Please, no!" Greta sobbed out, "No more deaths! Please, Billy!"

"Harm is not Billy! Billy is dead! Billy died with Greta!"

"But I came back!" Greta released Dusk and gave a pleading look to her brother, "I came back to help you, Billy! If I can come back, so can you!"

"No…No! Harm refuses! Harm can't go back, because if Harm goes back, Harm will…Harm will regret what Harm has done…" Harm's eyes glazed over, "Harm will forever be consumed by the guilt of killing Greta, the only person Harm has ever cared about."

"It's okay, Billy! I forgive you! See!" Greta held up the necklace that hung from her neck, "I kept the necklace you gave me! Remember? You gave it to me for my birthday! I was never mad when you stabbed me, Billy! Maybe shocked and depressed...but never mad! All I wanted was for you to go back to normal!"

"No! Harm can't live with the guilt! Kill Harm now! Do it!" Harm demanded.

"With pleasure…" Spirit raised her hand to strike down.

"Stop." It was a light command. In truth, the words were barely audible. Nevertheless, everyone paused and turned to look at where the words originated from. Phantom looked up from Valerie's form with a determined look, "Move away from him. I'll do what I have to."

"But Mentor!" Dusk gained a look of despair.

"Please!" Greta began to sob into her arms, "Please don't!"

Phantom ignored them and walked to Spirit. He looked down to her, "Revenge doesn't make you feel better, Spirit. And I don't want you to get your hands dirty like this. Let me do it."

"But…"

"Please," Phantom gave her a pleading look, "He took Valerie from me."

Spirit's face went from determined to dismal. While she had lost close friends to Harm, Danny had lost a close friend and a lover because of Harm. He had more reason to want revenge than her, "Alright."

"Thank you," Phantom moved up to Harm once Spirit moved out of the way. He glared down at the psychopath and delivered a vicious kick to Harm's side. This cause Harm to cry out in agony.

"No!" Greta was about to rush forward, but Youngblood got in her way.

"Wait…" Youngblood stated, "I think you'll want to see this."

"Right now, there's nothing I want more than to kill you, Harm. For everything you've done…Everything you've taken from me, I know that you deserve to die. I have no doubts about that," Phantom's bangs covered his eyes, "And very few would care if I killed you. In fact, a lot of people would praise me for ripping out your spine and choking you with it. It'd be so easy too."

"Then do it…" Harm hissed out in pain.

"I would…I really want to, but…killing you won't bring Wulf or Valerie back. In fact…Val would be ashamed of me for killing you. So I won't kill you, Harm."

Dusk and Greta gained relieved looks. Spirit, however, looked upset, "But Danny…"

Phantom raised his head to reveal the tears running down his face once again. He gently moved the coat away from Valerie's head to reveal her bloodied and beaten face. He gently cupped Valerie's cheek and gave the now pale and cold face a look of love and loss, "Spirit…haven't enough people died today?"

Spirit looked down ashamed, "Yeah…You're right."

The oldest halfa in the current group turned and began to walk away. Harm, however, wouldn't have it. He pushed himself to his knees and snarled after the ghoul, "Didn't you hear Harm? Harm wants to die! Harm refuses to feel regret, because…Harm has done too much to live with. Harm can never be pure again."

Phantom stopped in his walk, "I once was consumed by my guilt. I thought that I would never get over it. Eventually, I found my redemption. I can't tell you what to do, and I really can't bring myself to care. But I can say this…"

The half looked over his shoulder, and Harm was shocked by the passion in Phantom's eyes.

"You have a sister that forgave every sin that you committed, even killing her," Phantom shook his head, "If she can do that, what excuse do you have for just giving up and asking for Death to come for you?"

"But…Harm is…Harm is…" Harm looked down at his hands. Suddenly they looked filthy to the man. Tears began to fall from his face, "I am so sorry! What have I done?!"

"You've taken the first step to redemption," Phantom walked over to Greta, leaned down, and kissed her on the top of the head. He then whispered, "I've done all I can. Tell Death I said thanks for taking care of Val."

Phantom then began to walk away once more. As he walked, his tears continued to roll down his face and fall on Valerie's unmoving form. He wanted to say all his farewells to a girl that was like a sister to him, but he felt that some else deserved the final moments with Greta.

Greta was once again crying. This time, though, it was tears of joy. Her brother finally felt true regret for his actions and was on the path to redemption. Her obsession was complete.

Spirit's Premonition communicated this to her. Her eyes then snapped to the full ghost. With a shocked and saddened look, she ran to her friend, "Greta…No, not you too."

"Don't act like this is a sad moment," Greta gave her a bright smile, "I did it. I did what so few ghosts get to do. I completed my obsession. I'm free to finally move on."

"Oh, Greta…" Spirit grabbed Greta and hugged her close, "I'm going to miss you so much…"

"I'll miss you too," Greta hugged Spirit close to her, "Thank you for helping me all those years ago, and thank you for giving me a new home. Tell everyone that I love them."

"I will…" Spirit stepped back. She noticed that Dusk was off to the side with a downcast look on his face. "Oh…Youngblood, can you carry Johnny and Kitty while I take Harm to the police?"

"Yeah…" Youngblood nodded. He picked up the unconscious ghosts and looked to Greta, "Greta…I'm sorry for disappearing on you. It's just…"

"You don't have to explain. We ghosts all have things that we need to take care of...and family we have to make sure are safe," Greta gave her pirate friend a beaming smile, "I hope you find contentment too, Charlie."

"Me too…" With that, Youngblood began to float away. Spirit was fresh on his heels dragging Harm…no, Billy right behind her. The regret filled villain was yelling out to let her go. To let him crawl to Greta and cry at her feet. Spirit denied that request, though. She thought that Joel deserved the rest of the time Greta had left.

Once they were far enough away, a blinding white light spread across the cliffside. Dusk changed back to Joel just as Greta turned to him once again. The pure ghost in the white ropes gave the halfa a stunning smile, and Joel swore that his heart skipped a beat.

* * *

" _Thank you," Greta stated as her tears continued to fall. As one of the tears fell to the ground, a single ball of light drifted off of Greta's shoulders and rose up into the sky. It was quickly followed by several more balls of light, "Without you…I'm sure my brother would have been killed."_

" _It was Mentor that made him feel true regret, though," Joel tried to shrug off the praise._

" _I think you were the one got Billy started with his doubts. Plus, I'm sure your words helped keep Danny on the right path as well," Greta giggled lightly, "You have a strong influence on them. More than you know."_

" _I guess…" Joel looked away to avoid the aching he felt in his chest every time he looked at Greta._

" _I see…" Greta's smile wavered for a second as she folded her hands in front of her, "You don't want me to go."_

" _No, I don't. I want you to stay with the family…with me," Joel admitted with a pained look._

 _Greta's form was beginning to fade away as the balls of light began to pour off her body and float gently into the heavens, "I know, and part of me wants that too. But…my purpose in this world is done. I have to move on now. I don't have a choice."_

" _I know," Joel fought the tears that stung his eyes._

" _You're such a good man, you know that?" Greta walked straight up to Joel and stood in front of him, "You did all this knowing that you would lose me…Thank you."_

" _It's nothing. I would do it again in a heartbeat," This time Joel did meet Greta's gaze._

" _Yeah, I know you would," Greta removed the silver necklace around her neck and gently placed it in Joel's hands, "Don't forget me, okay?"_

" _Never," Joel's voice didn't waver for a second as he said that word, even as his hands trembled and struggled to hold onto the necklace._

" _I'm glad. Thank you so much, Joel. For everything. Goodbye," Greta gave him one last beaming smile. She pushed herself onto her toes so that her face was right in front of Joel. Greta leaned forward and gently placed her lips onto Joel's lips. It was a chaste kiss at best, but it was one filled with love. In that moment, Joel thought that it was the sweetest thing he ever tasted._

 _Then, the tiny pressure on his lips was gone. Greta had faded away and ascended into the next world. With her now gone, Joel allowed the tears to fall freely._

" _Goodbye, Greta. I love you."_

* * *

Morgaine le Fey watched from her magical window as the half-ghosts left Dakota City. She had just released Colossus back into the human world. Of course, she had a bit of fun and threw him into Antarctica. His face when seeing the penguins had made all the effort at keeping him contained worth it. He would survive, but le Fey knew that he was even angrier than before. Not that she cared either way.

This last bit of her entertainment had been very surprising. She had expected Phantom to kill Harm. Yet, he spared Harm and forced regret back into her minion's heart. Morgaine felt impressed by Phantom's natural charisma and speaking skills. Harm had been very far gone. She made sure of that herself.

Of course, she was now out a minion, but that was okay. She never expected Harm to even survive this day. In fact, part of the plan involved him dying. Of course, she was fine with this outcome. Morgaine was just in this for the entertainment of it all. It was Nekron that focused on the results.

Morgaine smirked to herself as she remembered all that occurred this day. It was like the perfect television show. Each moment was better than the last. She couldn't wait to go back and re-watch all of it. It will be glorious, especially if she got a bag of popcorn and a comfy chair to watch it all from.

Of course, today wasn't over yet. There was still the best part. Morgaine couldn't wait to see the looks on the other heroes' faces when they learned about their friends' death. It would be the icing on the cake.

* * *

The sun finally rose in the horizon of Amity Park signifying the begging of the new day and end of all the conflict. As soon as Gizmo's machine was activated all the fighting stopped. The ghosts calmed down and freed while the remaining demons were kept under control and put under order by Gizmo to return to Jason Blood's home to be sealed away once again. Though the fighting was over, there still much to be done. The battles caused a lot of damage and a lot of casualties. The exhausted Justice League was already working with the UN to decide how to go about clean up.

The members of Young Justice and the Phantom Family were all summoned back to Amity Park, though. There was little explanation as to why, but considering that it was a code red alert, none of them questioned it. Despite only wanting to sleep and rest, they all stood or sat on the outside of Fenton Works and waited for the final members to arrive.

"Yep, it was my machine that saved the world," Gizmo grinned as he tried to chat Troia up. Unfortunately, Troia just ignored the small tech genius. Instead, the Amazon's eyes was on the dismal Pandora who was consulting with Frostbite and the Fright Knight.

"It was also your dumb machine that started all this, dumbass," Robin glared at the villain.

"Hey! I didn't have a choice in making it! She force me to do it!"

"Why is he even still here?" Raven sighed and place a hand on her forehead.

"He's still injured, Rae," Cyborg mentioned, "Considering he helped us, we can't just sent the poor…annoying…guy away without treating his wounds."

"He looks fine to me," Beast Boy, who had been order to come from the Cave, noted as he turned from a green bird back to his normal form, "Didn't take him long to notice Donna. Not that I blame him. She's, uh, really pretty…"

"Ha!" Cyborg patted Beast Boy on the head, "That's cute kid. A crush. I remember those days."

"Hey! Let go of my head!"

A good distance away, the senior members of Young Justice were all talking about today's events.

"Well, my night was weird," Zatanna mentioned, "It's kind of hard to explain…It involved the Box Ghost, the Lunch Lady, and two extra Captain Marvels"

"What?" Rocket blinked, "Girl, what does that even mean?"

"I think that I should save that story for later," Zatanna shrugged, "It's really complicated, and I don't know what really happened. What about you guys?"

"Gotham could have been worse," Nightwing admitted, "Undergrowth really helped, and he's actually already helping with clean up."

"Central City's about the same as everywhere else. Doctor Fate helped for a while, but…" Kid Flash looked over to Artemis.

"Dora's dragon form caused a lot of problems under le Fey's control," Artemis sighed, "We're lucky Roy showed up to help. I thought the entire city was going to be set on fire."

"A city on fire…Chicago was a mess, but Torch managed to get a hold on his minions," Miss Martian shuddered. Superboy instantly hugged her close as M'gann looked over to see Ember yelling at distress Torch, "But there was so much fire…I could barely move."

"Sounds bad. In comparison, Atlantis was not nearly as bad, but King Orin is a mess after what happened," Aqualad looked over to Aquagirl and Tempest as the other Atlantians sat on the steps of Fenton Works and looked off to the sunset, "We were reluctant to leave him, even if Queen Mera was there to comfort him. If it was not a code red from Danny, then I might have refused to come."

"Yeah…I think that Danny had a good reason for this…" Superboy scowled deeply as he remembered the events that occurred in Metropolis, "Just wait…I think he'll be by soon enough."

"Ah man…Something tells me it's going to take a lot of candy to make this Halloween better…" Kid Flash rubbed the back of his head.

Nearby, Vision and Plasmius were also discussing the event of the day. Plasmius noted that Vision looked dismayed, but he couldn't get an answer out of her yet. She refused to speak about what happened until the other halfas arrived. The only thing she was willing to say was, "I believe that we'll need to postpone the wedding once more."

"So…something happened…" Plasmius inferred.

"Aye, it did…" Youngblood said as he approached the two ghosts. He placed Johnny 13 and baby Kitty on the ground gently and then stood in front of the more mature ghosts.

"Youngblood?" Plasmius blinked.

"Charles…What happened?" Vision questioned.

"Look for yourself," Youngblood pointed behind him. Vision and Plasmius were not the only ones to look where Youngblood was pointing. Everyone turned or stood up to see the three figures slowly approaching them.

Spirit stood on the right. She was still completely covered in dried blood to the point that the only color visible on her was green. Dusk stood on the left. He held a familiar silver necklace in his hands and had a very upset look on his face. Phantom stood in the middle. Valerie still hung from his arms even though his coat hid her form.

As soon as the group of vigilantes saw the three halfas, they all broke down. Tears were shed. Knees buckled. Cries of outrage and disbelief were yelled out as they saw why they were all called back to Amity Park.

The three halfas stood there and watched the breakdown of their friends and family. None of them moved from their spots as they felt the weight of today's events push down on them. The three halfas felt the guilt and loss of three loved one fall down on their shoulders. Today had, by far, been the worst loss they had ever experienced, and the day was still only beginning.

Without a word, the three halfa separated and split up. Spirit returned to Masters Mansion to shower off all the blood that stained her body and soul. Dusk approached the gathered group to explain everything and everyone that had been lost that day. And Phantom walked to deliver Valerie's body to the only man that would be hurt more by her death than Phantom.

It didn't take Phantom long to find Damon Gray at Axion Labs. He, like the other employees, were told to seek refuge in the facility in order to stay safe. Phasing through the walls of the facility that only just recently released the lock down policy, Phantom made his way to Damon's office. After knocking on the door to the office, Phantom waited a few seconds before Damon opened the door. All it took was one glance, and Damon instantly knew what happened. A cry of anguish sounded through the entire facility as Damon dropped to his knees in despair and grief at losing his only child. Hanging his head in shame, Phantom once again began to cry. This time not for Valerie or even himself, but instead for the man who was force to go through one of the worst pains in the world, burying his child long before she deserved to die.

* * *

 **Next update: "Grief" on August 31, 2015**

 **Interesting fact, each major death in this arc was foreshadowed in Absolution. Val's happened in the training simulation chapter called "Shattered." Both Wulf and Spectre's deaths were foreshadowed in their origins during "Ghost Tales." And Secret's death/ascension was foreshadowed when Joel commented on how young teenagers couldn't truly understand love after reading Romeo and Juliet in "Decisions."**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

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	9. Grief

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Grief is the price we pay for love."

Queen Elizabeth II

* * *

Chapter 9: "Grief"

(Tuesday-November 5, 2013)

"Everything went very well in my opinion," Morgaine le Fey mentioned as she stood in an area filled with black swirling energy, "The only person planned to die that actually got to live was Harm. Besides that, though, everything we wanted to accomplish…except capturing Dan Phantom of course."

" **He no longer matters. My original interest in him was because I thought that he had the special attribute I was looking for. From my observations, he doesn't have it like the real Phantom does. It must have disappeared when he cast off his humanity and fused with Plasmius. Of course, he still would have made a good minion, but I don't think he knows how to serve very well. He would have tried to rebel too many times to be considered useful.** "

"I suppose that is true, Nekron."

Several meters away from Morgaine le Fey was a large skeleton dressed in black robes. He sat on a throne made up of skulls. Black smoke rose out of the skeleton's mouth as he loosely gripped the black scythe at this side. On either side of the throne was two Black Lanters. Nocturne and Aragon were on one side, while Hotep Ra and a cloaked figure were on the other side.

" **The most important thing is that the Spectre is dead. His death has given me a large amount of energy to use and one less enemy that might actually pose a threat,** " Nekron mentioned, **"And with all the other deaths, I would say that the first part of my plan was an incredible success. The Observants, the Red Huntress, Wulf, Secret, and all the people that died shall be a big help to the end game.** "

"It would have been even better if we could have killed or capture the Dark Phantom," Hotep bowed his head to his master, "We failed you in that matter."

" **Like I said, he doesn't matter in the end. He isn't a real threat to me despite what he thinks. In a direct fight, I would win, and he has no allies on this planet. His attempts to stop my absorption of the ectoplasm failed, and his efforts to stop my plans for magical energy will end the same way,** "

"He does have a plan that could make it so that he could match you, master," Nocturne reminded Nekron, "I heard it from his subconscious during our battle."

" **True, but I'll have you and Aragon guarding his goal. That way, he doesn't have a prayer of succeeding. As for you, Hotep Ra, you'll be staying by my side in case I need to sent you out on an emergency mission.** "

"And I will continue to work to make sure the Sorcerer Initiative goes on as planned," The cloaked Black Lantern spoke, "Of course, everything is already in place, so my job will be just to make sure everything goes to hell."

" **Hahahahahaha! Exactly!** " Nekron's skull face twisted upward into a grin.

"And I believe that I'll be sitting this one out," Morgaine le Fey spoke up once more, "I would rather avoid your attempts to manipulate Earth's magic. Not to mention the fiasco with Trigon…"

" **Of course, of course,** " Nekron waved her off, " **You have done more than enough, my dear. And as promised, I shall make sure to give you the entertainment you so crave. I shall leave you to your own devices and let you watch as turn this world upside down once more. By the time this is done, you'll have enough to entertainment to satisfy you for the rest of eternity.** "

"Indeed," Morgaine smiled, "I better make sure to secure a home off world, though. I doubt there will be much left if your plan works out."

" **If?** "

"You never know what could happen. Not that any of it matters to me. From here on out, I'm just the silent observer," Morgaine le Fey began to walk away. After a few steps, though, she paused, "Before I leave, though, I have one question."

" **Oh?** "

"What was that quality you thought that the Dark Phantom would have?" Morgaine le Fey questioned.

" **Hahahahahahahahahaha! Now that is a good question! I'm sure you're familiar with Danny Phantom's state of being. He exists perfectly on the line of life and death. Much more so than the other half-ghosts who have struggled with stability at one time or another. One half of him perfectly represents in Death, while the other half perfectly represents Life.** "

"And what does that have to do with anything?"

" **Let's just say that his state of being makes him a very interesting player in my game. You see, long ago when he was born, he managed to fight off Death. For a long time, no one on the spiritual side of reality understood how this was possible. His natural affinity for ectoplasm, sheer willpower, luck, and a situation of being so near Death right after birth made it so he could force himself back into his body. But no one, and I mean NO ONE can breathe true life into a body that was taken by Death without the say so and blessing of one being.** "

"One being? What exactly are you talking about?"

" **Tell me, le Fey. Have you ever heard of the Life Entity?** "

* * *

Words and whispered danced around Dani's ears. There was no part of her that cared to discern what was being said. Even when people addressed her and her painting, she remained silent. Her focus was completely on her painting hanging on the wall.

"I have to say, Miss Master, that is an interesting painting," Jason Blood spoke as he approached his student. He was a middle aged man with streaks of grey in his crimson hair. A dark suit covered his body, and a tired look made him look even older.

"Hmm…" Dani didn't turn away from the painting.

"It…is a bit more gruesome than most of your work," Jason mentioned with his hands held behind his back, "I won't question your artistic vision, but do be careful. This is a school art fair, after all. We wouldn't want you to get into trouble."

"Hmm…"

Jason Blood, knight of old, experienced sorcerer, and the human form of Etrigan, eyed his student, "Miss Masters…Danielle…are you okay?"

"Hmm…"

"I see…" Jason sighed and looked away, "You do not wish to talk with me. Or perhaps, you don't wish to talk at all."

Dani remained silent. Despite the man's words and the groups of people moving around, her tired eyes did not move away from the painting. It was the same image that haunted her at night.

"I would suggest talking to someone," Jason Blood noted as he began to walk away, "A neutral party. Someone that could be objective to the current events. Don't you agree, my young pupils?"

"Yeah…" Rachel Roth nodded to Blood as she and her group passed the man on their way to Dani, "That might be smart."

"Then contact me when she's ready. I have a friend in mind," With that Blood left Dani to her friends.

Despite the arrival of the group of three, Dani had yet to move from her spot. Under different circumstances, she would feel glad to have so many of her friends back. Youngblood had been gone for years, and Victor often seemed distant at the best of times. Now, though, she didn't feel all that cheerful.

Because of his ghostly appearance, Youngblood wore a Fenton Disguise Belt in order to fool people into seeing a more normal version of himself with brown hair and tanner skin. In addition, his pirate outfit was traded for an orange hoody and simple jeans.

Victor was also using Fenton Disguise tech in order to appear normal. He appeared to look exactly like he did before the accident. Unfortunately, there was a limit to what the belt could change. If anyone bumped into him, they would feel the metal. As such, he wore a thin layer of padding that felt like skin over every part of his body from the neck down. A thick black beanie covered his head to avoid any clang noises if something fell on him, and if something or someone every hit his face, he would just say that he had an iron jaw.

"I like your new painting," Rachel stated, "But I don't think that it's your normal style. Too dark."

"Yeah, I think it's a bit…" Youngblood paused for a brief second, "Gruesome."

His words were true. The painting was of three figures on a field of ash. A large wolf lay on the ground with blood pouring out of holes in his chest. Beside him was a hunter dressed in lose robes. Still, it was easy to see that the hunter's body was broken and beaten. Above the two fallen beings was an angel dressed in white reaching down to try and fail to bring the corpses back to life.

"I think it's perfect," Victor stated, "And I think that they would appreciate your tribute to them."

For the first time in a while, Dani's eyes moved away from the painting. She looked up to the taller Victor. Many people would have flinched under her gaze, but Victor remained strong. He made sure that she knew that he meant what he said.

"…Thanks…" Dani turned back to the painting, "That was what I was hoping for. I miss them."

"We do to, Dani," Rachel hid her face with the hood of her sweater to conceal the pain in her eyes, "We do to."

"It's never easy, is it?" Youngblood mentioned, "Losing people…I hate it. Why can't we all just stay as we are? Why do things have to change?"

"Because then, we wouldn't evolve, Chuck," Victor noted, "How can things ever get better if we're all stagnant?"

"Better?" Youngblood frowned, "How is this better?"

"Growth…Healing…It takes pain and suffering…" Victor looked down at his hands, "And it takes time. Trust me, I know that much. The anger and resentment doesn't fade quickly. It lingers and festers."

"Since when did you become the guru of the group?" Rachel questioned.

"Well someone had to with Dani like this and Nyx gone…Woops…"

Dani's frown grew worse.

The three friends of the halfa shared a look. They silently decided to try a different tactic. Time for plan B.

"You know, there's going to be some sparing matches at the Cave," Youngblood noted, "Rae was telling me about it. Apparently, Lieutenant and Sergeant Marvel are going to have their first sparing sessions."

"They don't have a lot of fighting experience and could use your help," Raven mentioned.

"Plus, they're pretty much invincible," Victor mentioned, "It would be really, really hard to hurt them. You could go all out if you wanted to."

Dani turned away from the painting once more, "Really?"

"Yep."

Dani glanced back at the painting. With clenched fists, she nodded, "Alright, let's go."

* * *

"I still don't know why you took a blow meant for me, but thank you," Dusk mentioned as he rewrapped the bandages on the still unconscious Johnny 13's shoulder. While Greta did a great job healing the injury, the dagger that stabbed him had been laced with dark magic. Until the energy completely faded, the cut would continue to reopen randomly.

While both Johnny and Kitty, who had her time resotred to her, were able to move around normally, it had been decided to keep them both unconscious until their wounds completely healed. Kitty went into a crazed state when she saw the bandaged Johnny, and when Johnny was awake and in pain, Kitty would stir. Once they were better, they would be allowed to wake, but until then, it seemed too dangerous to let them move about.

Looking up from Johnny and Kitty's side-by-side cots, the youngest halfa glanced around the room. The medical center of the Land of the Far Frozen was packed with injured and dying ghosts. Dozens of medics and volunteers rushed around the room to try to help, but despite their work, many ghosts had still died.

Standing, Dusk began to walk across the room. He eyed each cot. Some were filled, and some were now agonizingly empty. Most of the now healed ghosts were awake but were not allowed to move by orders of Vision. She refused to let someone die because they were moving too soon, and no one had the guts to argue with her.

As he walked, Dusk passed several different groups. Each group seemed to be having conversations that made him feel a bit guilty in hearing. He tried not to listen, but he couldn't seem to tune them out.

Vision gave the Box Ghost a sad look that could been seen even under her veil, "I'm sorry that we could not save your eye."

"That doesn't matter," The Box Ghost shook his head slowly as to not aggravate the aching left eye socket underneath his new eyepatch, "All that matters is that my family wasn't hurt too much."

"Hun…" The Lunch Lady gently grabbed her husband's arm.

"And Box Lunch wasn't hurt at all," Box Ghost gently rocked the baby girl in his arms, "Remind me to thank that magician girl. I owe her more than I could ever repay…"

Dusk continued to walk.

"I'm sorry that I don't remember what le Fey had me do," Amorpho stated as he gently petted the bandaged Cujo that sat next to him on a cot, "Everything is blank. She must have ordered me to forget everything I did."

"I was afraid of that," Plasmius crossed his arms and sighed, "Then there is nothing we can do but wait for Daniel to finish analyzing that chip."

Dusk took a few more steps.

"That last Observant has passed away…" Colossus clenched his fists in anger, "I believe that he stopped fighting. He knew that the rest were gone and refused to go on without them."

"Damn," Frostbite placed a hand over his face to hide the tears, "How many more people must we lose?!"

Colossus placed a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder and glanced to a few empty cots that once had yeti ghosts in them, "I'm sorry, my friend."

Passing those two, Dusk finished his trek and stood before the medial tube that held Clockwork, now the last ghost that could foresee the future. In that moment, Dusk wondered if things would have been different if Clockwork had been awake during the time. Would the Master of Time have intervened, or would he have let all this occur? It was hard to say.

"He probably would have intervened," A voice spoke behind Dusk.

Dusk turned to see a ghost named Sydney Poindexter. The ghost had no coloring on him rather than black and white. His once well-kept hair was now long and messy. Thick glasses covered his freckled face. A blazer sat over his shoulders, but his dress shirt and overalls were still visible.

"Excuse me?" Dusk questioned.

Poindexter walked beside Dusk and peered up at Clockwork, "Your expression was very readable. I could tell what you were thinking, and I do believe that Clockwork would have intervened in this case. He couldn't always, but I think he would have changed a few things. At least, that's what I think considering the stories Master Scribe told me."

"I see…" Dusk followed Poindexter's gaze back up to Clockwork.

"Of course, that might be the very reason he's like this. People with the power to predict the future can't intervene. It always causes trouble. Either the situation gets worse, or…bad things happen to the foreseer."

"Like with the Ghost Writer and Clockwork…" Dusk frowned, "Is that why you refused to intervene? You have inherited your master's powers, correct?"

Poindexter looked ashamed, "I used to think that it would be amazing to have the power to stop bullies. Now that I do have power, though, I can't bring myself to do it. Not when I know that it would only cause my end."

Dusk silently nodded.

"Tell me, Joel," Poindexter turned to Dusk, "Is it a sin to not save a life out of fear for your own safety?"

"I…I don't know," Dusk's shoulders slumped, "I often think so, but there are times where all I want to do is leave and never look back. I never asked for my power or my talents, yet I have them. Many times, I wish I was born like everyone else so I could live a peaceful life."

"There are times you want to stop and try to live a regular life, huh?" Poindexter had a look of contemplation on his face, "What makes you stay in those moments?"

"I always have reason to stay. I know that my leaving would hurt a lot of people."

"Hmm…Interesting," Poindexter nodded. He then turned and began to walk back to helping the wounded, "Well then, I hope that answer never changes, Joel."

Dusk nodded and continued to peer at Clockwork, "I do too…"

* * *

Danny rubbed his temples in exhaustion, "I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what you're asking of me. You want an energy converter? Something that could transfer power from multiple sources into one battery?"

" _Kekekekekekeke! You got it!"_ Klarion laughed from his monitor.

" _Oui, Monsieur Fenton. Your donation would be most helpful."_ A voice with a thick accent spoke from a brain mounted on a mobile machine.

Fenton's eyes glanced around the various screens that sat across his desk. Each member of the Light was in this video conference. Thus, he could gauge the various reactions that generated from this request. Oddly enough, almost half of the Light seemed displeased with this idea. It made Fenton wonder what exactly was going on.

"And this is request from all of you?" Fenton questioned.

Silence was his answer for a while, but then one of them spoke. While not technically official, the Light did have a leader. Vandal Savage was a large man made up of pure muscle. Three long scars ran across his hardened face while his long hair was slicked back. As a being that was as close to immortal as a person could get, Savage was over 50,000 years old and had more experience and knowledge than anyone on Earth. He even predated the ghosts' time of existence.

" _We have already voted. It has been decided that everything will proceed as planned…"_ Savage stated with a deep frown on his face.

"I see," Fenton leaned back in his seat, "Well, you definitely chose the worst possible time to make this request."

" _We are aware that you lost your lover during the last incident. I heard the report that she was killed by a ghost at her campus. It must have been frusting to have her so far out of your protection in the first place, but to actually lose her...,_ " Queen Bee could only be described as a dark-skinned goddess. Her beauty was unquestionable from her full lips to her long dark wavy hair. It was easy to see why men fell over themselves to serve her without her even using her natural enthrall pheromone ability, _"And that is why I suggest that it would be best to save this request for later._ "

" _Time and patience are a few things some of us are running out of, Queen Bee,_ " Ocean Master stated to the women.

" _Yeah, the time is now…er, soon at least. I've been planning this for years, after all,"_ Klarion spoke up again.

"Urgent timing huh…" Fenton eyed the screen again, "You are aware this could take some time. By what time do you would you want these tubes?"

" _Ignore them,"_ Ra's eyes frowned at the screens that probably surrounded him as well, " _If you decide to take up this project for us, you would be given all the time you would need."_

"And why is the Brain not handling this one?" Fenton questioned, "I know that he's more than capable of crafting it."

" _My hands are full at zhe moment…figuratively speaking of course,"_ The Brain stated.

"Hmm…" Danny closed his eyes for a second. His fatigue and grief quite evident on his face, "Alright. I'll think about it. That's the most I can give you right now."

" _That's all we can ask for right now,_ " Luthor spoke up before Klarion or Ocean Master could speak, " _Thank you for your time, Daniel. You have my deepest condolences for you loss._ "

" _And from me as well, young Fenton. I know the pain of losing a close lover very well. Take heart in knowing that she lives on your memory,_ " Savage noted.

Danny looked at their faces and were surprised to see that they seemed the mean their words. At that moment, he felt his heart ache in a different way than it had for the past six days, "I, uh…Thank you."

" _Do take care, Daniel,"_ Queen Bee gave him a smile. It looked very seductive to him, but that was probably because of her natural look. The monitors quickly began to flicker off until only one monitor was left lit.

" _Oh, and once again, thank you for looking after my boy, Daniel,"_ Ra's smiled, " _I know that you didn't have to pretend he was family so he would stay in Amity Park. I appreciate all you've done for my family, and don't worry, I'm sure my daughter or I will convince him to return the Shadows at some point."_

"Don't worry about. I enjoy having Joel around," Danny waved him off.

" _Well, I thank you regardless. Goodbye, Daniel."_

"Goodbye, Ra's." Danny canceld the video chat. With that done, he slid down his chair, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes once more.

 _"I…refuse…to…abandon…you…" Valerie's words came out as pained heaves. Her voice was cracked and barely audible, "Not…like…last…time..."_

 _"Specter, let her go!" Phantom begged desperately. He tried to pull Valerie away from the Spectre, but he barely had the energy to old onto Valerie, "Please! She's innocent!"_

 _"No one is innocent," The Spectre's words pierced Phantom's heart like a spear. His arm clinched and bent as he prepared to toss the broken girl away like she was a piece of trash. Still, Phantom did not let got. He would never let go._

 _"Danny…" Valerie could no longer breathe correctly. Words felt painful as they left her lips, and she lacked the energy to speak much more. There was so much she wanted to say to Danny. She wanted to proclaim her love for him. She wanted to say how proud she was to be able to fight as he equal. She wanted to thank him for making her into a better person. The ghost hunter could say none of these things, though. Her body wouldn't let her say more than one more word, so she gave him one last loving look and said the one word that explain exactly how she felt about Danny, "Yes."_

 _As soon as that was said, the Spectre tossed Valerie away. Phantom did not let go, so he was dragged with her. Because of his lack of energy, though, Phantom could do nothing to stop their moment or even pull his girlfriend close to shield her. Thus, he could do nothing as Valerie's unprotected body crashed through several buildings, land with a solid crack, and then roll into a broken, unmoving heap._

"Danny?"

"RAW!" Danny jumped up from his chair with terrified roar and took a self-defense stance. He quickly relaxed when he saw his employees.

"Danny, are you okay?" Harriet Chin questioned, "You look like you nodded off for a minute there…"

"Yeah…" Danny leaned against his work desk, "Yeah, I'm fine."

" _No, he's not,"_ J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded through the computer, " _He refuses to sleep, and has been constantly working since Halloween._ "

"Danny…" Harriet gave Danny a concerned look.

"That is not a good thing, child. Our brains are our greatest assets," Nicolai Tillman stated to his employer, "Of course, I understand the urge to work. After all, I, NICOLAI TILLMAN! Have gotten in the passion of working. But if we don't rest, we won't be able to succeed in our work. In fact, my Agatha—"

"Well, I don't have an 'Agatha' to drag me away from my work, Nick," Danny snapped and began to walk away from his desk to the development department. He was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I know you must be hurting, but Valerie wouldn't want you to be killing yourself like this, son," Silas Stone stated.

Danny smacked the hand away, "Don't call me son. I don't even let Vlad call me that. Besides, you really haven't even been a good father to your actual son."

Silas flinched back as if he was struck. He might have fallen if Elinore had not been there to steady him.

Danny didn't look back, but he hung his head in shame, "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair."

"It's fine. I think I deserved that a bit…" Silas worked to steady his trembling hands.

"I just…" Fenton took out his phone, "I just need some time. I'm taking the rest of the day off. J.A.Z.Z. called my friends. They're coming to kidnap me, I think…"

"That's good," Harriet nodded.

As he was leaving, Danny paused and looked back to Silas, "And…I…Sorry again. Just…keep working with Victor. He'll come around sooner or later. He's got a good head on his shoulders."

"Yeah," Silas nodded, "He does."

* * *

Troia found herself in a rare situation where she was facing a foe that had more physical strength than her. Even in Young Justice, she was at the top in consideration to raw power. Before today, only Superboy rivaled her. Now, though, she had two people that could quite possibly beat her in an arm wrestling contest, and she was loving it.

Now, if only they could actually fight correctly…

"Oof!" Sergeant Marvel aka Freddie Freemen groaned as he was flipped through the air and landed on his back.

"Thy speed and power are incredible, but thy technique is nonexistent," Troia stated as she clapped her hands dismissively.

"Yeah…" Sergeant grunted as he pushed himself up, "Not like this is my second fight or anything."

"Excuses are for the weak," Troia slid back into a fighting stance, "Prepare thyself!"

"Do I have to—Holy crap!" Sergeant ducked under Troia's kick to his head. He quickly stumbled backward as he tried to avoid several of Toria's rapid attacks. He sent several wild punch of his own to try and push her back. Troia knew better than to try and block the attacks, so she easily ducked under and avoided the wild blows.

She then ducked down low and sweep kicked Sergeant Marvel's legs out from under him. Once again, Sergeant fell onto his back, but this time Troia did not let up. She grabbed Sergeant Marvel's arm and twisted him onto his stomach. With his arm locked, Sergeant decided to tap out.

"I give up, I give up, sheesh…" Sergeant Marvel muttered as his arm was released, "Why can't anyone go easy on the new guy?"

"That's not how thing work here," Black Canary, who was taking the lead in combat training, noted, "We need to jumpstart your fighting abilities as quickly as possible if you want to go on missions."

"Who said I wanted to go on missions…" Sergeant Marvel muttered under his breath.

"Finally, someone who shares my view of the world," Raven whispered to Cyborg with a nod of her head, "Good. I was getting sick of everybody having such a cheery attitude."

"That's no way to talk, Freddie!" Lieutenant Marvel aka Mary Bromfield bounced on the balls of her feet, "This is a dream come true! We're superheroes and are working with people like Robin, Troia, and Spirit. How can you not be psyched?"

"Because I keep getting the crap kicked out of me?" Sergeant Marvel rolled his eyes.

"Damn…" Raven frowned, "We get someone that finally begins to even out the character spectrum, and then she comes with him to tip the scale again."

"Well, if we get too many people like you here, then none of us will be motivated to do anything," Youngblood, who was allowed access to the Cave as a guest, mentioned.

"You act like that's a bad thing," Raven rose an eyebrow.

"God, what is with all you superpowered people?" Robin shook his head, "None of you seem motivated to use your powers right. If I had superpowers, I would be busting into bad guys' bases, kicking ass, and taking names. And they would be like, 'Please, Robin, don't kick our asses.' And I would be like, 'Too late, suckers'!"

"Uh…" Beast Boy blinked up to Robin in confusion, "Okay, dude. Whatever you say."

Batgirl walked up behind Robin and flicked him on the back of the head, "Stopping acting stupid."

"Hey! Don't disrespect me! I have seniority on this Team," Robin stated smugly.

"And I have seniority as a vigilante. The only reason I didn't join when you did was because of…permission issues…" Batgirl frowned as she thought of her father Jim Gordon.

"Like Troia said…" Robin gained a huge grin, "Excuses are for the weak."

"Thou can't argue with that logic," Troia mentioned.

"I…I think I can," Batgirl noted, "But I really don't want to right now. I think the numbers will be against me."

"Alright, enough chatter," Black Canary called out, "I need two more sparers."

"Me," Spirit, who had been oddly silent during her time at the Cave, stepped up, "Come on, new girl. Let's see what you got."

"Alright!" Lieutenant Marvel fist pumped and floated over to the center of the training area, "I've been waiting for this."

"Hmm…" Spirit gave the Lieutenant an unsavory smile, "Just try not to go overboard. I heard what happened during le Fey's attack."

Lieutenat Marvel flinched, "I, er…Right. Is the Box Ghost doing better? I tried to go visit him, but…"

"He'll live," Spirit noted a she slid into a fighting stance, "I'll talk to Vision about you visiting him. He'll probably thank you for stopping him. Just be glad you didn't hurt his family. You've seen what happens when he's trying to protect his family."

"Yeah," Lieutenant Marvel's expression did not lighten up despite Spirit's words, "Thanks."

"No problem," With that Spirit rushed forward. She sent a side kick to Lieutenant Marvels' side. The Marvel girl took the blow and went skidding back. She stopped herself but was unprepared once again as Spirit followed after her.

Twirling around the other girl, the halfa grabbed the Marvel's cape and used it to fling her to the ground. The girl went rolling but quickly pushed herself up and charged at the halfa. She sent several powerful yet uncontrolled attacks to the white haired girl. Despite the speed of the attacks, Spirit was still able to dodge the blows with ease.

As she danced around the attacks, Spirit let her mind go into her instinctual battle mode. Her Premonition guided her. For the first time in a long time, she ignored the thrill and adrenaline rush she felt from combat. If this could be called that. Lieutenant Marvel was sloppy. The difference in skill was far too great for her to get one up on her during a spar where they couldn't fight with their full powers—

Smack!

Because of her carelessness and lack of motivation, Spirit allowed Lieutenant Marvel to get a lucky hit in. The halfa went reeling back in pain. She kept moving back to avoid future hits. As she moved, though, her instincts screamed at her. Flashes of the fights days before returned. Terror and anger rushed through her veins. Rational fled from her mind. All that was left was instinct.

Rush forward. Spin around her. Slam head into the ground. Repeat motion several times. Flip her over. Punch face. Punch face. Punch face. Activate Spectral Claws.

"Azaroth Metrion Zinthos!" Black and white magic swirled around Spirit. She swung around wildly. Her claws cut through the magic. Just as she cut through all the magic, a large form grabbed her and held her tight. She thrashed around violently. Cut. Slash. Bite.

Spirit…

Cut. Slash. Bite.

Spirit!

Cut. Slash. Bite.

"SPIRIT! STOP!"

Spirit stopped her movements. She suddenly realized that Cyborg was holding her close to him. In her fit, she had hurt him. He was covered in deep gashes, cuts, and bite marks. His metal was cracked. Blood oozed out of some spots while oil leaked out of other spots.

"Oh god, Victor…" Spirit muttered in horror.

Cyborg slowly released the hug and pushed Spirit to arms' length. Despite his bruised and cracked head, he smiled, "You okay now?"

"I…I hurt you…" Spirit gently placed a hand on his swelled cheek, "Why didn't you fight back?"

"Because it's you. I could never hurt you," Cyborg explained as his red eye flickered.

Tears instantly flooded from Spirit's eyes. She lunged forward and held Cyborg close, "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"I know," Cyborg gently rubbed his back, "It's not your fault."

"I…I…I need help…" Spirit's eyes glanced around the Cave. Her teammates all gave her look of concern. Even the rising Lieutenant Marvel only seemed to be concerned about her and Victor's health.

Raven stepped forward, "Then let's go home. Mr. Blood has someone ready to speak with you."

* * *

Dusk quietly approached the tall form of Pandora. She stood on top of the Ghost Zone's prison. As the chief of justice and police for the Ghost Zone, she was given the freedom to travel almost anywhere she wanted. The halfa found it odd that she would choice Torch's prison to hide. The place was dull and grey. It missed the beauty and care that Pandora took pride in with her domain.

"Pandora?" Dusk made sure to speak up as he approached the woman. It was not wise to sneak up on Pandora, "Vision sent me to find you. She needs your help at the medical center."

"Hmm?" Pandora turned to look down at the teenage ghoul, "She did? Right, I was supposed to go help there a while ago…"

"Are you okay?" Dusk questioned as he walked next to the woman as she stood at the edge of the prison.

"No…No I'm not," Pandora slowly shook her head, "My precious child is out there being controlled by a monster and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Oh…I, um…I'm sorry," Dusk looked away awkwardly, "I guess it was a stupid question."

"No more so than the one I'm about to ask," Pandora's gazed below them at the prison yard, "Are you feeling okay after everything that happened? Out of everyone, you are one of the ones that lost the most."

"Of course I'm okay," Dusk crossed his arms, "All things considering, I'm better off than both Mentor and Dani. At least I know Greta moved on content with her life. And…I can't claim to have as deep of a hurt over the loss of Valerie and Wulf. With what happened…having them die in their arms…It would be stupid to say that my suffering is even close to what theirs is."

"Don't brush your pain off so easily," Pandora gave Dusk a sad smile, "You can admit your grief and suffering. Trying to dismiss it won't help. I know that's part of who you are. You shrug off a lot of what the world throws at you. Even with the Ghoul Project…You didn't dwell on it long enough. It hurts your humanity to continuously ignore the selfishness and pain you feel. For that is what makes you human."

"I'm a half-ghost," Dusk noted.

"You know what I meant. Remember what happens to ghosts that forgets what it means to be human…to be alive."

"Don't compare me to—"

"YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARD!"

The sound of a guitar blasted from the prison. In a blaze of physical sound energy, Torch was sent flying out of the front doors of the prison. Both Pandora and Dusk were shocked to see him hit the ground and roll without any effort to stop himself. They were even more shocked to see Ember angrily rush after him in blast of blue fire.

"What?" Torch grunted up as he sat up from his position on the ground, "You wanted the truth out of Torch, right?"

"How…How can you even say crap like that Trever!" Ember's eyes shined with tears, "I'm your sister damn it! When it was just us and Dad, you were all I had besides my dream!"

"And then Torch and Ellie died. Now all that is left is the dreams," Torch stated, "That's why Torch never contacted you. You aren't part of Torch's obsession, so you don't matter anymore."

"Liar! I know it! I don't remember a whole lot, but I remember that you cared about me! You used to threaten my bullies! You used to pack my lunches! You…you were the reason I ever believed in my dream in the first place…"

"Idiot. The brother you love is dead. Trever is gone just like the original Ellie is gone. All that's left is Torch and Ember. And Torch doesn't care about having Ember in his life," Torch stated as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Then why did you save me!? Why did you refuse to hurt me?!" Ember demanded.

"Torch doesn't want you dead. Torch…Torch just doesn't want you in Torch's life—"

A loud smack echoed across the prison as Ember's hand met Torch's face. With hot tears running down her eyes, she lowered her trembling hand and began to sob, "You…I hate you!"

"Torch doesn't care," Torch shrugged.

"Gah! Fine who needs you!?" Ember began to storm out of the prison compound, "Family is overrated anyway! Especially with people like you and Dad in it! All that matters is the music revolution! All that matters is my obsession!" With that said, Ember left in a blaze of fire and sound.

Torch did nothing even after Ember left. He just stood there with a swelling cheek and wounded pride.

"Are you alright, sir?" Bullet questioned. This purple skinned muscular ghost with an eye patch used to be Walker's second in command, but he refused to abandon the Ghost Zone like his old boss. His loyalty was to the prison, not to Walker.

"Yeah…Torch is fine…" Torch muttered.

"Then why are you crying and clutching your fists so hard they're bleeding?" Bullet questioned.

Torch quickly wiped away the tears and blood, "Gah…Torch is a jackass…But Torch did what was best for Ellie. Her dream is coming true. If she starts to spend her time with Torch or investigating what happened to Dad…It would break her."

"I know, sir," Bullet nodded, "I know."

Pandora and Dusk peered down at the scene. Both of them had deep frowns on their faces.

"I envy him," Pandora noted, "Doing what's best for your family even though it hurts both you and them…I wish I had the ability to do that. I thought being here and watching them would give me the courage to fight against Nyx, but I just can't do it. Every time I look at her, I see the little babe that I gently held in my arms."

Dusk was silent.

"But at least I know for certain now," Pandora sighed and turned around, "I will have to rely on others to help me save my daughter. This is not a burden I can carry alone."

Dusk lowed his head.

Pandora understood that he was trying to hide the pained look on his face. She gently patted his shoulder before he left, "I shall go help Vision. As for you, I would suggest doing what I did. Go find a place that will give you clarity. Find the place that will reveal what you really feel."

* * *

" _Untold destruction. Countless injuries. Unacceptable deaths. These are the things that describe the events from not even a week ago. As the whole world continues to mourn, the question on everyone's mind is…why?"_ G. Gordon Godfrey was a television host. He was a blond haird Caucasian man with sharp blue eyes and a few wrinkles. This reporter was well known for his strong opinions. In fact, he used to be completely against ghosts before the GIW War. After all the blame was pinned on the Guys in White, though, he quickly changed his tune.

" _Why did all of this happen? Who is really responsible for all this?"_ G. Gordon paced in front of his desk, " _The harsh truth is that everyone in charge of our safety is responsible for this. Sure, we could take all the blame and place solely on William Hayes, aka Harm, but is that really smart? He has already been apprehended and his punishment is being decided. But there are other villains, terrorists, and enemies to humanity that could have done the exact same thing and very will might do so._

" _Now that is a scary thought. That this could happen again. We need to find a way to prevent such a thing,"_ G. Gordon leaned against his desk and frowned at the camera, " _But how do we fix this? After all, we can't very well blame the ghosts on this one. They were the ones that lost the most and had no control over what happened. The Council of ghosts even fought against their own to try and save lives._

" _Heck I won't even blame the Justice League, despite a deep desire to. No, I'll tell you what the real problem is. It is far to easy to get in and out of the Ghost Zone. There are no regulations, restrictions, or walls to prevent people from passing between the two worlds at will, and that is dangerous. Think about it, every country in the world has restrictions and failsafe's, but the Ghost Zone has nothing like that. Now is the time to be thinking about making such restrictions. My suggestion would be for the UN to get off their rear ends, contact Daniel Fenton, and get him and his team to develop something to prevent this from happening ever again."_

Danny had a neutral expression on his face, although it couldn't be seen underneath the baseball hat that his most of his features, "I hate to admit, but I agree with him for once."

"Well, I guess even a moron can have a good idea every now and then," Wally West, dressed in a red sweatshirt, mentioned. He then glared at Dick Grayson, "Shut up, dude."

"I didn't say anything," Dick raised his hands in defense but still wore a smirk on his face. He wore dark sunglasses over his eyes and a leather coat over his shoulders.

"You were thinking it," Wally glared.

"In his defense," Artemis leaned against her boyfriend, "We were all thinking about it."

"Geeze, no one gives me enough credit," Wally frowned and leaned back in his chair, "Science genius, people. I gave myself my own powers after all. That's more than can be said about all of you."

"True," Zatanna's eyes sparkled with mischief, "But you it didn't work completely."

"Oh I give up," Wally rolled his eyes.

"Don't pout, Wally," Raquel Ervin, aka Rocket, "We'll get you an order of chili fries to make up it up to you."

"…Make it two orders."

When light first hit Amity Park, Danny received multiple messages from the senior members of Young Justice. They were all going to go out and do what they knew Valerie would want them to do. Move on with their lives and keep moving forward. Danny really didn't want to go out on the town with his friends, but he knew that he didn't have a choice in the matter. If he refused, they would just come to Amity Park and drag him along.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one to want to be somewhere else. Kaldur looked extremely distracted right now. It was understandable. From what Danny understood, Aquaman was going through a funk after what happened with his brother. Tula and Garth were both by their king's side, but Kaldur was forced along on this outing. It was basically a "senior" trip, and while the other members of Young Justice had strong bonds with the Red Huntress, none of them had been through what the senior members had been through together.

"Danny?" Megan, M'gann's Caucasian form, gave the halfa a concerned look, "You look exhausted. Have you been sleeping?"

"No," Danny didn't look away from the TV that hung in the diner. He didn't remember the name of the diner, but they were still in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island.

"You always do this," Conner frowned at the man he considered his best friend, "You always go on these binges. Valerie wouldn't want you to—"

"Just shut up," Danny muttered tiredly.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"You aren't the only one hurting, Danny," Dick spoke up.

"I know. I'm just…sick of losing people," Danny turned to them, "It just never going to stop it? This life always keeps taking."

"Yeah, it does…" Zatanna nodded slowly, "But…I think she knew that. That's why she always wanted to make the most of the time she had."

"Yeah, like YOLO but less douche and stupid, right?" Raquel noted.

Despite everything, Danny smiled, "Yeah…"

"See, there you—"

"Megan! Conner! How's it going?" A woman's voice called out to the group. The woman was an African American girl wearing a black and yellow sweater. Her dark hair was pulled up into bunches or buns on either side of her head. Next to her was a very large muscular man with dark skin. Danny was sure that the guy was a head taller than Superboy and twice as bulky, even if Super boy could through the guy around like a ragdoll.

"Karen! Mal!" Megan jumped to her feet and greeted the new woman, "How are you?"

"Pretty good all things considering," Karen smiled at the Martian, "Although, I do feel bad about getting out of school because of what happened."

"Yeah, and it's not like there's anything else to talk about," Mal's eyes danced around at other people at his friend's table, "I remember Wally, but I don't recognize these other people. I didn't realize you had so many friends from out of town. How come you didn't mention them at school?"

"We don't have to tell you about everything in our lives," Conner shrugged.

"True, I guess. It just seems odd. Especially because…" Mal's eyes lingered on Danny, "Hey…You look familiar. Have we met?"

Before Danny could answer, Megan spoke up, "Hey! Why don't we catch up real fast! Sorry, guys, we'll be right back."

"Yep," Conner grunted as he stood up, "Come on, Mal."

"Yeah, but…"

"Just move," Conner followed Megan as she gently guided Karen away. He did a lazy wave back to them saying, 'we got this.' He was quickly followed by Mal after the man gave Danny one last glance.

"That's what we get for having a celebrity with us," Dick joked.

"And this coming from you?" Zatanna giggled, "You're Gotham's Prince right?"

"I never approved that name…" Dick grumbled.

"And now you know what I feel about the Inviso-Bill crap," Danny noted.

"Oh! I almost forgot about that," Raquel grinned, "And that ammo is back for use. It makes me think that you actually like being called that."

"Yeah?" Zatanna giggled, "You…Who are you waving to?"

"Wally and Artemis," Danny lowed his hand, "They had their 'I want to make out with you the bathroom' look, so I texted to them to go. They should enjoy every moment they've got together while they got it."

"What?" Dick turned around to see Wally and Artemis enter the unisex bathroom, "How did I miss them leaving?"

"The Inviso-Bill joke can distract anyone," Danny noted, "Trust me, I've tested it."

"Really?" Zatanna gained a thoughtful look, "Then I need to try that next time Dad gets on my case…"

"Or if one of us gets stuck with cleaning duty," Raquel stated, "I hate when…"

Danny stopped listening at that point. He leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He had to admit, this was the best he felt all week. Being around his friends always seemed to help, but he knew that it was only a temporary fix. As soon as he was alone again, the despair would return—

Danny shuddered as he gasped out a breath of blue smoke. The activation of his ghost sense caused the other three people at his table to look at him in alarm. Ignoring them, Danny looked around cautiously to see what ghost was here. No ghost seemed to be around, though. Everyone looked normal. Except maybe that one tattooed lady that was looking at him…Wait.

With a nod of her head, the woman turned and walked to the back ally of the diner. Danny stood up, "A…friend is here. I need to take care of this. I'll be right back."

"Do you need back up?" Zatanna questioned.

"No, like I said…" Danny began to follow after the tattooed woman, "She's a friend."

Quickly exiting the diner, Danny was suddenly sounded by the shadows of the alleyway. The tattooed woman was there waiting for him. Her skin began to turn green, her dark hair changed into spiked, and her eyes flashed red. The only thing that remained the same was the many tattoos that covered her body.

"Lydia, it's been a while," Danny noted, "How did you find me here?"

"Freakshow read your mind once, remember? He learned a lot about you and your patterns. It was either here or in Amity Park. This was closer, to where I was staying so I tried here first," Lydia explained.

"I see…" Danny nodded slowly, "How have you been? I haven't seen you since right after Freakshow died. That was a while ago it seems like…"

"Yeah…it seems like it's been a hundred years," Lydia sighed, "I won't lie. It's been hard. I tried to find some purpose…some kind of love to keep me going. But people don't click with me well. I have always been a bit of freak. Normal people get put off by my true appearance and tastes."

"I understand that," Danny stated, "You know, you could come back to Amity Park with me. I'm sure you would fit in well with my family."

"No…No thank you. That was never an option. Being around there…It would only remind me of Freakshow, and I need to move past him," Lydia shuffled a bit, "That…That's part of the reason I'm here. I found a cause that I want to help."

"Please don't tell me it's the Light."

"No. The opposite really," Lydia pursed her lips, "But that's all I can say for right now. Just know that I will not be your enemy. Even if you are working with the Light as a ploy."

"How do you know about that?"

"My group keeps tabs on them. I made sure that they knew you weren't a bad person," Lydia stated, "We won't attack you or anyone in Amity Park."

"Well…That's comforting to say the least…"

"But I do need to warn you. I would take a leave of absence from the Light for a while. My groups thinks that they're up to something bad. They don't trust me enough to fill me in completely, but it's going to be bad. This much I know," Lydia warned.

"Then that's all the more reason to keep an eye on them," Danny stated.

"Well, you can do whatever you want. I just felt that you deserved a warning for what's about to happen," Lydia stated.

"Thanks," Danny gave her a small smile.

"Oh…and one more thing," Lydia walked up and placed a gentle hand on Danny's shoulder, "I heard about the Red Huntress. I know you were lovers. I'm so sorry you lost that."

"Thanks, that means a lot coming from you," It really did. Few understood lost love like Lydia did.

"If I could make a suggestion," Lydia began to back away, "Go to her resting place. Speak your mind. Find closure. Only then, can you move on."

"…Right. I think I'll do that. Thank you."

"No problem, Daniel. Until we meet again, try and relax. I get the feeling that you'll need for what's about to come." With that, Lydia disappeared in a swirl of energy and living tattoos and left Danny alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Spirit sat on a rather comfortable leather couch. Despite this, she didn't lean back. Instead, she was at the edge of her seat with her head lowered and her hands on her knees. The room around her was rather bright and cheerfully colored. Various degrees and diplomas covered the walls proving the hard work and dedication of the woman across from the halfa.

"Miss Spirit, I'm glad you decided to come," Penolope Spectra was a rather thin woman with long red hair pulled into a pony tail. A red dress suit covered her body. She seemed to be aging rather gracefully, but her growing age was noticeable. Spectra didn't seem to care too much, though. This was the first time Spirit saw Spectra up close since the Freakshow incident. She had to marvel at the differences a few small changes to her backstory made to the woman, "I would just like to get this out of the way. I'm a big fan. Your work and dedication is an inspiration for many people."

"Uh…Thanks, I guess. I never planned to inspire people or anything…" Spirit rubbed the back of her.

"Inspirational people rarely plan to be that way," Spectra chuckled, "Especially you teenage heroes. I find it amazing that people so young can do such good in the world. I can't imagine the stress you go through, though I have written several papers with theories of your mindsets and ability to deal with situations that most adults wouldn't be able to handle."

"Yeah…I heard about all that. My brother was really interested in it," Spirit noted.

"Oh yes, Danny Phantom, right?" Spectra nodded, "I've met him a few times. He seemed a lot more interested in me than I was about him. It was almost like he was expecting me to lash out at him or something."

Spirit was silent concerning that.

"But this isn't about him. This is about you. So…" Spectra leaned forward, "How are you, Spirit?"

"Bad."

"Oh? Could you be a bit more specific please?"

"Really bad."

"I see…" Spectra sat back, "You're rather defensive. I will tell you that I don't know exactly what happened, but considering the time, I assume it has to do with the incident last week."

"Yeah…I guess," Spirit looked away.

"I know that people died. Some of them were your friends," Spectra gave her a concerned look, "It must be difficult for you to lose people you care about. People that have fought side-by-side with you."

"Yeah…"

Spectra gave her a contemplative look, "You know that the only way to get better is to talk about this. If you don't, this won't help you at all."

"You want me to talk? Fine," Spirit glared at her, "I'll talk. I'll talk about how hundreds of people died without me being able to do anything to stop it. I'll talk about how some of my closest friends, people that are family to me, died and I didn't even know about it until it was all over. I'll talk about how a friend goddamn killed himself to save me!"

Spectra was silent as Spirit jumped to her feet.

"I have worked and trained for years so I would be strong enough so that the people I cherish wouldn't die!" Spirit shouted, "Then I found out that it all meant nothing! I was still too weak save anyone!"

"I heard from Superman personally that you helped save him and Superboy," Spectra noted.

"Yeah, I save the invincible ones, but I can't save the people that can bleed and die easily," Spirit shook her head, "And the worst part is, it wasn't even a matter of my physical strength. It was really my mental strength. If I just…if I just went all out. If I took Wulf down with real force instead of trying to subdue him, then he would still be alive!"

Spectra nodded, "I see…"

"And now, that's all I can think about. I can't hold back. If I hold back, people will die. But if I go all out, I might kill people," Spirit clenched her fists, "Today, I was doing a simple spar, but I took it too far. If I was sparing anyone else, they would have been hurt. And when my friend tried to stop me…I hurt him."

"Spirit, you were having a flashback to the battle. Soldiers with PTSD do that all the time," Spectra stated, "No one can blame you for that."

"Then what can I be blamed for?!" Spirit had an angered look, "You say that nothing is my fault, and I think that everything is my fault! It was my decision that caused Wulf to die!"

"Everything is simple in retrospect, Spirit," Spectra noted, "You made the best decisions you could at the time. The only thing you can do now is to learn from what happened and try to make sure this never happens again."

"And what am I supposed to learn here? That I'm powerless? That my decisions can cause people to die? That…that I can get angry enough to try and murder a defeated man?"

"No, you learn that it is easy to criticize decisions made in the heat of the moment. When you only have a split second to make a choice, you don't have time to think about everything that could happen because of it. You just follow your gut and do the only thing you can."

"And that is?"

"You do the best you can, hope for that everything works out, and if things don't go the way you planned, then take heart in knowing that you did everything you could to save as many people as possible."

* * *

"I had a feeling I would find you here," The Fright Knight mentioned as he approached the seated Dusk.

"Why? I don't come here that often," Dusk questioned. Was seated beneath a tree on Amity Park's highest hill. The view allowed them so see the whole town.

"Yes, but you always enjoyed when you did. You and Lady Greta were always smiling when you returned. Lady Spirit would always joke that you two were kissing, but I knew that you just had a lot of in depth conversations," The Fright Knight noted as he stood by the seated halfa.

Dusk pulled his knees to his chest, "I guess…"

The Fright Knight let out a sigh and leaned against the tree, "Forgive me. I become sentimental in such stressing times. It comforts me to think of them. Remember the best of those that have fallen and continue to push forward. I think that's what they would have wanted."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's what they would want," Dusk nodded oddly.

A comfortable silence developed around them. Neither ghost said a word. Instead, they looked to the horizon and watched as the sun sent on Amity Park's horizon. Like always, though, the silence was easily broken.

"I always wondered how my friends felt after they took down the Ghost King," The Fright Knight mentioned suddenly, "He was our leader, our friend, our family. How did it feel to acknowledge his fall into madness and fight against it despite not wanting to do so? It must have been terrible. This…this is the greatest loss I have ever experienced, so I can only base it on this. And I have the satisfaction of know that they all died with honor and heroism in their hearts. Knowing that Pariah Dark and I would forever be locked in our own bad decisions must have been hell on my old comrades."

Dusk was silent.

"From I heard, it caused them to drift apart. Especially after the Spectre's rampage and Colossus' hibernation, as I like to call it," The Fright Knight lowered his head, "Having those close to me drift away and leave…That's not something I want."

Dusk looked up to Fright Knight and raised an eyebrow, "That's not something I want either…But…people drift apart. Things change. It's how life works."

"I know. It is the way life and death has always been," The Fright Knight nodded, "And if someone wanted to leave, I would understand. Some people don't want this kind of life. Some people want something a little simpler. The lifestyle we live is a hard one. We could lose people at any moment. For someone that prefers peace, it must seem hellish. I know Lady Greta never enjoyed it. She stayed, though, because she cared for us. For that, we were all grateful, but if she decided one day that she wished to leave, then I think we all would have come to accept it."

"I'm not leaving, Fright Knight," Dusk mumbled.

"But you want to. You want to escape this harsh lifestyle, and I don't blame you," The Fright Knight pushed off the tree and looked down at Dusk, "And I thank you for staying despite your distaste for our conflicts. But the way you're going now, you'll break under the pressure."

Dusk released his legs and glared up at his companion, "Excuse me?"

"You don't want others to see your pain. You have always tried to hide it, even after the Ghoul Project, you don't allow yourself to stay emotional for long. It is a characteristic that I both admire and condemn," The Fright Knight stated, "Every soldier needs to hold in the pain while the fight is going on. To let your emotions get the better of you will get you and your allies killed. But once the war is over, and it's time to go home, you can't keep acting like the pain doesn't exist. If you do, eventually, you'll crack."

"Maybe stuff just doesn't bother me as much," Dusk suggested.

"Or maybe you feel more deeply than all of us combined, and you hide it well," The Fright Knight argued, "I can see it beneath your eyes. Lady Greta's passing has caused you much pain."

"Don't be ridiculous," Dusk clenched his fists, "That would be selfish of me. She completed her obsession. She moved on happy. What more can I ask for?"

"An awkward first date. A precious first love. Years of sweet memories," The Fright Knight gently placed a hand on the boy's head, "All things you desire but will never have with her. It may be selfish, but that is how you feel and ignoring it will only lead to more pain. You need to let it out, young knight."

Dusk slowly pushed himself to his feet, "Let it out…You want me to let it out…"

"Yes."

"Fine. I'll let it out," Dusk's face twisted into a combination of pain and anger, "Yeah, I'm trying to hide the pain, because that's the only way I know how to deal with it. That's the way it's been my whole life. Orphaned as a baby. Taken into the League of Shadows to be trained as a child soldier. Excommunicated and thrown into a living hell. Then, I finally get a bit of happiness with my new family, and I start to lose them!"

The Fright Knight did nothing as Dusk brought his fists up and banged them against his chest.

"I'm finally happy…I finally have people to care about, and I lose them!" Tears began to fall from Dusk's eyes, "I won't have Valerie coming up to me demanding to test her skills against me! I won't have Wulf trying to steal my food and try to keep an eye on me! I won't have Greta to share how I'm sick of fighting! Damn it, I'm tired of it all!"

Dusk slid to his hands and knees and hung his head low, "I know it's selfish of me, but I'm so tired of it! All I want to do is leave and never look back! I want to escape so that I won't have to suffer anymore! And the only one that felt the same way was Greta! I know we were young, but…I know there was something there. Something that could have been amazing, and now it's gone! I'm angry at her for leaving me with nothing but 'what ifs,' and I hate myself for it! I should be happy for her, but…but…"

The Fright Knight grabbed him and pulled him into a hug, "I know, young one. I know."

"It's so hard…" Dusk cried into the metal chestplate, "I miss her. I miss them. I miss everyone that we've ever lost…Why must everything I touch turn to ash? Why is there only misery and destruction around me? Why couldn't I keep my happiness just a little while longer? Just so I could know what Greta and I could have been…"

"I don't know, Joel," The Fright Knight comforted his friend, "But now is not the time for answers. Now is the time for mourning. Just let it out."

Nodding, Dusk hugged his teacher tightly and sobbed out loudly. He let out all the pain that ached in his chest as the sunlight faded in the distance. Even as the sky grew dark, the Fright Knight did not try to move away from Dusk. He stood there and comforted his hurt friend and protégé for as long as the young warrior needed it knowing that the halfa would come out even stronger once the pain had passed.

* * *

Danny stood in the darkness. The silence of the graveyard was near painful to his ears. They felt like they were going to bleed. That was nothing compared to the painful imaged before his eyes. Valerie Gray received a simple grave. He felt that she deserved the largest and most intricate gravestone in the world. Hell, she deserved an entire tomb dedicated to her, but he knew that she would want to keep it simple. He could even feel a slight pain in the back of the head where she would have gently smacked him for even thinking about such a waste of time and money.

"And then we would have argued. You would have won, of course, but I never cared. It was part of the game. I had to at least try…" Danny knelt down and gently traced the words on the stone.

Grief and despair hammered at his heart. His limbs felt numb, and his eyesight became blury. He knew this was a bad idea. It would only make things worse to come visit the grave so soon. It was dumb to take Lydia's advice. He should have just gone back to work like he always did. That was always his plan. Distract the mind and let the pain heal slowly.

He needed to leave. The pain was too great. If he stayed any longer, he might start shouting and flaring his powers. As he stood up and turned to leave, he stopped though. It turned out that the cemetery wasn't as quiet as he thought. He was just filtering everything out like always. In his distraction, someone walked up behind him.

"Mr. Gray…" Danny's head bowed in shame at the sight of Valerie's father.

"Danny," Damon gave the younger man a sad smile, "Hello. I see great minds think alike."

"I…I was just leaving," Danny began to walk past the other man, but he was stopped when a firm hand landed on his shoulder.

"Don't leave just yet. Stay here a bit longer, will you? I could use the company."

Danny wanted to say no, but he couldn't. Not after what he took from this man, "…Sure."

"Thanks," Damon released Danny and peered down at the grave, "I don't want to be alone right now. I've been alone since it happened, and it hasn't made the pain hurt any less."

"But why me? I get that you would someone around to stop the loneliness, but…" Danny looked away in shame, "I was the one that took your daughter away from you. You should hate me."

"Hate you? I couldn't hate you Danny. You were the man that Valerie gave her heart to," Damon looked up to the sky wistfully, "I have to admit, I wasn't exactly thrilled when she started dating you…for many different reasons. But I got over it when I realized how much of a better person you made my daughter. That's what true lovers should be like. They bring out the best in each other. That's what you two did, and how could I even think about keeping Val away from that."

"She was pretty great on her own, though," Danny argued.

"Yeah, she was. But I'll be the first to admit that I spoiled her too much. She could be a brat to people way back when. Then the ghost problems started happening. Looking back, your influence on our lives is the best thing that ever happened to us," Damon stated.

"But it's my influence that got her killed! If I never interacted with her, she would have never become the Red Huntress and never died in battle!" Danny was in near hysterics at this point.

"And she never would have had the happiness and peace that I saw in her eyes every day," Damon's lips twitched into a smile, "I had never seen anyone as content as she was these past two years. If there is one single comfort I have in all of this, it's that she had a fulfilling and worthwhile time in this world. She made a difference and was proud of it…"

Danny shook his head, "It's still my fault that she's gone. I should have done something, anything, to save her. I failed her."

Small tear droplets began to roll down Damon's face, "You did all you could. I know that. She knows that. Everyone knows that. So stop killing yourself, you dumbass. You're the precious person that she gave her life to save. No matter what, you have to live. For her…I'll protect everything she cared about in her place. Because that's all I can do."

Damon reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope, "I managed to force myself to go through her stuff. It hurt so damn much, but I had to do it. And I'm glad I did. That girl of ours…she was something else. Smarter than anyone could give her credit for. She prepared for something like this. I think this one is for you."

Danny took the unopened envelope. The words 'For Danny' were written across the front.

Damon gently patted Danny's shoulder, "I think I'll head over to that mansion of yours. Maybe old Vlad and I can get stupid drunk and forget all our problems for the night. As for you, go get some sleep. You sure do look like you need it, son."

With that, Damon began to walk away from the grave. Danny watched as the man's retreating form. Once he was gone, Danny looked down to the envelope in his hands. With trembling hands, he carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the letter inside.

 _Dear Danny,_

 _There are only two reasons that you would be reading this. One, you decided to go through my stuff. If that's the case, stop it and put this letter away now before I kick your ass. If not then its reason two. I'm dead. If that's the case, then I'm glad you found this. Because knowing you, you're basically killing yourself over me._

 _I always knew the dangers of being the Red Huntress. There was always going to be the risk of death. But I didn't care, because I decided a long time ago that no matter what, I would fight by your family's side. No matter the consequences, I would fight until my last breath. That was my decision, so don't take blame yourself._

 _I want you to know, that I was always happy. Every day, I woke up with a smile knowing that I was doing the right thing and living a life of no regrets. This was especially true whenever I woke up next to you. Even with knowing that I might die, I never once thought about quitting. If I died that day, then I would die satisfied and happy. That's what's important. My life may have been short, but it was fulfilling. I with certainty that I would not have any unfinished business left to keep me here._

 _So, thank you Danny. Thank you for everything you've done for me. I know you must be hurting, but please don't let this break you. The world still needs Danny Phantom to make it a better place. Just like you did with me._

 _Hopefully, I'll see you in the next life, Danny. Then you can tell me about all the other adventures you had after you lived a long, fulfilling life. Until then, keep fighting, enjoy life, and make sure to get more sleep._

 _I love you with all my heart, Danny. Bye._

 _Love, Valerie._

Tiny drops of tears landed on the letter. Raising his soaked face, Danny looked up the sky to the glowing moon above him, "You came through one last time, Val. Thank you. I love you too. So much."

After gently bringing his fingers to his lips, Danny reached down and ran his hand across Valerie's grave one last time. Then, he turned and began to walk away. Before he exited the graveyard, he took one last look back, and then continued his trek home. Suddenly, the exhaustion was catching up to him. It was time to get some sleep, and this time, Danny knew that the dreams he had would be sweet and restful.

* * *

 _People often deal with grief in different ways and in different periods of time. For the three of us, though, that day was the first step in the road of recovery. While we would never forget those lost, we would continue to march forward. It's the good thing we did, too, because the world didn't stop spinning for us. The plans in the background didn't halt for our sakes._

 _Even as we began our recovery, our foes continued to work. They were relentless, and there were many of them. We would have to recover as quickly as possible to prepare for the next trial, because there were still friends that needed saving._

 _Morgaine le Fey didn't resurface much after that, of course, but truth be told, she was the least of our worries. She had her entertainment and wouldn't be back soon. With what was to come, I don't really blame her for disappearing. Considering what happened, she would have suffered just as much as everyone else. She probably knew that. That witch was always the cunning one._

 _I would bet she knew what the Light was planning. Of course, everyone knew that they had something planned, but no one could have predicted what was about to go down. All we could do was heal and prepare for the worst. Because the worst was what we were going to get. The Sorcerer Initiative was quickly coming, and we would need all the power we could find to fight against it._

 _-From the personal memoirs of Danielle Masters_

* * *

 **End Part 1 of 4**

 **Next Update: "Birthday" on September 14, 2015**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

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	10. Birthday

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new."

Sammy Hagar

* * *

Chapter 10: "Birthday"

(Saturday-January 18, 2014)

Midnight. The twelve and two zeroes burned into her brain as she peered at her clock. She had been dreading seeing that time for the past month. The holidays had been a stressful time for her. Christmas and New Years were bad, but the last week in general had been terrible. This day was coming, and no one could stop it.

"Happy birthday, Rachel," Rachel Roth mumbled to herself as she pulled her knees to her chest and watches as the time continued to tick away. She clutched her purple pajamas and sat on her the middle of her bed in her darkened room, "Time to bring the apocalypse to the world…"

Fear gripped her heart as she looked around her room. The large bookshelves and demonic figures on her walls did not make her feel better. Dani was right, she did suck at decorating. She should have let her friends do some changes to her room.

"Damn, I'm already going nuts if I'm thinking that," Rachel sighed and laid back on her bead.

Today was the day. The beginning of the end. He would be coming for her to send a message. The time of Trigon's attack was now on its final countdown. All he needed now was for his Gem to open a path.

"Today is going to suck so badly," Rachel closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. Despite her efforts, blissful unconsciousness never came for her. Instead, she just laid there and thought about what was to come. Who really knew what her father had planned for today…

* * *

Sweat rolled down his body in waves. It was a useless body function for him now. He didn't need anything to cool him down. Everything about him was meant to burn. He was a blazing inferno of awesomeness after all.

Still, the sweat did bring an old comfort. Even years after his death, Torch still enjoyed the stress relief that was his workout. The tired aching muscles, the feeling of being drenched in sweat, and the cleansed feeling always made him feel alive. Of course, there were downsides to feeling alive again. It brought back old memories.

Music trickled into his ears. He knew it wasn't really there, but he always heard it when he exercised. Ellie's voice called to him. She motivated and pushed them. They would accomplish their dreams together. That's what she said every day. Each workout, she would be right there playing the guitar. He always pretended to hate it, but he secretly loved every second of it.

"You will remember Torch's name…" Torch muttered to himself. The bars over his shoulders pressed down with the massive weights on either side of him. His bare torso shined with sweat. Tone muscled clenched with each squat. The fiery tattoos that covered his back seemed to dance with each movement.

Off to the side, his right hand Bullet stood waiting. Torch knew what the man wanted to talk about, but he wanted to finish his workout. He never quit in the middle of anything. No matter what, he finished what he started.

With one last squad, Torch stood and allowed the weights to drop. The clang and bounce of the metal echoed across the walls. The ringing didn't stop even as Torch approached his second in command.

Handing Torch the reports in his hand, Bullet raised a single eyebrow, "You've been working out a lot again. You haven't done that since your last confrontation with Miss Ember."

Torch grunted as he looked at the reports, "So? What of it?"

"Did something happen with her?" Bullet questioned.

Torch paused. With a shake of his head, he handed the reports back to Bullet and grabbed his shirt and coat, "Torch is taking the day off. You handle those reports."

Despite his surprised look, Bullet nodded, "Very well. May I ask what's making you act this way? You didn't deny my question about Miss Ember."

"It's kind of about her…" Torch muttered as he walked out of the workout area of the prison. He stormed through the halls while putting his shirt and coat back on, "I have to keep her from learning the truth…"

The fire ghost had been looking out for years now. He knew it was coming. It was surprising that it took three years, but Torch knew that it would happen eventually. That old man wouldn't just die. Torch and Ember had to get their stubbornness from somewhere after all.

"I knew you'd come back. Get ready, Dad, because I'm coming for you."

* * *

"Surprise!" Everyone in Masters Mansion's main hall cheered as confetti rained down on Raven.

Raven looked around with a deep frown, "I hate you all."

"Oh, cheer up, Rae," Spirit swung her arm around her friend's shoulders, "It's your sweet sixteen. You have to have a party."

"Idiot," Raven hissed in the halfa's ear, "You know what today means."

"Yeah, I do," Spirit whispered back, "And that's why we're using your birthday as an excuse to have dozens of superheroes guard you in the most secure location in Amity Park."

Raven paused. Slowly, she nodded in understanding. That did make a lot of sense. Still, she got the feeling that her friend really wanted to throw her a party with a way to avoid having Raven either complain the whole time or just run off. It seems that Vision had passed a few habits onto her protégé.

"Fine," Raven sighed with a hung head, "But I won't act happy…"

"That's good enough," Spirit raised her other arm into the air, "Happy birthday, Raven!"

Everyone cheered along with her, "Happy birthday, Raven!"

"Yeah," Raven swung a finger around nonchalantly, "Woo hoo…"

"Come on, Rae!" A monkey boy jumped on her back, "It's a party! Lighten up!"

"I don't do light. I am a creature of darkness," Raven mumbled.

"Even nocturnal creatures need to see daylight at some point," Cyborg chuckled as he walked up to his friend, "Come on, I know what will cheer you up. We have caaaaaaaake."

"…What kind?"

"Your favorite," Cybrog gained a large grin, "Chocolate with purple icing."

"…Alright, you win. But only because of the chocolate."

"Raven, Raven, Raven," Cybrog shook his head each time he said her name, "Don't you know? Chocolate always wins."

* * *

"We have the entire city prepped for battle," Phantom noted as stood around the kitchen table of Masters Mansion. The sounds of the party outside danced around his ears as he continued to go over strategy plans with the people around the table, "The automated defenses are prepped and ready to go. We have Damon and J.A.Z.Z. using the sensors to track everything on the ground while Etrigan, Vision, and her birds handle the skies."

"That is good," Aqualad nodded to his friend, "With the city having a first line of defense, we can focus our efforts on the mansion. The defense systems will help. And the guards…"

Fright Knight looked to the Atlantian, "Yes, Plasmius and Colossus will handle the guard duty. That is more than enough for the outside. The rest of us will surround Lady Raven and make sure absolutely nothing happens."

"Nightwing's keeping a close eye on her right now," Phantom placed his phone on the table. Various holograms and images hovered around them, "How are things going, Wing?"

" _Well, this isn't the craziest party I've ever been too, but a nice calm evening is good every now and then, right?"_ Nightwing spoke to both Phantom and Raven.

" _Personally, I think all this is too much. I'm much rather be doing anything else,"_ Raven spoke up.

"It sounds like we have done everything we could to prepare," Aqualad noted, "But I do have to ask, why not request help from the League?"

"I don't like to rely on them. Besides, who knows what they would do if they found out everything about Raven. Doctor Fate already wants to eliminate her. Only reason that hasn't happened was because Dora wouldn't let that happen," Phantom shook his head.

"The League would not eliminate her," Aqualad argued.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't put it above them to lock her up and throwing away the key…or just make her leave Earth," Phantom frowned, "And I won't let that happen. She's a member of my family, and I would never abandon her."

"If that is your wish, Lord Phantom, then it shall be done," Fright Knight bowed his head to his master, "I shall protect Lady Raven with my life. The family shall not be broken apart anymore."

"No, it won't," Phantom reached up and expanded one of the images. The holographic video shows a woman that was an older version of Raven. She had a tired expression on her face, a purple hoody covering her torso, and dark jeans covering her lower half, "And keep an eye out for Raven's mother. We don't know if Trigon will use her against us or not."

* * *

Dusk was not a party person. That was pretty much obvious to anyone that looked at him. Especially because all he was doing was sitting in the corner of the room. Even surrounded by friends and family, he wasn't comfortable in such a situation. The music, the dancing, the lights…none of them appealed to him. Of course, a lot of people in Young Justice were the exact opposite. They loved the party life.

"Hey there, Twilight!" Robin plopped down next to Dusk and swung an arm around the halfa.

Dusk's eye twitched, "It's Dusk. You know that, Robin."

"Yeah, well, that's for calling me Rollin for the first month I was on the Team," Robin chuckled, "You like that joke don't ya? I noticed that you do it with everyone. Although, I think that you get over it faster when you respect people."

"It's not a joke," Dusk argued, "I just don't bother to remember people's names if I don't like them."

"Now that I can get," Robin nodded in understanding, "There's not a whole lot of people I like at first. They always get on my nerves."

Dusk eyed the arm around his shoulders, "Yeah, nerves…"

Robin rolled his eyes and removed the arm, "Fine, fine. I can take a hint."

"Are thou sure about that, Robin?" Troia questioned as she walked up to the two teenage boys with a cup of punch in her hand, "Because I believe that thou are deaf to my words."

"Oh, you know you love me, Amazon," Robin grinned at her, "You're just too stubborn to admit. I know you just want to shove 'thy' tongue in my mouth."

"Thy words are ignorant and disgusting to my ears, thou pig," Troia pursed her lips.

"I love when you talk mean and dirty," Robin chuckled, "Do it some more, Princess."

"Just get a room already," Dusk shook his head, "You've been flirting like that for months. People can just feel the sexual tension oozing off of you."

"Nonsense! His very presence disgusts me," Troia argued venomously.

"Uh huh…" Sergeant Marvel snorted as he turned to them from the food table, "Then why do you keep approaching him?"

"I…um…"

"And why do you look at his butt whenever he's looking away?" Sergeant Marvel questioned.

Troia was shocked, "Wha…How…"

"Freddie!" Lieutenant Marvel punched her partner in the shoulder, "I told you that in secret!"

"Woops. Sorry. Must have slipped out…" Sergeant Marvel's dull tone made it seem like it wasn't an accident.

Troia blushed under the gazes of her teammates, "I…thou…Shut up!"

"You're even cuter when you're flustered," Robin's grin only grew as the conversation continued.

"I said shut up!" Troia stood up and marched off before Robin could say anything else.

"Hate to see her leave, but love to watch her go, right Dusk?" Robin lightly elbowed Dusk in the ribs.

Rolling his eyes Dusk began to get up and walk away. He was stopped by Robin when the Boy Wonder once again flung an arm over his shoulder, "Hey, man, don't leave. Come on, lighten up and let's have some fun."

"Parties aren't' my idea of fun," Dusk grumbled.

"God, you sound like Batman, and I get enough of that from him!" Robin let out a dramatic sigh, "Come on! We're young! We're badass! So we should party!"

"Those are not legitimate arguments for why we should party."

"I know, but it's sure as hell fun to say. Watch this," Robin then shouted out, "Are we badass, or what?!"

He was met with cheers from the members of Young Justice.

Sergeant Marvel snorted as he continued to snack at the food table, "Please. This is a party, you can people to cheer for almost anything. For example…Is this cake good or what?!"

He was met with cheers also.

"No one was asking you, Fredward," Robin pouted, "And besides this is good cake—stop trying to turn intangible, Dusk! I have a thermos, and I know how to use it!"

Dusk looked away and frowned, "Look. This just isn't my thing. I don't want to be here."

"Okay, okay, I get it, but we all need to get out of our comfort zones sometimes. It helps us forget the more unpleasant memories we have. Trust me, I know," Robin gave Dusk's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "Come on. Twenty minutes out here, then we can go to the training room and spar."

"…Fine."

"Alright! Because twenty minutes is all I need, man. First, we'll drink directly from the chocolate fountain. Then, we turn Raven's cloak pink just for giggles. And then, we do some flirting. You're my wingman now. You make it so Troia will at least give me five minutes, and I'll have you making out with Mary by the time the night is over."

"Eep!" Lieutenant Marvel gave out a tiny squeak from her spot beside Sergeant Marvel. She face flushed crimson as she placed her hands over her mouth in shock. Her reaction was only make more embarrassing by Sergeant Marvel's laughter at her reaction.

Obviously knowing that she heard him, Robin gave her a massive smile. He then pointed at her, move his hand to make a fake phone near his ear, and then pointed at Dusk. This only cause the blush and laughter to increase.

"No, I…I'm not interested in that right now…" Dusk shook his head later.

"Alright. I just wanted to test where you were at anyway. Let's just have some good old fun, and embarrass the hell out of our teammates, alright?"

"I think I can live with that," Dusk paused, "But I do think I could help you with Donna. She loves talking about weaponry. I think I could get you and her talking if I chose my words wisely."

"See? You're already thinking like a wingman. Give me some time, and I'll make you into a real party animal."

"Doubtful, but I'd like to see you try."

* * *

"This is amazing by the way!" Beast Boy shouted as he hung off of Cyborg's mechanical shoulder, "I knew that Fenton and Masters was friends of yours, but I can't believe they lent you this whole mansion just for a birthday party."

"Yeah, they're pretty cool. Although Fenton can be pretty uptight," Cyborg then glanced at Spirit, "Not to mention that Masters girl. I go to school with her, and I tell you, BB, she can be a total brat."

"Oh really? That's too bad," Beast Boy pouted.

"Yeah…" Cyborg glanced to Spirit one more time, "But she does have her nice moments…"

"I'm kind of surprised that you didn't tell Gar," Batgirl addressed Spirit as the halfa girl glared at Cyborg for his comment, "Everyone else on the Team knows after all."

Spirit looked away from the chatting guys a few feet away and looked over to Batgirl, "Yeah, well, I love BB. He's a ball of laughter and jokes, but he's kind of got a big mouth."

"Ah, got it," Batgirl nodded, "Not like I can talk too much about the secrets though, right? I mean, Batman keeps everything on a short lease. I'm still surprised that the senior members of the Team know so much."

"I may have let some things slip out," Nightwing grinned, "Batman wasn't feeling the aster on that one, but he got over it. Besides, how could I be the only one keeping secrets from the senior members. Especially after the first New Year we had."

"The famous first New Year…" Batgirl gave a wiry smile, "You know, you still need to tell me about that. If you don't, I might have to do a little hacking and find out the less difficult way."

"You're a hacker?" Raven raised an eyebrow, "Is that prerequisite for being a protégé of the Batman?"

"No, I don't think Robin is all that good with computers. Or at least not on our level," Nightwing sighed, "Of course, Batgirl is admittedly better than me with computers. She can do what I do with only half the processing power."

"And don't you forget it, Bird Boy," Batgirl chuckled, "After all, I was the one that got into your personal profiles and found out about that girl you were just—"

"Hey! You promised to keep that quiet," Nightwing hissed.

"And that should teach you not to challenge my skills," Batgirl winked at Spirit, "Can't let people question how good you are, right?"

"Absolutely," Spirit smiled back to Batgirl.

As the group of young heroes kept watching, Raven stood back and listened. Despite her earlier words, she was enjoying the party. Although she would never admit it, she always did enjoy being with her friend, even if they were often too loud for her tastes. This party was a nice. It was good to be surrounded by everyone she cared about with what she knew was going to happen today. She was feeling more at ease than she ever thought possible on the day her life was supposed to be ruined…

"Ah," Raven hissed as her hand suddenly burned in pain. Her reaction gained the attention of the people around her.

"You okay, Rae?" Spirit questioned.

Raven lifted her hand out of her cloak to show a glowing red mark on the back of her hand, "No…No, I'm not."

* * *

"Why do all of our parties have some sort of hidden agenda?" Zatanna complained to Phantom, "Can't we ever have a birthday party without a crisis happening?"

"Z, our lives are defined by crisis," Phantom mentioned with a shake of his head, "We wouldn't know what to do if our parties didn't end in extreme chaos."

"Still, Z does have a point," Rocket stated, "This whole party's purpose is to fight inter-dimensional demons. That's pretty intense even by our standards."

"Actually, that sounds like a real party to me," Superboy grinned, "A lot better than dancing and eating."

"What?" Miss Martian blinked at her boyfriend, "I thought you liked doing that?"

"Only when you set the party up for him," Kid Flash chuckled as he and Artemis leaned against each other, "Any other time, he just tolerates it."

"At least he doesn't complain about it all the time," Artemis gently nudged her boyfriend, "Whenever we do something that you don't like, the whole world has to hear about it."

"Hey, my Twitter followers deserve to know what's happening in my life," Kid Flash argued.

"Yes, all five of them," Aqualad smiled.

"Dude! Not cool!"

The group let out a round of laughter. It was always nice when the senior member of Young Justice got together like this. Phantom reminded of days past where they did this every day. Even with Nightwing guarding Raven, Red Arrow on his latest quest to find the original Roy, and Red Huntress…Well, it reminded him of simpler times.

" _Danny!_ " Damon's voice sounded through his Fenton Phone earpiece, " _Something's happening. The radars are going nuts."_

" _The temperature around the city is skyrocketing. The energy levels are off the charts too. And…I think mosters are breaking through the ground,"_ J.A.Z.Z. spoke up as well, " _It's not centralized either. It's happening all around the city! I've never even heard of anything like this in recognized files and doctuments. It's almost like the stories of when the gates of hell break loose."_

"That's because it has…" Phantom looked to Miss Martian, "Hook everyone up, Miss M. It's time for the real party to start."

* * *

Vision had a secret distaste of insects. It wasn't anywhere near a fear, but it was prevalent disgust. She just didn't like them, even when she was young. As such, when giant bugs of flames rose up from the ground below her, she was immediately displeased. She did not wish to fight bugs, even if the strange four-legged beetles seemed to be made of lava, smoke, and fire.

Luckily, she wasn't required to fight against the demonic bugs. Amity Park's defense system was already active. The guns and lasers popped up and were tearing through the lava beetles. Oddly enough, though, the bugs seemed to just stand there and focus on healing themselves. They made no move to attack at all.

"Something's wrong," Vision looked over to Etrigan, "Why send an army and not let them fight?"

Etrigan snorted, "Trust me when I say that this is only the tip of the iceberg of Trigon's power. He is very known across the universe for his devastating power and cruelty. Making an army of those things is nothing for him."

"If he's so powerful, then the bugs are merely a distraction. A way to redirect the defense systems," Visions frowned and reached for her earpiece, "I'll need to contact Damon and have him redirect the main directive of the turrets. We will need to—Ah!"

Vision flinched as her Fenton Phone earpiece suddenly sparked and crackled. She instantly removed the piece of tech and flung it away.

"Sorry, Miss, but I cannot allow you to do that," A very polite voice spoke behind the two flying spiritual beings.

Both Vision and Etrigan turned to see a man with chocolate skin floating in mid-air. His thin body was dressed in a dark suit that appeared to be made of silk. His red tie stood out from the rest of his appearance, including his slicked back, black hair and darkened eyes. A small smile was planted on his face.

"And who in the seven layers of hell are you?" Etrigan growled out.

"I do have a normal name, but I doubt it caries much weight. As such, dear friends, you may call me Greed," The newly named Greed smiled.

"Greed?" Vision raised an eyebrow, "You seem a little young to be the embodiment of a deadly sin."

"Well, miss, I am not really the sin of man in flesh. A better description would be that I am the seed of my father's greed," Greed explained with a gentle tone.

"Your father? And who exactly is your father, boy?" Etrigan questioned.

Greed just smiled.

"I can't be…" Etrigan's eyes widened, "He didn't!"

"Oh, but he did, and he has gifted me with some pretty impressive abilities," Greed eyed Vision's robes, "What elegant robes. So beautiful. I want them."

"Well you can't—" Vision's eyes widened as her robes seemed to come to live. The cloth wrapped around her body and began to move her body against her will. In a blur of motion, she sucker punched Etrigan and sent him reeling.

"Damn!" Etrigan hissed and clutched his bruised jaw.

"And now you're robes are in my possession," Greed continued to smile lightly, "As it should be."

* * *

" _The defensive systems seem to be working fine,"_ J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded through the Fenton Ops Center. The large metal operations center above the Fenton Works building was filled flashing monitors, expensive hardware, and readied weapons, " _But for some reason my communications…have..slowed…doooooown…"_

Damon looked up from his work station as the words became slowed and slurred, "J.A.Z.Z.? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, man, she's just taking a little break…" A rather bored and dull voice spoke up from across the room.

Damon jumped to his feet and pointed an ecto-pistol at the voice. By the main hardrive of the computer connected computer systems, was a rather shaggy looking young man. He wore an old brown coat and faded jeans with multiple holes in them. His brown hair was unkempt and long enough to reach the center of his back. Unshaved stubble danced across his bored and dirt-covered face.

"Who are you?" Damon demanded.

The man removed his hand from the tech and shoved them into his pockets, "Does it matter?"

"Yes! This place is impenetrable! Who are you, and how the hell did you get in?" Damon was ready to pull the trigger.

"Gah…" The shaggy man groaned, "Fine, fine, my brothers call me Sloth."

"Sloth?" Damon frowned, "Why would they call you that?"

Sloth's tired eyes bored into Damon's distressed orbs, "It's a pain, really, but I suppose I could show you. It won't take too much effort to deal with you, after all."

* * *

"Give some space, Plasmius!" Colossus roared as he shoved Plasmius away. They stood on the streets of Amity Park's higher class neighborhood. Masters Mansion was not far from their position. Unfortunately, they would not be able to get to back to the mansion with their current condition.

Hot rage danced around Plasmius's mind. His temper was always a weakness he had to deal with. Press the right buttons, and anger was always at the front of his mind. This was especially true when things reminded him of his earliest years in life. He remembered back in high school. The swirlies. The assaults. The _pushing_. He hated the goddamn _pushing_.

Trembling, Plasmius fought against the rage in his mind, "Colossus…You must calm yourself. This rage is not your own. It is him."

Plasmius gestured to the smug looking man not far from them. He was an extremely large, muscular African-American man. His dark hair was pulled back into dreads. Red eyes glowed in glee. Large arms were crossed and caused the muscles to almost bulge out of the tank top on his torso.

"Wha? Me? I haven't done nothing to you, big guy…" Wrath chuckled, "I'm just standing here. It's that vampire man that's getting all up in your grill. He thinks that he's big shit. He thinks he's smarter than you!"

"Raw!" Colossus shoved Plasmius once again, "He's right! I'm sick of the fancy words and demeaning looks! Who cares if you're a little smart! I can crush you like an ant!"

Plasmius grinded his teeth together in an effort to not lash out, "I am not so weak that you could defeat me with such ease, Colossus."

"Oh, really?" Colossus shoved him again, "Then put your money wear your mouth is, weakli—"

Plasmius used his ectoplasm to push Colossus in a blast of magenta energy, "Very well! Let's see what you're really made up, you stupid brute!"

Wrath just grinned. That was too easy.

* * *

"Damon?! J.A.Z.Z.?! Plasmius?! Anyone, answer!?" Phantom spoked into his Fenton Phone earpiece, "Damn it, no one is answering. What the hell is going on?"

"Trigon," Raven's mother, Agatha Roth, spoke up as she walked over to where Danny's group was located, "This is what happens when he wants something. Every obstacle in his way crumbles."

"You have to be kidding me," Superboy gained a looked of scrutiny, "Amity Park is damn near perfectly defended. How the hell could anything crumble the defenses so easily?"

"Trigon is not a being that you can explain with simple logic," Agatha shook her head, "He is a near omnipotent being. Your simple guns and fighters have no chance. His only limitations is that banishment that was put on him millennia ago. He can't directly interfere with this dimension until the passage is opened by Raven."

"But how could he fight against Colossus if he can't directly interfere?" Rocket questioned.

"It is very simple," The group was surprised when Troia approached them. With each word, she drew closer to the group until she was standing right in front of them, "My Amozonian sisters know many tales. One of which is how the gods designate fighters and demigods to act on their behalf. That is the case here. Trigon has demigods fighting for him."

"But how do you know that's the case now?" M'gann questioned.

"Because I'm one of them," Before anyone could react, Troia flung flash pellets to the ground. The blinding light caused everyone in the group to flinch back as their senses were impaired. In the chaos, Troia moved. She sent massive blows to all of the members in the group. Most of the superhuman members of the group were fine, but Artemis and Zatanna were instantly knocked out by the sucker punch from the Amazon.

By the time everyone in the immediate area regained their senses, Troia had grabbed Agatha, pulled her a good distance away, and was holding a knife to the older woman's neck.

"Troia?!" Kid Flash snapped as he knelt down to examine his injured girlfriend, "What the hell are you doing?"

"What I need to do so Father's wishes will be done, you know what I mean?" Troia gained a sick grin as her form shifted and rippled. In a sickening display of morphing, Troia changed into the form of Wonder Woman, "Of course, I didn't expect it to be so damn easy. Take the form of the girl's mentor, hit here while her guard's down, and then do that same to you dopes using her form. I guess that old dude is smarter than I gave him credit."

"A shape-shifter," M'gann glared at the fake Wonder Woman, "But…something's off about you. Those hits were just like the ones Troia uses. Shape-shifting shouldn't let you do that."

"Oh, but I'm not normal shapeshifter," The fake Wonder Woman snickered, "I can take the form and abilities of any object of a massive amount of envy. Luckily, a LOT of women are envious of the Amazons."

"I see…" Agatha glanced at the fake Wonder Woman out of the corner of her eye, "I wasn't the only one Trigon seduced, was I?"

"Ding ding ding! You're spot on, Aunt Agatha," Envy grinned, "Ain't that right, boys?!"

It was at that moment that the still conscious members of the group noticed that there were other strangers in the room. Over in the corner was a very handsome man with defined facial features, slick black hair, and a rather built body frame. A bright blue bodysuit covered his body and drew a lot of attention to the man. This man was closest to Raven. Spirit stood protectively in front of Raven, but the rest of the people in her group had abandoned the effort and was fighting amongst themselves. Nightwing, Batgirl, Cyborg, and even Beast Boy were all arguing and bickering about who appreciated the man most.

At the far end of the room was a rather obese man. His simple white shirt and jeans were covered in food stains. The man's round was seemed to forever be in a squinting position as his shaved head wrinkled in thought. He piled handfuls of food from the table into his mouth as he stood over the Marvel duo who seemed to lose all their impressive muscles and was bone thin.

"Of course. Father always had a way of manipulating people to get what he wants," Lust mentioned as he eyed Raven.

"Yeah," Gluttony mumbled between bites, "Course, he only had one girl. Guess even a god can't choose what gender's going to pop out. Took seven tries to finally get the Gem."

Raven's eyes darted among the new enemies in the room, "I have…brothers? But...I don't…Why?"

"Oh, dear sister," Envy snickered, "Do you need to clean the wax out of your ears? You should really have learned the full requirements of our Father's return. The Gem needed to be a girl. Unfortunately, we were disappointments…until now. Now, we get to play our part."

"Come, Pride," Lust smiled brightly to his sister, "It is time for the End to begin."

"And before you say no, just look around," Gluttuny chuckled out bits of food, "We have your friends at our mercy. Come with us to see the Messenger, or we'll kill 'em."

Raven looked around in despair, "I knew it. This was never going to work…Fine. Let's go. I suppose it's unavoidable."

"No!" Spirit grabbed Raven's arm, "You can't just give up. We'll find a way to win! Like we always do!"

Raven jerked her arm free, "Look around, Spirit. We've already lost. I have to go."

"But—"

"Hey girly! Shut up already!" Envy held the knife closer to Agatha's neck, "We're in control here, not you. Come on, Pride! Time to go!"

"Yes, it's time…" Raven did nothing as a black portal opened below her and began to pull her down. In fact, no one did anything as the same thing happened to all of Raven's brothers and her mother. In mere seconds, they were gone leaving only the now silent party behind.

* * *

"We need to get everyone back into fighting condition right now," Phantom grunted out as the young heroes in the room pulled themselves together. It had only been a few minutes since Raven disappeared, but even that was too long. They only had so much time to get Raven back before something bad happened. Phantom knew that much for certain.

"We're trying, Bro," Kid Flash stated as he helped Artemis back up to her feet.

"I found Troia!" Robin called from the hall, "That shapeshifter guy shoved her into a closet."

"I think she will be fine," Dusk mentioned as he helped Robin carry her, "She just needs a few minuted to come to."

"Unfortunately, that's not time we have…" Freddie grunted out. After the demon guys left, he and Lieutenant Marvel used the opportunity to change back into their child forms. Now they could only hope that when they changed back into their hero forms that they would be back to normal.

"Fred's right," Spirit glared around the room, "The first part of Raven's prophecy starts right now. This is our best chance to derail it. After this, things will only get tougher."

"We know, but we can't just rush in," Superboy frowned, "Their powers are strange. We'll need a plan to take them down."

"And that is why I have already created a plan."

Everyone turned to see the Fright Knight walk into the room.

"You have a plan already?" Aquagirl questioned.

"Yeas, I situated myself down in the lab during the party. I managed to get a quick observation of the six foes that have already appeared," Fright Knight explained, "They're powers seem to revolve around the seven deadly sins. Unfortunately, they were well aware of who their abilities would influence the most. But there is a bright side. With the right teams, I believe we can strike fast and take them down, Lord Phantom."

Phantom nodded quickly, "And you've come up with a strategy?"

"Yes, we need to break off into a few squads to fight back properly, but if we get the right match ups, we might very well win quite easily," Fright Knight bowed his head towards his master, "I am confident that the strategy will succeed, my liege."

"That's a bold statement. You only give your word like that when you mean it," Phantom smiled, "Alright, I trust you. What do we need to do?"

* * *

Raven groaned as she dropped to the ground. While she was used to traveling through magic protals, that one seemed to be a lot different than normal. It was more…potent with the evil influence of her father. It made her feel sick and disoriented.

"We have brought her as instructed," Lust spoke up first, "Your strategy worked."

"I knew it would," A deep gravely voice spoke out from the darkness in the room, "The information Master has provided me was more than enough to pick them apart."

"Yeah!" Envy let out a high pitched laugh, "Right now, they're licking their wounds! They have no idea what hit them!"

"I wish I got to absorb more of their energy," Gluttonys spoke through a mouth full of potato chips, "Those two Marvel guys has some tasty power. I bet some of the other ones would be even better."

"You'll have your chance. Knowing that Phantom fool, he'll have his team back up and ready in no time, and when he does come, I'll have the pleasure of burning him into nonexistence," The voice chuckled out.

Raven pushed herself up and peered into the darkness. Her vision saw clearly through the darkness. The sight before her rocked her to her core, "But Danny said you were dead…"

"Of course he did. He tried to kill me after all," The man stepped out of the darkness. His head was shaven, but a thick white mustache stood tall above his lips. A white suit showed of his rather built and muscular frame. While his skin was tanned and darkened, the more defining features on his body were the glowing red demonic tattoos that danced over his face and the rest of his body.

"Agent Z…" Raven whispered in horror. While she never fought against the man herself, she had seen the result of his actions. This mad had led a full assault on Amity Park, killed Klemper, tried to invade the Ghost Zone with an army, and then later betrayed Joel at the Ghoul Project. Needless to say, he was one of the Phantom Family's most dangerous enemies…before he supposedly died, "No…My Father saved you, didn't he?"

"That he did, Pride, that he did," Agent Z grinned widely, "Master Trigon knew that, out of everyone he could have chosen, I was the person best suited to get under the ghosts' skin and make sure that the return was eminent."

"Of course, there was Freakshow too," Envy spoke up as he pushed Agatha Roth away, "But Death had too tight of a hold on him."

"I doubt I would have worked well with that freak, though," Agent Z shrugged, "He might hold a grudge for imprisoning him and locking away the key. Besides, he's not one to follow orders."

"And you are?" Raven shook her head, "You're an idiot, Z. You think my Father will actually give you what you want?"

"Oh, I know some his promises will never come to be," Agent Z snorted, "He promised a lot of shit that I know is lost forever. My family and life have been gone for a long time now. His promises are completely empty in that regard, but there is one thing that he'll have to give me when he returns."

"And that is?"

"The end of the goddamn Phantom Family," Agent Z let out a growl, "Even if I don't get to do it myself, Trigon will have to do, because knowing them, they'll try to stop him. And the only result that can come from that is their complete demise."

Raven lowered her head. She knew deep in her heart that the man was right.

"So, for revenge, I'll do whatever Trigon asks," Agent Z stepped closer to Raven, "And it starts with making sure that the message is given to you."

Raven did nothing as Agent Z stood over her.

"Too think, a threat that was far greater than the ghosts was in Amity Park this whole time," Agent Z spoke with a wistful tone, "If I had known that back when the Guys in White were still around, I would have made sure killing you was a top priority. Now, though, keeping you alive is my prerogative. Funny how things work out, eh?"

"Weird. Torch was thinking the exact same thing."

Raven was shocked when Agent Z was hit with a large ball of fire. The ball exploded out once it made contact with Z and sent the ex-leader of the GIW flying away. As soon as that happened, Torch appeared in a blaze of fire. This lit up the room and revealed someone else in the room.

"Chuck?" Raven's eyes widened as Youngblood floated at the entrance of the room. The forever young ghost pointed his sword and shouted out a command to charge. Dozens of pirate ghosts and skeletons charged into the room and began to fight against Raven's brothers.

She had been wondering where the ghost was during her birthday party. Now that she had her answers, she was now beginning to wonder why he was hanging around with Torch.

"Thanks for the heads up, Agatha," Torch addressed the woman even though he didn't take his eyes away from the smoking area that he just sent Agent Z, "Leave the rest of this to Torch and Youngblood."

"And thank you," Agatha ran up to Raven, grabbed her arm, and began to move her out of the room, "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"But…What's going on?" Raven questioned as she was dragged by her mother.

"While I trust Danny, I thought a back up plan was necessary," Agatha pulled Raven to the door, "I won't let Trigon win. He can't have you."

"Mom…" Raven felt tears began to form in her eyes.

"Now let's get—Youngblood what are you doing?" Agatha frozen when Youngblood suddenly jumped in their path. Her question was quickly answered when a wall of black flames jumped up at the door frame and created a wall in front of their exit.

"He only needs Raven alive, not you," Youngblood noted, "You need to be more careful."

"R-Right…" Agatha nodded slowly. She was about to respond as dark flames burst around the room and cause the temperature to rise drastically. The group of three turned to where Agent Z was sent flying just moments ago. The large man slowly rose from his position on the ground. Black fames began to dance around him. With a wave of his hands, the agent of Trigon summoned several lava beetles from his flames to fight against Youngblood's pirates.

"And here I thought you were just a passive woman. The prefect hostage," Agent Z chuckled as he popped his neck, "But actually doing something to save your daughter? I'm impressed. Next time, though, I won't underestimate you."

"Tsk," Torch jumped in between Agent Z and Agatha, "Don't ignore Torch. Torch will be your opponent today."

Agent Z watched a crimson flames blared off Torch in waves. The man just chuckled, "Really? Is that all? I have to say that I'm not impressed at all, kid. Your flames are weak compared to the flames of Trigon. You'll never be able to hurt me with your weak fire."

"Oh really?" Torch formed a burning scythe in his hands, "Challenge accepted."

* * *

Wrath frowned as his little party was broken up. He had been enjoying the fight between the two ghosts. A brawler against a tactician. That was fun to watch. Of course, neither really gained an edge on the other, but it was still fun to watch. So why did those dumb heroes have to come in and ruin his fun?

Just as Plasmius and Colossus were about to seriously clash against each other, both ghosts were tackled. Sergeant Marvel jumped on Colossus' back and began to use his super strength to drag Colossus away. The massive brute fought against this, but he was forced several steps back before Sergeant Marvel was forced to let go before the giant could grab onto him.

Sighing, Sergeant Marvel jumped back. Colossus instantly turned and snarled at him. In his blind rage, the massive ghost swung wildly at the agent of Shazam. His moves were uncontrolled and wild. He seemed to lack any conscious control over his motions to the point that he didn't even use his shockwave ability to enhance the blows. Using his incredible speeds, Sergeant Marvel just dodged the blows. He didn't try to counter attack, because he didn't want this to be a full fight. Right now, he was just a distraction that could take a hit by the giant if necessary.

As this was happening, Cujo in attack form jumped on a surprised Plasmius and tackled him to the ground. Unlike Colossus, Plasmius had enough frame of mind to avoid redirecting his anger to someone else. Seeing his family dog, Plasmius instantly went from a kill strategy to a stun strategy. He tried throw Cujo off of him, but the attack dog refused to budge. Even as Plasmius struggled to free himself, Cujo held strong and kept Plasmius from attacking Colossus once more.

"Eh?" Wrath uncrossed his arms and glared at scene, "Who said you could jump in and ruin my fun?"

"I did!"

Wrath didn't see the blow coming. Lieutenant Marvel jumped out of his blind spot and sucker punched the demon. Surprised by the suddenness and power of the blow, Wrath could do nothing as he was punched into the ground. His head slammed viciously into the earth below. His body twisted and the earth crumbled before the force of his fall.

The female agent of Shazam would have followed up with that attack, but she paused. Memories of the last time she got out of control with her powers flared in her mind. She had promised herself that would never happen again. Thus, she stopped herself and flew back. It wasn't like the man would get up after that punch…

"Eh, not bad girly," Wrath chuckled as he pushed himself off of the round. He grinned at the girl and loudly popped his neck, "A few more of those, and I'd be hurting pretty badly."

Lieutenant Marvel quickly shook of her shock and took a defensive stance, "Alright. I guess that I'll just have to hit you some more."

"Hahaha! Well let's see if you can do that when I know you're coming—" Wrath was cut off when he was sucker punched again. Sergeant Marvel had rocketed forward from his spot by Colossus and hit the demon before he could react. Once again, Wrath was sent tumbling to the ground.

"Stay back," Sergeant calmly addressed the ghosts behind him. Both Colossus and Plasmius were in a dazed state behind him while Cujo stood by guarding them.

"Damn. Forgot about that," Wrath grumbled. He pushed himself up and rubbed his soar jaw, "Got to focus on 'em if I want to control their anger."

"Good to know," Lieutenant Marvel noted, "Thanks for the info."

"Eh, you already figured that out beforehand, though," Wrath chuckled, "You must be the brains of the two of you. Course you have the girl do the dangerous stuff while you take all the credit."

"Please, are you trying to make me mad?" Lieutenant Marvel scoffed, "Getting mad would be too much trouble."

"Huh?" Wrath's eyebrows rose, "What about you, girly? Can't take me on your own, so you need help from this douche?"

"I always accept help from my friends," Lieutenant Marvel declared proudly.

"…Oh, shit…" Wrath remembered something that his Father told him before all this. Shazam chose his agents very carefully after what happened with Black Adam. He required that any users of his magic be 'pure of heart.' And that meant, they wouldn't get angered by his influence.

"That was what we were wanting you to say," Sergeant Marvel mentioned as the Marvel duo rushed towards Wrath and beat him down once more.

* * *

"Peek Noisiv morf gnivom!" Zatanna shouted as the Superscycle flew her up to where Vision and Etrigan were flying above the city. While she could use her own magic to create a platform below her, she wanted to have her full concentration on stopping the demon's control on Vision's clothes.

Greed pursed his lips as his control over Vision was halted. It now felt like he was pushing against a wall to get to Vision to do what he wanted. Perhaps he should just focus more. His powers were always stronger when—

"Woah," Greed ducked under a kick directed at his head, "Didn't see that coming...literally. You can turn invisible?"

Miss Martian frowned as she exited her camouflage mode, "Mostly, it's camouflage."

"What an interesting power…" Greed smiled, "I find you Martians very interesting overall. So many powers…I like that…"

While this was happening, Zatanna and Etrigan were helping Vision into the Supercycle. Vision, however, didn't look like she was appreciating the help, "I can't believe it…My clothes were a weakness…I would have never thought of that…"

"There are some werid powers in this universe," Zatanna noted, "I still can't believe there's a Box Ghost."

"Your words ring true…" Vision frowned under her veil, "I'll need to come up with a contingency plan for such an unusual power…"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," Etrigan stated, "Until then, though, get her away from here, Zatanna. I'll help Miss Martian…who's charging to attack you right now. Damn, I'm really hating today."

Etrigan jumped in the way of Miss Martian and stopped her from attacking the weakened Vision. He was surprised when her form shifted and several arms grabbed and struck at him. Despite the pain, the demon did not release the Martian. He refused to let any of his friends get hurt.

"Did you really think that I could only control inanimate objects?" Greed smiled. His arms were extended, and his fingers moved about like the was controlling a puppet, "It's just more difficult to control people. But if I want a person's ability, I can control them just fine. In fact—"

"Let go of my sister!" Beast Boy cried out as he transformed from a green bird into a screaming monkey.

"AH! Monkey in my hair! Get it off!" Greed shouted out and clawed as Beast Boy bit at his head.

"Gar!" M'gann cried as the control over her was lifted, "We told you to stay at the mansion!"

"I thought you could use some help! And I was right!" Beast Boy grinned as changed back to his regular form, "Let's take him down!"

* * *

Sloth peered down at the weakened Damon Gray. All it took to take down the man was one punch. It had nothing to do with the strength Sloth possessed. After all, Damon towered over the demon's much thinner frame. That didn't matter to Sloth, though. Everything crumpled before his laziness.

"Arg…" Damon groaned out weakly. His muscles were now degraded and thin. The clothes that covered his body were now ripped and stained. A thick, bushy beard hung from his chin, "What did you do to me?"

"I just made you into what you would be if you were lazy," Sloth shrugged, "Just like with the computer lady."

"Damn," Damon tried to swing at Sloth's legs, but he felt too weak to move quickly. Sloth easily countered and kicked Damon across the face.

"Nice try, guy," Sloth shrugged and moved to sit down at Damon's station, "Don't worry, though, man. I'm not here to kill you. I already did my job, so I can sit back and—OOF!"

Sloth grunted as he fell to the ground. Groaning, he rubbed his soar backside and looked around, "Hey…Where did the chair go?"

"I took it."

"Ow!" Sloth hissed in pain as the chair slammed into his face. Now angered, Sloth pushed himself up and looked around.

Kid Flash stopped his fast movements and grinned at the demon, "Didn't see that coming, did you?"

"Craaaaaap…" Sloth groaned, "I thought the others were going to take care of you…"

"Yeah, well, they failed," Batgirl mentioned as she knelt by the computers. A holographic computer popped out of her gauntlet, and she began to interface with Amity Park's defense systems, "Keep him off me, KF. I'll get the systems back up and running in a minute. Might take a while to fix J.A.Z.Z., though."

"Hey!" Sloth moved to stop Batgirl, "Get away from—OW! Stop hitting me!"

Kid Flash once again rushed forward and struck the demon. Before Sloth could counterattack, the speedster rushed off and grinned at his enemy. To his surprsise, though, a long red beard appeared from his face, "Woah!"

"How do you like that?" Sloth wiped his bloody lip, "Anyone I come in contact with turns lazy into a lazy version of himself. And now, you won't be able to—"

Kid Flash once again punched Sloth in the face.

"Damn it!" Sloth cursed as he clutched his bleeding nose, "How can you even move!? I made you have the body of a sloth!"

"Dude, I already am a sloth," Kid Flash snorted, "It takes a lot to get me off the couch some days, but my powers makes it so none of my muscles degrade. The beard is a nice touch, though. I wonder if Artemis will let me keep it."

"She won't," Batgirl noted as she got the defense systems under control.

"Ah, can't you just let me hope for a few minutes?"

"Nope."

* * *

Torch's element had always been fire. Even when he was alive, his temper and passion easily aligned him with the flames. His life had been defined by fire. Of course, it was fire that also ended his life, but he didn't like to let that keep him down. To him, that meant that his very existence was defined by burning heat.

As such, he took pride in his flames. It was the one thing that he surpassed everyone in. No one could ever compete with his fire control and intensity. That was something everyone acknowledged. In the end, though, Torch knew that there had to be someone that could surpass him. He wasn't so arrogant to think that he was unbeatable. Still, he never suspected that it would be his father that would beat him in the department of fire usage.

"Tsk…" Torch hissed in pain as he looked down where his hands met his scythe. While the weapon was basically untouched, his arms were another matter. His sleeves had all but melted away. His arms were covered in burns and blisters. For the first time in years, Torch felt the pain of being burned, "Torch is impressed."

"And I'm bored," Agent Z grunted. Black Flames danced around his arms, but not a single burn covered his clothes or skin, "You can't compete with the flames of Trigon. He uses the very flames from Hell itself. No mortal can ever compare to that."

"Torch begs to differ!" With a grin Torch rushed forward again. Crimson flames danced around his scythe as he swung it at the agent of Trigon.

The flames around Agent Z's wrists spread out like a miniature shield. He then blocked each blow with in an almost bored manner. Each time the scythe and black flames met, a burst of fire blasted out and scorched the area around them. Unfortunately, only Torch was hurt by this. The black flames clung his body and began to burn away his clothes.

Seeing that the close combat tactics weren't working, Torch jumped back and sent serveal fire balls to distract Agent Z. This didn't entirely work, though. The agent of Trigon did nothing as the fire balls hit him. They were merely overcome by the intensity of the black flames on his body. Nevertheless, he didn't chase after Torch. Instead, he just stood there and waited.

With enough distance between him and his foe, Torch gathered his flames for a larger attack. The fire danced around the end of his scythe and formed a circle around the blade. Then, Torch thrusted the scythe out and let out a shout of battle. A pillar of fire blasted out from Torch and rocketed towards Agent Z's location.

Shaking his head, Agent Z formed a similar circle around his arms. Like Torch, Agent Z thrusted his arm forward and sent a blast of straight flames out at the fire ghost's attack. The two attacks met in a blaze of heat, and the black flames immediately overtook the crimson flames. Z's attack then continued forward and smashed into a shocked Torch.

The flames instantly covered the stunned ghost like a blanket of torture and agony. Crying out in pain, Torch collapsed to the ground. He began to roll around and use his own fire control to smother the flames. Slowly the fire dimmed, but the damage had already been done. Torch's body was now completely covered in burns and blisters.

"Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww…." Torch groaned as he laid beaten on the ground.

"It was a valiant effort. I'll give you that, spooks," Agent Z sneered at the fire ghost. He lifted his hand and began to gather his flames for a final attack to finish Torch off, "But it wasn't enough. I may not have been given a weird, special power like the Sons of Trigon, but I've been given a portion of his raw power. You could never compete with that."

"Damn it…" Torch muttered as he struggled to get up. Each attempted ended with him collapsing on his face, though. Shame rocked Torch's core when he realized just how pathetic he looked.

"Sorry, kid," Agent Z mentioned as the flames around his fingers grew, "Nothing personal. I've just got a job to do."

Just as Z was about to finish Torch off, he paused. A blaze of blue ectoplasm surged through the area and froze several of the lava beetles fighting against Youngblood's forces. Agent Z grinned as he recognized the energy. The ghost was finally here. The whole reason he played around for so long…

"Danny Phantom."

* * *

Gluttony really couldn't explain what had happened. One minute, he was absorbing the energy of all the pirate ghosts, which was a surprisingly delicious meal. The next minute, the room was suddenly freezing and covered in blue light. That was not something he was used to. Cold didn't suit Glottony very well. He gained his father's affinity to heat.

Pausing, Gluttony tried to look where the source of the blue light was coming from, when he was suddenly hit by something metallic and hard. The force caused the obese man to roll a few times before flopping in a heap. Unable to get up quickly, Gluttony could do nothing as the follow up kick slammed into him and knocked him into the wall.

"Huh?" Gluttony groaned as an arrow shot out at him. Just before it hit him, the arrow burst out into a net and covered the large man, "What the hell…How could you hit me? If people come into direct contact with me…"

Cyborg cracked his mechanical, "You can absorb their muscle strength, right? That's what I thought when I saw what you did to Lieutenant and Sergeant Marvel…Man, that's a mouthful. Can we shorten their names?"

"Let Nightwing do it, he's good with names," Artemis pulled out a foam arrow and pointed it at Gluttony. She would have preferred to get back at Envy for that sucker punch, but she was the only person that specialized in far range combat that didn't use energy attacks."

"Ah…" Gluttony gave Cyborg a look of disgust, "No muscle. Just rust and oil. That doesn't sound tasty at all."

"It's not supposed to," Cyborg stated, "Now stay down, or get beat down."

"Please," Gluttony began to clench his muscles…fat…to snap the net, but was stopped when Artemis fired her foam arrow. Immediately after that, Cyborg rushed forward and punched him squared in the nose, "Ow!"

"Damn, that's like punching a marshmallow," Cyborg mentioned as he stood ready to prevent Gluttony from moving.

"That's a nice change of pace," Artemis readied another arrow, "Because punching you hurts like all hell."

"Guess there are some upsides to being mostly metal," Cyborg chuckled as he looked down at the trapped and defeated Gluttony.

* * *

Lust smiled at his newest opponents, "Well, hello there. How are you?"

Silence.

"The strong silent types, eh? That means you prefer your fists to your words," Lust continued to smile, "Then, would you kindly fight each other, please? It would very much please me."

The response was to punch Lust in the face.

"Ah!" Lust cried out in pain. He jumped back and held his swelling, cut lip, "Wha? How did you resist my suggestion?"

"Only Lord Phantom gets to give me orders," Fright Knight stated.

"I don't even like fighting in the first place," Dusk noted, "Trying to get me to fight against my own friends is a stupid idea."

"Yeah, and I'm really bad at following orders," Robin spoke up, "And I mean REALLY bad. Sometimes, I don't even follow my own advice. And that leads me to get into a lot of trouble. I mean the kind of trouble that involves Batman lecturing me for hours…Which I basically tune out anyways. So, yeah, I guess I have selective hearing too…What were we talking about again?"

"And we can add a short attention span to the list," Despite the situation, Dusk couldn't help but smile at the antics of his teammate.

"So…That means…" Lust's jaw dropped, "My powers are useless on you three?!"

"Pretty much," Fright Knight shrugged.

"Oh…" Lust quickly turned and began to run away, "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Robin growled and began to chase after Lust, "Hey! Get back here, pretty boy!"

Fright Knight was about to chase after Robin but paused, "A teenage boy pursuing lust…Even I can't resist commenting on that."

* * *

Envy paused as he, even if he still appeared like Wonder Woman, was surrounded by the bubble of purple kinetic energy. Both Rocket and Troia dropped in front on his now trapped form. He had to admit, this was a good starting strategy. Wonder Woman really didn't have a whole lot of ways to escape a kinetic bubble.

"Nice, nice," Envy nodded, "You're using the weakness of the form I used. Very smart, humans, but do you really think that this is the only form I can take?"

Envy's form began to shift once more. This time, however, he took the shape of the Flash. With a wicked grin, Envy began to vibrate his molecules through the kinetic bubble. It was a rather slow process ironically, but he soon managed to get his head and hands outside the bubble.

Of course, this allowed Troia to repeatedly punch him in the face. Envy instantly pulled his body parts back into the shield, "OW! Damn it!"

"Do thou think that we are that stupid," Troia glared at the man, "We are well aware that thou can change into multiple forms. However, I did feel thy punch, which was cowardly and pathetic by the way…"

"Getting off topic, girl," Rocket gently chastised her friend,

"Yes, forgive me," Troia coughed into her fist, "Anyway, I recognized that you do not gain the full strength of my sister. That means that though cannot equally match the people thou copies. Thy attempt to vibrate through the bubble failed because thou cannot full match the Flash's ability to vibrate his molecules."

"Damn…" Envy muttered, "Didn't think you'd get it that fast…"

"But please don't let my realizations stop thee from trying to escape," Troia grinned at him, "I will enjoying stopping thy escape attempts in a very violent and vengeful manner."

"Woops," Envy rubbed the back of his head, "Guess I chose the wrong girl to piss off. Great, now I have to actually use my brain for once…Maybe I can try turning into Batman or something. He's good at escaping things, right?"

"Just try it," Rocket dared, "We have three proteges of Batman here ready to stop you."

"Well, crap," Envy's shoulders slumped, "Dumb brats actually got me corned. If I wasn't so upset, I'd be congratulating you…"

* * *

Phantom came crashing through the ceeling and stood protectively in front of Torch. Blue energy poured off of him and instantly clashed with the burning flames. Looking to the source of the flames, Phantom felt his insides flip in surprise and fear, "Agent Z?"

The fallen agent grinned at Phantom, "Hey there, Phantom. Miss me?"

Phantom only glared back to Agent Z. Even when Superboy and Nightwing fell down and helped Phantom surround Agent Z, he didn't change his expression. In that moment, Phantom was too consumed in his thoughts to use his voice.

Agent Z snorted, "Lost for words? Don't blame you. I was pretty much dead the last time you saw me. Especially because you were the one that did the final blow."

"Because you were suffering…" Phantom argued weakly. He glanced back at Torch for a brief moment, "Is he the real deal, or did Trigon make a fake to get under our skin?"

"Torch…" Troch groaned as he lay near motionless on the ground, "Torch is certain that's the real Agent Z. Torch just knows…Torch feels it."

"I see…" Phantom clenched his fist, "So you're real, huh? I guess Trigon really is a powerful guy, huh? He steal you from Death…Why didn't she tell me…" Phantom only whispered that last part.

"Kid, you have no idea," Z snorted, "Trigon is a god…a demon…a demon god. You won't believe the things he can do. You have no chance."

"I remember you telling me that two times before," Phantom noted, "If I remember correctly, I came out on top both times."

Agent Z frowned deeply, "That's different. I doubt even ascended ectoplasm could do anything to Trigion."

"Alright, now this guy is just talking out of his ass," Superboy mentioned, "Can we shut him up?"

"That's the plan," Nightwing readied his stun batons, "But be careful. He just beat Torch at a fire throwing contest. He might even be able to burn you."

"I'd like to see him try," Superboy cracked his knuckles.

* * *

"Come on, Rae," Spirit helped her friend up, "Time to go."

"Yes!" Aqualad shouted. He was holding off the lava beetles from the inside while Aquagirl and Tempest were using water from the fire hydrants to make a path outside the warehouse, "I do not know how long we can last. I can already feel the heat draining me."

"Right, right," Raven nodded, but as she was being dragged out the door, she suddenly hissed in pain and dropped to the ground.

"Raven!" Youngblood looked down in alarm at his fallen friend, "What's wrong?"

Agatha knelt down and gently moved Raven's cloak to reveal that her entire body was covered in demonic tattoos. Seeing this, Agatha instantly moved back just as a spark of dark magic blasted out to hit her, "The close proximity to her brothers have stirred her demon blood. She's losing control of her powers. We can't get close."

"…Yes, I can," Spirit gritted her teeth and lifted Raven over her shoulders. She then hissed out in pain as Raven's demonic magic began to blast against her angrily. It cut and snapped at her body as she gently pulled Raven up. It only took a few seconds for her to be covered in bleeding wounds. Despite the pain and blood, she refused to drop her friend.

"You can't do that, you'll kill yourself," Agatha warned.

"Don't…care…" Spirit groaned out in pain, "Have to…save friend…"

Gaining a look of resolve, Youngblood floated over and began to help Spirit, "Yeah, you're right. We won't lose any more friends—OW! Ah! That hurts! Owey!"

"Big baby," Despite the pain, Spirit laughed a bit as Youngblood shared her fate, "Come on, let's get her out of here."

* * *

Agent Z was surprised when Phantom's cryoplasm actually managed to push back his flames a bit. It was a lot different than trying to overpower Torch's fire. Of course, given enough time, Z was sure that he could fight against the cold with ease, but Phantom's friends didn't give him a chance.

Nightwing decided to keep his distance. Instead of running up close, he electrified some of his shruiken and threw them at the ex-GIW leader. Shocks instantly went through Z's system. The pain distracted him from trying to concentrate on the ice and cold.

Just as the electricity faded, Superboy rushed forward. He hit Z with several hammering blows to the stomach. The agent of Trigon reeled from the force of the blows. Even with Trigon's power, Z could feel the pain from the force of a Kryptonian punch.

Unfortunately, the pain only increased Agent Z's anger. The anger then fueled his fire. Just as several ice broadswords stabbed themselves in the ground around him, Agent Z blasted a massive wave of fire off him. The result of the fire instantly melted the ice, sent Superboy flying away from him, and caused Nightwing to flee back in caution.

Phantom's eyes widened as his blue hands remained on the concrete below him. He was hoping the catylyst strategy with his ice swords would work, but Z's fire proved to be more intense than he expected.

"ENOUGH!" Fire and smoke filled the entire wearhouse and caused everyone in the area to flinch, cough, and collapse from the heat. Completely distracted from the attack, no one could do anything as Agent Z rushed to Raven's location with speeds that was far above that of a normal human, "TIME TO END THIS!" Agent Z violently ripped Raven away from her friend's grasps and held her up in the air by her throat.

Agonizing pain shot through Raven's entire body. She instantly screamed from the torture. As she screamed, her two normal eyes shifted into four sideways slitted, red eyes. The demonic tattoos on her body danced around as her magic lashed out all around her.

In that moment, time froze for the people in the room. The area around them shifted, though, and showed a scene that could only be described as hell on Earth. Buildings were crumbling. Hundreds of people were turned to stone. The ground was covered in boiling water. Demons flew through the area and attack the humans that were not turned to stone.

The gore that followed once the demons caught the humans made the heroes feel like vomiting.

There was one thing that was even worse than that sight, though. At the center of all the chaos was a being as large as a mountain. His appearance could only be described as satanic. His skin was an angry crimson. His lower half was that of a hooved animal. Sharp white teeth rose from his mouth just like the sharp horns that rose from the top of his white hair covered heat.

The massive being sat on a thrown. The terrifying part of the thrown was that it seemed to made up of a crashed and destroyed Watchtower. All around him was the forms of broken and unmoving heroes. All of them were powerless to stop him.

Four sideways slitted eyes opened and glared down to where Raven was, " **This is the fate of this world, Pride. Everything shall burn and die. Nothing can stop it, because it is meant to be. And it will be you, my precious Gem, that brings about this apocalypse. The day soon approaches. Be prepared, daughter. The next phase of my return starts now.** "

With that, the scene faded away. They were all left back in the burnt and smoking warehouse. None of the heroes moved. They were too shocked and fearful to move even an inch. The only one that wasn't paralyzed in fear was Agent Z. He quickly dropped Raven and turned back to Phantom, "Part of me wants to go for the kill now, but I want you to suffer first. I want you to see that become reality. And when it does, and everything you care about is gone, I'll put an end to your pathetic existence. Until then, live in fear knowing that we'll be back, and we'll be even stronger. Come on, brats! Time to go!"

In a blaze of black flames, all the demons in Amity Park disappeared. In their wake, they left an eerily silent city, a few abandoned fights, and a very frightened group of heroes.

* * *

Raven frowned as all of her friends slumped in depression in the now quiet Masters Mansion. The demonic tattoos and uncontrolled magic had already faded, so she was now back to her normal pale skin. As soon as this happened and the heroes regained their composure, the heroes quickly returned back to Masters Mansion. No one seemed in the mood for such a thing, though. Everyone refused to speak and seemed to being a very good Raven impression.

She could now see why people always tried to cheer her up. It was terrible to see people look so depressed. This wasn't going to change her normal behavior, of course, but it still gave her a good understanding.

Peering across the room, Raven sighed and said, "I'm sorry."

Everyone lifted their gazes to look at her.

"I tried to warn you. That was I was worried about. My Father will stop at nothing to make what you saw a reality," Raven looked down in sadness, "I thought that maybe if I came to Amity Park then maybe things could be changed, but I was wrong. My father is too powerful. I understand if you want me to leave Earth."

"Who said anything about that?" Dusk suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, Rae. We may be a bit…shocked, but we don't plan on just abandoning you," Cyborg mentioned.

"But…You saw what I can cause. It's not safe to keep me here," Raven argued.

"You think that matters to us?" Spirit questioned, "Cause it doesn't."

"We don't abandon friends," Superboy stated with a glare, "No exceptions."

"Yeah, we'll just have to rethink our strategy," Artemis spoke up.

"We'll need more…everything," Batgirl mentioned, "Weapons, security…

"And a lot more people," Aquagirl agreed, "We might need to do some recruiting."

"But this isn't over, Rae," Beast Boy looked up to the now sixteen year old woman, "We'll always have your back just like you'll have ours."

"Yeah," Miss Martian gently patted the top of her adopted brother's head, "Well said, Gar."

"You all still belive that?" Raven questioned with wide eyes.

"We do, Lady Raven," Fright Knight bowed his head, "We will protect you and the planet from the demonic forces of your father."

"Yeah, I mean…We've fought worse odd before, right?" Kid Flash questioned.

"Um…Maybe with Freakshow…" Zatanna mentioned.

"Either way, we won't give up," Robin noted, "Not on the world, and definitely not on you."

"…Thank you," Raven's eyes teared up a bit. With a shaky smile, she used her magic to levitate the turned over food table and lift up the cake, "Um…I know that the moods kind of ruined, but…If you all want, we can still have the party."

Everyone smiled. Though their hearts held a great fear from what they witnessed today, they still pushed on. They knew that the trials to come would be harsh, so it was best to enjoy the peaceful time they had left until then.

* * *

They stood on the roof of Masters Mansion. All four of them were silent as they looked over Amity Park. Everything turned back to normal when the demons had left. It seemed their influence only held over things and people when they were in the same area. Still, while the physical signs were mostly gone, the memories were not going to fade any time soon.

"So…Agent Z," Phantom sighed as he stood at the edge of the roof.

A now bandaged and slowly healing Torch nodded as he sat by the standing Phantom. He was one of the few that held visible injuries from the ordeal, "Sorry that Torch didn't tell you when Torch felt his presense. Torch just…wanted to keep it in the family."

"So that guy's you're dad, huh?" Nightwing questioned as he leaned against the door to the roof, "Damn, it seems like everyone we know has some messed up family issue."

"That is the problem. Our blood ties does not come from our own choices," Aqualad noted.

"True," Nightwing nodded and then looked to Phantom, "I thought that you…took care of Z years ago at the Ghoul Project. Does that mean that Trigon can bring any of our dead enemies back?"

"I don't know…" Phantom shrugged, "I thought death was absolute, but…I guess a deal with the devil can bring you back. At great cost, though…"

Torch sighed, "It might seem cruel, but Torch was relieved when you killed Torch's dad. It brought and end to his suffering. Now…it's only gotten worse. No one in Torch's family is good at following orders. To willingly submit to someone else's power like that…He's fallen even further."

Phantom nodded slowly in agreement, "Killing Z…I never really let it weigh me down. At least, not nearly as much as I let other things do. I gave him every chance to surrender. He refused and suffered for it. To me…it was an act of mercy. A quick painless death over a long agonizing one. People may argue that I was wrong, but…"

"I believe you made the correct choice," Aqualad spoke up, "In reality, things are not always in black and white. Sometimes, you have to make choices that people will never agree with, even if they were the right decisions."

"Thanks," Phantom smiled at his second-in-command.

"Now, though, we still have to deal with Agent Z, the Sons of Trigon, and anything else Trigon can cook up," Nightwing frowned, "And I wouldn't put it past Trigon's powers that he could have watched us all this time. For all we know, he knows everything about us. Our strengths, our weaknesses, and our secrets. How do we fight that."

"I have no clue. Right now, we just continue to build up support and go from there," Phantom noted, "And we can think of ways to take on the part of Trigon's forces that we already know about. We already know that we can counter the powers of Trigon's sons, but Z's raw power and fire…We might need more fire uses, especially ones that could work well with you."

Torch glared up at Phantom, "No. You know that Torch will refuse such a request, especially in front of people who don't know."

Phantom glanced to Nightwing and Aqualad, "Those two are my second and third in command. They need to know everything in case something ever happens to me. Especially if you-know-who ever catches wind of all this and figures it all out, which is likely to happen. So, either you agree and we can come to a proper decision, or we leave things up to chance. And if my memory serves me, chance has never been kind to your family."

Torch paused for a moment in though. Then, he let out a deep sigh, "You're right. Ellie will be affected by this no matter what. I just…I want to protect her."

"I do too," Phantom knelt down and placed a gentle hand on Torch's shoulder, "I want to protect her, Raven, and the rest of my family. Please, help me do that."

Torch frowned but relented nevertheless. Before he revealed his greatest secret to Phantom's friends, though, he had one condition, "Alright. Torch agrees, but we're not bring Ellie into this if we don't have to."

"Agreed."

* * *

Ember was absentmindedly tuning her guitar. She had a few days before her next concert, so she decided to sit back and relax for a bit. Every once and a while it was nice to sit back and smell the roses. It wasn't like she got the chances to do that anymore. Well, more accurately, she didn't give her a lot of chances. She was the once that chose to be a rockstar, after all…

Still, she could have given herself more time to go home…well, to Amity Park. Ember didn't know if she could call it home anymore, at least after not all that happened with Trever…Torch…Jerkface. Whatever his name was. She didn't really care at this point.

Of course, she shouldn't take her anger at her brother out on the other ghosts of Amity Park, but Ember wasn't stupid. After having her memories jogged, she remembered a lot of things about when Danny and Trever intereacted. They always gave her a weird look. That meant Danny knew, and he never told her.

It was probably because Trever asked him too. Douche! He chose Trever over her after everything they went through together? The only reason she didn't yell at the dumb halfa was because of what happened with Valerie. He was suffering enough as it is. She couldn't kick the guy while he was down.

Still, Danny had to have a good reason for keeping it from her. Trever must have had a convincing argument, and that meant that there was more to this than Trever let on during their, really Ember's, yelling match. After cooling down, she realized that Trever's reason for pushing her away was probably the reason she and Danny broke up. Having relationships that pulled her away from her obsession would hurt her. Ember knew that much. So, one day, she would have to apologize to Trever for yelling…or kick him the in balls. Maybe both.

Despite realizing all these things, ghough, Ember felt as though she was still missing something. She didn't know what, but it was there. It was a glaring problem. She could feel it right on the tip of her tounge, but—

Ember's eyes suddenly snapped up. A weird feeling passed through her spine. She felt a spike of energy appear a long distance away. Very far away. It felt like heat…passion…anger…Why did it feel so familiar? It was almost like with when she was alive, and she got a lecture from her dad.

…Her dad…

Ember's eyes widened, "That's it…Whatever happened to Dad?"

* * *

 **Next update: "Valentine" on September 28, 2015**

 **For those of you that weren't aware, the Sons of Trigon is actually a canon DC team. I did not make them up. Although, I did modify their abilities a bit. Why can't any of them be the Portal for Trigon? The Gem needs to be a girl. That's basically all there is to it.**

 **Also, to my knowledge, Raven's birthday really doesn't have an official date in DC continuity. I did look, but I couldn't find anything. So, I made one up that fit in with my story. Just watch, though. Her birthday date is going to magically appear on her wiki page now, even though I looked everywhere else for it...**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	11. Valentine

Disclaimer: I own nothing

 ***Important AN at the bottom***

"Love is when the desire to be desired takes you so badly that you feel you could die of it."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

* * *

Chapter 11: "Valentine"

(Friday-February 14, 2014)

"H-happy Valentine's Day, Joel."

Joel gave a gentle smile as he politely took the card given to him by a girl. She was admittedly pretty, but her features blended in just like everyone else in this school. Her brown hair and brown eyes were shared by everyone it seemed. He strained himself to remember her name. There were so many he had to remember, after all.

"Thank you, Ashley," Joel stated in a kind voice, "I'm sorry, but I don't have a card for you."

It was understandable. The days of handing out Valentine's Day cards to everyone had passed when he entered middle school. Part of him missed those days, though. Having little cards ready for everyone always made this less awkward.

"It's fine…" The girl gained a brilliant blush across her face. Some of her friends stood behind her as support, motivating her to continue, "But…if you want to repay me…not that you have to, of course! I mean…if you want to, maybe we can go see a movie tonight or something…"

Joel admired her courage. Several girls had given him cards and gifts. Most of them looked at him expectantly, like he was supposed to immediately request a date. He had danced around this all day and was trying to rush out the door when he was stopped one last time. This girl, however, was the only one that had the initiative to ask him out herself. It must have been difficult and embarrassing. In that moment, Ashley was elevated in his mind.

But that didn't mean he had to say yes.

"I'm sorry, Ashley," Joel was sincere with his words, but as soon as he said them, Ashley's face fell in despair, "But I—"

"He already has a date tonight."

Joel blinked as his right arm was grabbed. A body somewhat smaller and definitely more feminine than his own hugged against him. A quick glance to side revealed who it was.

Cassandra Cain gave the girl a cold smile, "So you can walk away now,"

Ashley's friends looked like they wanted to protest, even as the girl deflated. They obviously wanted to ask who Cassandra even was. She obviously didn't go to their school. One look was all it took for them to back down. Cassandra's glare instantly warned them that none of them stood a chance against her. She could and would snap them like twigs.

"Come on, Joel," Cassandra began to lead Joel out the doors of the school, "Let's go."

Joel glanced over his shoulder to the saddened Ashley. He gave her an apologetic smile even as he was dragged away. Once out the doors, Cassandra began to move away from the school. Joel did nothing to fight against her until they were several blocks away from the eyes of his schoolmates. Once they were far enough away, Joel tugged his arm away from her.

"You didn't have to do that, Carolina," Joel glared at her, "You hurt her feelings a lot more than I would have."

"Oh really? You would have made a dumb excuse and gave her some false hope? I think that's crueler than what I did. It's better to have the truth shoved in your face so you can move on, in my opinion at least," Cassandra then glared at Joel, "And would you use my real name. I know you know it, or do you only use it when you're asking me to help you fulfill the wishes of a different girl…"

Joel ignored the jab to Greta, "You still didn't need to act like you were going to kill them…"

"Oh, please, don't act like you actually care," Cassadra gained an amused look, "In the grand scheme of things, they really don't matter in your story. Their fate is vastly different than ours. They will live normal, happy, and unaware lives. People like us, though, don't have the luxuary of such things. We're the people destined to change this world for better or worse. It's a burden that will weigh on our shoulders for the rest of our, possibly short, lives."

"Everyone matters, even if it's just a little bit," Joel argued, "Don't look down on them."

"I don't. In fact, I envy them is some ways. But that doesn't change that their fate is vastly different," Cassandra noted, "They were not born as one of the elite. The gap between us is too great for them to even conceive."

Joel's words died in his throat. Despite his hatred of the fact, they were in fact born differently. It was a cruel fact, but people didn't get to choose what place their born into. But… "Still, people can make choices to decide who they want to be. Just look at us. We chose to be something different than what our parents wanted."

"…That is true," Cassandra conceded, "We have tried to fight against fate. I wonder if we'll actually succeed."

They were silent for a few seconds, before Joel spoke up again, "By the way, why are you even here? Do you have more info for us?"

"Not really," Cassandra shrugged, "There's little word on the Sorcerer Initiative. I can tell you that it's going to happen soon, but Phantom already knows that."

"Then why are you here?"

"Boredom," Cassandra admitted, "Not a lot goes on during Valentine's Day for the Shadows. Almost everyone gets the day off. Would you believe that Ra's Al Ghul is a hopeless romantic?"

Joel stopped his walk and gained a combination between a sneer and look of disgust, "I cannot picture that at all."

"Well, apparently he is. Weird, I know, but I guess everyone has a hidden side to them," Cassandra laughed a little at Joel's look, "So everyone pretty much had plans for today. Even my parents met up today for…stuff. I even heard that Jinx had plans. Hell, the only one to be around was Ravager, and I had no desire to go out flirting and dancing with her. She's such a huge tease."

"Now that I can picture," Joel admitted.

"So, I decided to come here, annoy you a bit, and get you to pay me back for my favor," Cassandra gained a sly look.

"I would just love to, but…" Joel gained a small grin, "As I was going to Ashley, I have plans. Operation Romance the Amazon."

"What?"

"I promised Robin to help him with his date. It took forever to get Troia to agree to go out with him, and he wants everything to go right," Joel stated, "That's where I come in. Time to use my special skills to make sure she's swept off her feet. It's the perfect use of years of harsh training."

"I see…" Cassadra paused in thought for a second, "You need any help?"

"…Sure, why not?" Joel nodded slowly, "Besides, I could use some help from someone that actually knows something about romance."

* * *

"When exactly did we become A-listers?" Dani questioned her friends as they sat on some benches in the center of their city's park. None of them were bothered by the cold winter weather because of their coats and high level endurance. She had a rather awkward day of avoiding people she didn't want to talk with her and being avoided by people she actually wanted to talk to. According to her friends, it was because she was the 'Queen Bee' of the school now.

"Since the beginning of the school year," Rachel noted as she peered down into her dark covered book, "The old A-listers graduated, and moved on. It had to fall on someone's shoulders, and considering that we have one of the richest girls in the world and a football star in our group, it would inevitably be us…Well, mostly you. Apparently, I'm just your satellite."

"The mildly attractive girl that orbits of the popular girl?" Victor questioned, "I wouldn't exactly call you that. I mean, you do hide your features behind black makeup and hoods, but you're still an attractive…not that I mean it that way!"

"I know what you mean," Rachel idly glanced over to Dani, "But I think satellite perfectly describes me. Caught in something else's orbit. Always trying to escape, but the pull it too strong. Never able to fall completely and end the suffering in a blaze of fire I can't think of a better way to describe my relationship with Dani."

"Oh, ha ha," Dani smiled at Rachel, "I know you love me, Rae Rae."

Rachel just mumbled incoherently.

"That reminds me," Youngblood, who looked like a normal child under his disguise belt, glanced at Victor for a moment before looking away towards a scene outside the park, "How do you even still play football? I never bothered to ask because…you know, but since the topic was brought up…"

"Disguise belt. A lot of padding. Limiters to my strength and speed to give others a real chance," Victor shrugged, "Not that big of a deal."

"Not a big deal? I remember you complaining about it before…" Rachel mentioned.

"Yeah…I guess, I just got used to it all," Victor briefly gained a displeased look, but quickly let it drop, "Let's…just change the topic."

"Alright," Rachel looked in between Victor and Dani, "Any plans for today?"

"Nope," Dani was busy looking at her phone. A dull look covered her face.

"Er…" Victor rubbed his chin.

Dani looked over to him in surprise, "Oh? Who's the lucky girl? Is she from our school, or is she part of the Team?"

"It's, um…I don't really…" Victor glanced to Youngblood, "Hey, Charlie what have you been looking at for the past ten minutes."

"Nice change of topic, Vic. Really smooth," Youngblood mentioned.

"And you're avoiding the question," Rachel looked up from her book, "What would make you want to do that?"

"Nothing much," Youngblood noted. He absentmindedly petted Polly as the bird sat on his shoulder, "Just saw Johnny 13 and Kitty at that coffee shop. Just wondering if they were getting into trouble."

The three other members of the group followed Youngblood's line of sight. The ghost couple was, in fact, in a coffee shop. They seemed to be flirting and enjoying their day together.

"And if you could join in on it?" Dani questioned with a michevous grin.

Youngblood grinned back, "I would if they were going to do anything. I've heard that they've calmed down a lot since Morgaine's attack. No longer getting into anything fun…Like a bunch of people I know…"

"Is that a shot at us?" Victor questioned.

"Of course it is," Youngblood shrugged, "None of you play anymore. No hide-and-seek. No tag. No random basketball games. It's all school, hero stuff, and…teenage stuff. You're growing up. It's just like I thought would happen."

"Is that why you really left?" Dani suddenly asked.

Youngblood paused and glanced to Polly, "Yes and no."

"So it was a reason?"

"Yeah…It was. But I'm here now. Might as well enjoy being around you before you all grow up and become boring."

* * *

"So? You have any plans?" Conner Kent questioned as he helped Danny with setting up the table in an empty dining hall, "Going to spend any time with Torch?"

"Oh, hardy freaking har," Danny frowned as he folded a napkin into a swan, "It's not like I get that joke every damn year."

Kaldur smiled as he placed candles on the table, "It is a tradition. We cannot let it just drop after all. It is one of the few things that we have that gets under your skin."

"Besides the Inviso-Bill thing," Conner snorted.

"Oh just yuck it up," Danny smiled lightly despite the comfort, "The perfect way to repay the guy that got this whole room booked for you and your 'normal' friends."

"And I do thank you for that," Conner looked across the room to see Mal Duncan looking over a list of things. Somehow, he and Mal got stuck with the heavy work of setting this all up. Luckily, Conner had connections that he could call to help him, "But it's not like this was my plan. M'gann thought it would be a good idea to have a group Valentine's Day event, or whatever. I think she got it off a TV show."

"Like everything, right?" Kaldur shook head.

"Hmm…" Danny looked over to Mal, "That guy…His girlfriend is working with the Atom, right?"

"Kind of," Conner shrugged, "She's studying at the university he teaches at. Apparently, she's his favorite student."

"I heard that Atom was thinking of taking on a protégé of his own," Kaldur mentioned.

"Which means more work for me," Danny mentioned.

"Don't act like you're not a workaholic," Conner snorted, "Even today, you're rushing around helping other people with their plans, right?"

"Not like I got anything else to do today…" Danny mumbled.

That was all it took for an awkward silence to spread throughout the group of three. Even now, Valerie's death still hung over their heads. She was the first…only member of Young Justice to die so far. The blow was something that always hurt them. None more so than Danny, especially on a holiday where he was used to spending almost the entire day with his now deceased girlfriend.

"Um…Perhaps a change of subject is in order…" Kaldur finally spoke up for a minute, "Queen Mera has set me up a date for tonight. You may proceed with the jokes."

Danny brushed off his darker thoughts and instead focused on the moment, "Really? It's about time you got back out in the game…Oh wait, you've never been in the game."

"Right? Did you and Raquel even go out on a date back when she was into you?" Conner grinned wildly.

"No, we did not," Kaldur shook his head.

"Then that explains a lot," Danny looked to Conner, "Right?"

"Yep. It totally explains why you're so stiff most of the time," Conner agreed.

"I think that he needs something," Danny suggested.

"Right," Conner looked to Kaldur, "What do you need, Kaldur?"

Both Danny and Conner then spoke at the same time, "WHAT DO YOU NEED?"

Kalur just placed his face in his palm. That was what he got for trying to cheer up the situation.

"Am, I, uh, interrupting something?" Mal questioned as he approached the group.

"No, we were just finishing," Danny smiled as he stepped away from the table, "Come on, Kal…Let's get you to that first date of yours."

"Now I know what it is like to be Wally," Kaldur sighed as he began to walk away, "It almost makes me want to go easier on him."

"No it doesn't," Danny argued.

"…You are right. It does not." Kaldur admitted.

"Alright, thanks for your help, Aqualad, Mr. Fenton," Mal called after them.

All three of the other people in the room froze.

"Relax, I've known for a while," Mal smiled lightly, "Despite what people think, I'm not a muscle bound idiot. Not that I'm nearly as smart as Karen, but still…I can still figure out that two of my closest friends and their friends from 'out of town' look a lot superhero sidekicks…and a famous inventor. Don't know how you fit in, but it's admittedly pretty damn cool."

"What are you going to do with that information?" Conner questioned his friend from high school.

"Nothing really," Mal admitted, "I just thought that you should know, Superboy. Because, my girlfriend has been very secretive lately about some of her projects. She's always busy, and I think she'll be even busier when she joins a 'special team of people her own age.' And all I want to do is spend more time with her. Even if I have to do some stupid job like…answering phones or something…Please don't make me wash spandex, though."

Conner paused then looked to Danny, "You know…He is a communications major."

"Really?" Danny gained a pensive look, "That's interesting. We've been looking for a communications guy…"

* * *

"Is everyone in position?" Joel questioned with a hand over his earpiece.

" _You bet!"_ Marry cheered.

" _I guess…_ " Freddie sighed.

" _I have a perfect view of the targets,"_ Cassandra spoke in a serious voice, " _I will ensure that everything goes correctly."_

" _Girl, you can tone it down a bit,"_ Batgirl sounded amused, " _It's not a real mission, or anything. We're just helping Rob with his date."_

" _This is still a mission for me though, and as a professional, I need to complete it with the best of my ability,"_ They could almost picture the serious expression on Cassandra's face.

" _Okay, Joel, why'd you invite the super serious chick?_ " Freddie questioned, " _And why is Batgirl here?"_

" _Freddie! Don't be rude!"_ Mary sounded scandalized.

" _Oh please, I'm just asking the obvious questions,"_ Freddie's voice sounded bored and uncaring, " _We've got one of our moles here. That's weird enough. But Batgirl? Come on. We're thirteen so it makes sense that we don't have dates, but there's probably lines of guys waiting to ask her out."_

" _I didn't know that you were such a flatterer, Fred,"_ Batgirl's voice was laced with amusement, " _You're not wrong in a way. But my dad's kind of an intimidating person. Besides…the only person I'm interested in was busy today."_

Joel knew what that meant. Nightwing was probably off on one of his conquests. He had seen the man's little black book. It had not been little at all.

" _Um…Why not have a girls night? I know a bunch of older girls that do that,"_ Marry sounded weak and embarrassed as she spoke.

" _I thought about that, but apparently Zatanna and Raquel both have dates tonight,"_ Batgirl chuckled, " _Weird last names too. Constantine and Noble. They seem really into them, though, so I thought might as come help out our cute little Robin."_

" _You do realize that all this talking is compromising the mission?"_ Cassandra questioned.

"It's fine," Joel noted. He stood outside a rather crowded café decorated with hearts and cupids. Inside Robin and Donna were sitting across from each other. Like his predecessor, Robin wore dark shades over his eyes and a dark hoody when trying to act as a civilian without revealing his secret identity. Donna, on the other hand, wore a black, silk blouse with dark jeans, "The hard part is already over. Now, we just have to make sure nothing messes this up."

" _Meaning 'stop Robin from saying something stupid'?"_ Freddie questioned.

"Pretty much," Joel admitted with a shrug.

From his spot at the table, Robin smiled at his date. He had an earpiece so he could hear his teammates' conversations. He had to fight not to snap at them, "Um, thanks for agreeing to go out with me today."

"No problem," Donna gave him an amused look, "I couldn't resist after seeing how nervous thou was. Usually thou acts all cocky and boastful. It was a nice change of pace."

"Yeah, well don't expect it a lot," Robin frowned, "After all, I'm the best at—Ow!"

Robin rubbed the back of his head. Freddie had discretely moved across the crowded room and smacked him on the back of the head. Once he was out of hearing shot, Freddie noted, " _I love my job right now._ "

Robin forced himself not to glare at the retreating from of Freddie, "Huh…I guess it's a bit crowded in here."

"Indeed," Donna picked up her menu and looked at it, "I do hope that the crowd does not interfere with their service."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Mary noted as she stood by the table in a water uniform. Robin almost felt his jaw drop at the fake mustache on her face and the fake, masculine voice that jumped from her throat. It was the worst disguise he had ever seen, "Can I take your order?"

"Yes," Donna did not look up from her menu, "I would like one of these Frappuccinos along with a few biscuits please."

"And you, sir?" Mary turned to Robin.

Robin glared at her, "Dark coffee. Make it really, REALLY strong."

"Coming right up~"

"What a nice waiter," Donna noted as she lowered her menu and looked over to her date.

"Y-yeah…"

"I do hope that…" Donna blinked at the vase of flowers that was now in front of her, "Where did that come from?"

"Huh?" Robin blinked at the dozens of flowers that had been placed in front of them. He had only been turned for a brief second. Someone would have to be really skilled at stealth to do that, "I, uh, I guess the café put them out."

"Oh, how nice."

" _Nice touch, Cass."_ Batgirl spoke through the coms system.

" _Thank you. It was a challenge to sneak around Robin, but as always, I accomplished my mission,_ " Cassandra sounded satisfied with herself.

" _And now it's my turn,"_ Batgirl smiled as the lights dimmed. This caused all the customers to look around in surprise, " _It was too easy to hack into the power grid, and even easier to get into the sound system."_

It was at that time that gentle jazz music rang through the building. The employees were desperately trying to figure out what happened, but luckily the customers seemed to enjoy it, especially Donna. A large smile lit up her face.

"Here's your order," Mary quickly placed their drinks and food down before rushing away.

Looking around at all that happened, Donna let out a rather amused chuckle, "This is nice. I'm glad I agreed to come with you."

"Yeah? See, I told you that I would show—Ow!"

Freddie had once again smacked Robin on the back of the head.

"Yes, this is quite enjoyable," Donna lifted her drink to her lips and took a light sip, "Especially with the added enjoyment of seeing our friends fumble around trying to help you."

The coms system suddenly went silent. This only lasted a second before Cassandra spoke again, " _We're compromised. Aborting mission. We should blow the building to cover our tracks."_

" _Girl, calm down. It's not the end of the world,"_ Batgirl snorted out her response.

"You knew, huh?" Robin deflated a bit.

"Of course I did," Donna shook her head in amusement, "Freddie's been running across the room for ten minutes. Mary's wearing a fake mustache. And I can clearly see Joel outside the restaurant."

Joel waved to them through the window.

"…He told you, didn't he?" Robin sighed.

Donna nodded, "Yep. Why do you think I agreed to this date anyway?"

"Um…Because I'm devilishly handsome and charming to boot?" Robin suggested before he was smacked again by Freddie, "Ow! Damn it, we're done now, Freddie!"

" _I know. I just wanted to get in one more free shot before I left,"_ Freddie noted, " _Come on, Mary. Let's go get a pizza, or something."_

" _Oh! Pizza! Yah!"_ Mary darted out of the café. Freddie was right behind her.

" _Sounds good. Count me in,"_ A red-headed customer suddenly stood and exited the building in a more dignified manner.

"So…you're not mad?" Robin questioned.

"Of course not. I actually think that it's nice that we have friends that are willing to help us," Donna noted. She then reached out and gently took on of his hands in hers, "Besides, I thought that thou was too proud to ask for help. Seeing all this, though…It let me see thee in a new light. I like this side of thee. So, I'll give thee one chance. Don't mess it up by doing something stupid, okay?"

Robin glanced over to Joel to see his friend give him a thumbs up. He then looked back to Donna, "I won't. I promise."

* * *

"I can't believe it…" Dani stared at her phone in shock, "Everyone is busy. The only person that doesn't have plans is Garfield, and even he was planning to do an old movie marathon with Cujo and Wolf…Apparently they like the action flicks...And I didn't even know that his transformations lets him talk to animals..."

"That sounds fun," Youngblood noted he played with a cup-and-ball, "I could go for watching Die Hard or Field of Dreams."

"That does sound good, but…" Dani frowned as she crossed her arms in frustration, "I feel too restless for that. I need to do something more than sit around."

"Yeah…" Rachel gained a small frown as she hid her face behind her book, "I actually know what you mean. It's been too quiet since my birthday. It makes me worried."

"Why?" Victor questioned, "I think that it's nice to have some cool down time."

"Vic, you haven't been at this as long as us. So I understand why you would think that way," Dani looked to her friend, "But when things go quiet for too long, that means the bad guys are planning something big."

"Don't you know that already?" Youngblood questioned, "I mean, you've been prepping for that thingy you've told me about for weeks."

"Yeah, but not even our spies have any idea what it is," Dani clenched her fists, "Something really, really bad is going to happen soon. And I'm pretty sure that it will involve Nyx big time."

Rachel seemed to agree, "Yeah…The Sorcerer Initiative…With that name and everything that happened during Morgaine's attack, it's easy to see what type of people will be involved in that. With Nyx's lineage and powers, who knows what kind of part she's going to play…"

"I know. I think about that a lot," Dani stood from her bench and looked at her friends, "I don't feel like sitting around anymore. I'm gonna go nuts if I do. Let's go do something. Go find some crime and kick ass."

The three other members of the group shared a look. Rachel looked indifferent. Victor, however, looked nervous and excited. Youngblood quickly took note of that.

"You know what…" Youngblood stood up and smiled at Dani, "A movie night sounds good. Besides, BB is more likely to dress up as fake cupids and freak some people out as a prank…"

"You would do that?" Victor blinked in confusion.

"Duh, don't you know me? Doing stupid things is what I'm best at," Youngblood turned to Raven, "You want to come watch some movies? I promise that if we decide to do something stupid, we'll leave you out of it."

Rachel glanced towards Victor and Dani. She too noticed the look on Victor's face, "Alright. Sounds good to me."

As the two of them stood, Dani just blinked at them, "You sure? I thought you two would be all for a night of kicking ass."

"Yeah, we're good," Youngblood waved as he and Rachel left, "You two have fun."

"Okay…" Dani looked over to Victor, "Looks like it's just you and me."

"Looks like it," Victor nodded towards his friends retreating forms.

Once they were a decent distance away, Rachel spoke up again, "I know you wanted to go with them."

"Yep," Youngblood shoved his hands into his coat pockets, "It's a good thing that Dani only reads intentions instead of motives, huh?"

"Yeah, but knowing the emotions that back the actions can be a bit stressful," Rachel mentioned, "Although, it does help out in situations like that."

"That's what I was counting on," Youngblood's eyes darted up once they reached the edge of the park.

"You did a good thing, you know that?" Rachel mentioned with sincerity lacing her voice.

"I guess…"

"I'm surprised, though. You showed a lot of maturity doing that. Aren't you against growing up?" Rachel questioned.

"I am, but releasing the seal..." Youngblood let out a quick sigh, "It weakens after every time. Time will heal it, but—"

"Hush, Charles," Polly spoke up for the first time all day. The bird glared at the boy and caused instant silence.

"I see. I guess that puts new perspective on why you left. I thought it was just the obvious reason. Don't worry, though. I kept your other secret for years, so this one won't be…" Rachel paused when she realized Youngblood wasn't by her side anymore. Turning, she saw the boy standing at the entrance of the park. He was in front of metal trash can that was almost completely filled, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Youngblood pulled his right hand out of his pocket. A single crimson rose was in his hand. With a flick of the wrist, he dropped the flower into the bin where if landed silently. Despite this, Rachel thought she could hear a loud thud ring through the area. It must have been her imagination, "I'm fine."

Rachel looked away out of respect for his feelings, "I see."

"It's...it's for the best."

"I know, Chuck. I know."

* * *

" _Bro, I owe you big time,_ " Wally's gratitude seeped through his voice on Danny's phone, " _I totally spaced today."_

"Like every year," Danny snorted as he reclined in his chair at a mostly empty Axion Labs. While normally filled with scientists until the dead of night, he allowed most people a chance to take the night off. Only a few of the employees were still around, "You're lucky that I have your back."

" _That I am,_ " Wally paused for a brief second, " _Do you think Artemis knows?_ "

"Well, considering that I got a text from her a little while ago saying, 'Thanks for setting all this up for Wally. He's such an airhead,' I would think so…" Danny noted.

" _Oh crap…She's smiling to me at my table. I can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing…_ " Wally now sounded stressed out.

"Now that I can't help you with. Just try not to anything else that will make her mad," Danny mentioned with a smirk.

Wally obviously wasn't pleased by that response, " _Dude! Have you even met me!?_ "

"Bye, Bro. Good luck."

" _Wai—"_

Danny hung up the phone.

"That's harsh," Harriet Chin noted as she approached Danny's work station. Like always, a tired look covered her face, "You didn't need to hang up on him."

"You haven't dealt with a really angry Artemis," Danny spun his chair to look at his long time friend and employee, "Trust me when I say that you don't want to piss her off, and if I kept distracting her boyfriend from her on Valentine's Day, she would have gone off on me regardless if she was actually mad at Wally."

"I see, but it's still not like you to let him deal with it himself," Harriet mentioned while raising an eyebrow filled with curiosity.

"Best case scenario, she finds all this funny," Danny smirked, "Worst case scenario, she's a little annoyed. Wally likes it when she's a little annoyed."

Harriet snorted, "I see. You know them that well, huh?"

"I do. I know all of my family well," Danny stated.

"And that helps you play cupid," Harriet's amused rolled off her in waves, "Don't think that I don't know that you basically ordered Silas and Nicolai to take the day."

"What can I say…" Danny closed his eyes to show his pained eyes, "I have a lot of romantic ideas and no one to use them on myself."

Harriet looked away in embarrassment, "Sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"I know," Danny gave her a side glance, "But if you want to make it up to me, then you can do me a big favor."

"What's that?" Harriet questioned.

"You see, I had this a table reserved at a big fancy restaurant for a year now," Danny pulled out a business card and handed to Harriet, "I would have given my reservation to Vlad, but he doesn't like the idea of using someone else's plan. And I couldn't give it to anyone else without them getting all sad on me about what happened…"

"Danny…" Harriet's eyes widened, "Wow…This restaurant is…"

"Yeah," Danny noted, "I thought she would like it."

"So…you want me to go with you as friends?" Harriet questioned, "That's fine, but I sure as hell am not paying for those kinds of prices."

"Don't worry, it's on me," Danny smiled at her, "But it's not me that's going with you."

"So…I'm going alone?"

"No. Take Damon."

Harriet blinked, "Damon? Why?"

"Because he's probably feeling alone right now too," Danny rubbed his temples, "And it hurts me knowing that. I don't expect you to fall in love or anything. Just go out and help the guy. That way, there's two less lonely people out there tonight."

"What about you?" Harriet questioned as Danny handed her his credit card with a quick reminder not to use it to go on a shopping spree. He planned to buy her and Damon dinner, not an entire new wardrobe that she didn't even need.

"Well, I've already played cupid for everyone that needed it," Danny noted, "I think it's time to go home and face the fact that no one's waiting for me today."

"Danny," Harriet gave him a look of pity.

"Don't. I don't want that look," Danny stood and began to walk his way through the silent laboratory, "Giving me that pitiful look will only make it worse, and I worked hard to make myself feel at least a little better today."

"You don't have to be alone," Harriet mentioned, "You have friends that would love to help you today."

"They would try, but I would still get those pity looks. I hate those looks," Danny paused in his retreat and sighed, "I would prefer to be alone than that."

"Danny…" Harriet clenched her hands. He didn't deserve this. No one worked harder than him. No one fought as hard or cared as much as he did. Yet it was always him that suffered. The weight of the world seemed to always be on his shoulders.

"Goodnight, Harri," Danny once again returned to silent and cold walk home, "Have some fun for me, okay?"

"Alright, Danny," Harriet didn't even bother to snap at the nickname she despised, "Just…Don't do anything stupid tonight, okay?"

"Something stupid?" Danny let out a hollow chuckle and shook his head, "What in my character makes you think I would do something stupid."

"We all do things we normally wouldn't when we feel alone, Danny," Harriet mentioned with a sad look in her eyes, "Remember that."

* * *

"So, she knew from the start," Cassandra noted. She and Joel stood on top one of the rooftops. Night had fallen, and they were covered by the shadows, "What exactly was the point of the operation then?"

"One: I promised Rob that I would help, so I had to put on a show," Joel lifted up one finger and then added another, "Two: It was pretty damn funny."

Cassandra snorted, "That it was. But you could have told Robin."

"No, I couldn't have," Joel shook his head, "Robin's an arrogant, rude son of a bitch. It's a harsh but true fact. I know that Donna was attracted to him, but his rough shell was a big turn off for her. So, I had to show her what was in the center of that rough coating. Telling him might have changed how he acted around her."

Cassadra blinked at Joel, "If that's true, then why would you go out of your way to help him like this?"

Joel paused for a moment before speaking again, "Despite his attitude, Rob is a good guy. He cares in a way a lot of people don't. It may seem like he's just being…himself, but I can see it. He went out of his way to help me a lot when I was in a slump, but he knew when to back down. Not a lot of people could do that with me. They don't really get me like him."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Because we're the same. We're both kind of the black sheep…the outcasts of our Team," Joel explained, "Both of us have an attitude that can be kind off-putting, in different ways obviously. Most people think it's because we don't give a damn, but…"

"You're the kind of people that actually care the most," Cassandra noted, "You just don't know how the show it like the others. I get that…"

"Yeah, so we often go in a roundabout way to show it," Joel glanced towards his companion, "Both me and him, we show what we really feel through our actions. Donna understands that, and seeing him get over his pride and ask for help in order to impress her showed her that he cares a lot."

"Hmm…" Cassandra nodded slowly, "I see…And it also showed that you care a lot too."

"I think that they're good for each other. They'll check each other egos," Joel mentioned, "Besides, they should value every bit of time they can get…You never know when it will end."

"I see," Cassandra frowned, "You miss her."

It was more of statement than a question, but Joel could hear some investigation in her voice, "I do. A lot. We were close."

Cassandra paid close attention to Joel's face. Chilling solitude burst in his eyes. Grief showed in the tiniest of twitches on his face. Longing seemed to seep off him in waves, "Alright. I have my answer."

"Huh?" Joel raised an eyebrow at the other trained assassin.

"Nothing. I guess I was just hoping to find something," Cassandra sat at the edge of the roof and looked up to the sky, "Tell me, Joel, if you had the power to control your fate, what would you do?"

"Control my fate? As in everything that happens in my life?" Joel paused in thought, "Well, I guess I would make it so that I wasn't born into this so-called 'elite' bloodline. I would make it so that I wouldn't lose so many people. I would make it so my life was…peaceful."

"Peaceful, huh?" Cassandra pursed her lips, "That sounds boring. I'm not exactly sure what I want in my life anymore, but I want it to be exciting. I thought that I wanted be like Mom. Strong, feared, unconditionally loved by someone…But I don't think that's how I will end up. So, if I could control fate, I would make it so that I could be my own person."

Joel turned his gaze up to the sky as well, "That sounds like a great goal to me."

"Yes, but to do that, I need to stop chasing after others for now. No more looking to others as a way to change my fate. I have to do it myself."

"What do you…" Joel lowed his gaze to see that Cassandra was gone, "Oh, I see…"

* * *

Satisfaction surged through her veins as she dropped the last thug into the unconscious heap that had built up during the fight. After a short trip to New York, the two young heroes took to the streets in order to find some action. It didn't take very long to find what they were looking for in the city. Crime seemed to everywhere. Only Gotham could compare.

After a few hours and several beat downs later, both of the heroes had more than their share of fighting. The last fight, if it could really be called that, seemed to be all that was needed to improve Spirit's mood. It was the thugs' bad luck that they decided to rob a warehouse this night.

"One good thing about tonight," Cyborg mentioned as he began to tie the thugs up, "We got to hear some pretty hilarious stories."

"I know, right?" Spirit let out a loud laugh as she remembered some of the complaints, stories, and jokes she heard from the criminals before she ambushed them, "Stealing for a Valentine's Day present, missing a date for 'work,' and some of their complaints! Hahahaha! It's hilarious."

"You know, if they actually want a girlfriend or to have their girl stop complaining about their business, maybe they should stop being thugs and criminals," Cyborg mentioned.

"They probably didn't think about that," Spirit noted. She paused as she heard sirens beginning to approach, "Oh, there's the cops."

Cyborg blinked, "That was fast for them. I only contacted them a minute ago."

"Huh…Maybe we went overboard and lightened their workload a lot tonight," Spirit shrugged, "Come on. I don't want to answer any questions."

"Right," Cyborg's back shifted into a jet pack that allowed him to rocket up after Spirit as she raced towards the heavens. Within seconds, the two heroes were soaring high above the city. Oddly enough, even the polluted and gray city of New York seemed to glow under the moon's brilliant light.

After flying for a few minutes, Cyborg once again spoke, "So, um, you done for tonight?"

"Yeah, I've had my fill," Spirit nodded, "But before we Zeta back, I want to stop by somewhere."

"Alright, lead the way."

It took only a few moments for the duo to reach their destination. They landed in the backyard of a rough and decaying building that seemed be abandoned for years. Cyborg frowned as they landed in a dead and barren backyards. The fence was nearly torn all the way, so the neon lights of the shop across the street covered the area.

"Why would you want to come here?"

Spirit walked down to a simple grave. The body had been moved long ago out of respect, but she made sure to keep the carved wooden place where it was. On the board read the simple message of 'Greta Hayes Beloved Sister,' "I just thought that it would be a shame to come by here without showing some respect."

"Greta's grave," Cyborg's breath came out a pained whispered. He heard stories about this, but it was haunting to see it with his own eyes.

"Yeah," Spirit knelt before the chipped and rotting wood, "This is where we met…or at least where I learned her name. All she kept saying was 'secret' after all."

Cyborg allowed the tiniest of smiles to grace his face, "I remember that."

"Back then, when I first say this, I kept thinking about how disgusting it all was. I thought that there couldn't possibly be a greater evil than that," Spirit then let out a sigh, "I wish I was right back then. What Harm did was despicable, but I never imagined what he would do later…"

"No one did," Cyborg approached Spirit and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "You can't blame yourself for all of it."

"I don't, but…" Spirit frowned, "I still think what would have happened if I took action. If I made sure that he would never be a threat again, if only by making sure he couldn't swing a sword. What if I stopped Freakshow when he first gained full power of the Reality Gauntlet? What would have happened if I was more aggressive when trying to save Wulf? If I did any of that, we wouldn't be missing members of our family."

"Maybe, but you did the best you could at the time…with the knowledge you had," Cyborg argued.

"No, I hesitated. I knew what I could have done, but I didn't do it," Spirit admitted, "And because of that, people died. I hate knowing that, especially with Nyx and Raven still needing my help. History repeats itself if you don't learn from it, right? Then I have to learn from it. I can't afford to hesitate in the future."

"What does that mean?" Cyborg questioned.

"I really don't know for sure. It depends on the situation, but I do know that hesitating is a choice in itself. And it's not the choice I want to make anymore. From now on, I'm going to make a decision and not let someone else make it for me," Spirit stood. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring that up. Just…being here brings up old memories."

"It's fine…" Cyborg mentioned, "In fact, I think I needed it."

"Good," Spirit smiled gently, "Come on, I'm tired. Let's go home."

With that, the two heroes soared into the air once more. Wind rushed around them in shiver inducing waves. Neon lights danced below them like a controlled firework show. The mood glowed down encouragingly as they made their way back to the Zeta Tube.

"Dani, wait," Cyborg suddenly stopped in his flight. The gentle hum of his jetpack mixed with the whistling wind to make a rather soothing background.

"Huh?" Spirit instantly stopped. She looked back with concerned features. Her friends rarely called her by her human name when she was in her ghost form, "Something wrong."

"No…Yes…I-I don't know…" Cyborg's robotic form began to fidget.

"You're not running out of energy are you? Because I could help you back if you needed it," Spirit offered.

"No, no," Cyborg suddenly let out a loud groan, "Damn! I thought this would be easier! The guys even went off so I could do this…"

"Huh?" Spirit blinked. Her Premonition tickled at the back of her mind, but it wasn't a threat warning so, out of respect, she ignored it.

"I…I…" Cyborg took a deep breath, "Hesitation is a choice too. Take action."

"Yeah. We just talked about that," Spirit gave an awkward smile. That only made Cyborg want to back out, though. She was always at her most beautiful when she smiled and was happy. Her features jumped out at him. Piercing green eyes bored into his soul in ways that the metal man didn't think possible. His human heart began to do flips in his metal chest.

"Look…I know that you don't really like to date because of your Premonition, but…" The part of Cyborg's face began to flush. His armor shifted and allowed him to pull out a bouquet of flowers, "I've really liked you for a long time. You're so strong, smart, beautiful…So amazing. I just…I don't…Do you want to go out with me?"

Spirit slowly took the flowers and stared at them for what seemed like an eternity to Cyborg.

"I…I know it's kind of lame and old-fashioned. Weird for the robot guy, right? But I thought that this would be the best option. After all, I have heard your rants on guy's intentions, and I…I don't really want to make you feel uncomfortable. So I would understand if you don't want to...take this anywhere, or go back. And…and…" Cyborg seemed be at a loss for words, "Please say something."

"You're wrong. You've never done anything to make me uncomfortable," Spirit took a deep sniff of the flowers and smiled brightly, "I've never complained about you after all. I know you chastise yourself when you have strong intentions."

"Oh…"

"This is pretty lame," Spirit admitted, "I mean, asking me out while in mid-flight with a bouquet of beautiful flowers on Valentine's Day? It's so corny…and so sweet."

"R-really?" Cyborg's eyes lit up.

"Yeah," Spirit clutched the flowers to her chest, "Let's go get something to something to eat. Usually, the boyfriend pays, but I think we'll be progressive and split the bill. What do you think?"

"I…I don't…"

"Don't worry. I can hear your intentions," Spirit reached over and gently cupped his metal cheek. She leaned in and gently pecked him on the lips, "Loud and clear."

* * *

Danny released a tired groan as he entered his silent room. The mansion was completely empty at this point. His family was either celebrating the day, helping others with it, or avoiding it all together. The silence of the building raked at his ears. He felt as if his ears were burning as the silence mocked him with the solitude he felt that day.

Wanting only to go straight to bed, Danny pulled his shirt over his head. He slowly walked over to his closet and threw the dirty shirt into his hamper. As soon as he did this, he paused and glanced to his bed, "What are you doing here, Jen?"

Jenifer Savage gave him a small smile. While not in her combat form, her dark hair rolled softly down her shoulders and back. Brilliant green eyes sparkled with mischief. Her heart shaped face glowed from the moonlight that gently drifted into the room. The normal combat clothes she normally was replaced by a more civilian looking attire. Simple blue jeans and a plink blouse hugged her frame quite impressively.

"Your room has changed a lot," Jenifer noted as she looked around the rather cluttered room, "It gives me an all work and no play time of feel."

"I've been busy. I have a lot of work to deal with," Danny stated. He kept a rather large distance between him and the woman.

"Is that why you haven't called me in forever?" Jenifer allowed a tiny frown to cover her features.

"Yeah…" Danny let out a sigh and leaned against his couch, "Something like that…You didn't answer my question."

"Hmm…" Jenifer's eyes trailed his naked torso. Her eyes landed on the five scars that covered his defined stomach, "How'd you get those? I thought that you had a healing power."

"Quit avoiding the question," Danny felt his annoyance bubble against the lining of his skull.

"Fine," Jenifer smirked, "I'll answer, but only if you answer my question first."

"I asked first."

"But I'm the lady. You should be a good gentleman and answer my question first."

"Oh, is that it," Danny couldn't hold back the snort that seemed to wash the annoyance away, "You're using the 'I'm a woman' card? That's low, you know. Especially because I've heard you call that stuff BS plenty of times before."

"I know, but I'm an assassin. I use every card to my advantage when I need to. And if that doesn't work, I can use the fact that I'm freaking adorable."

Danny couldn't hold in the chuckle that danced up his throat, "Fine, I got these a few years ago against Freakshow. His Reality Gauntlet cut me, and…by the time I could use my regeneration, it scared over. Had some chances to get rid of them, but I thought they were a good reminder that I'm not invincible."

"Smart, but…" Jenifer paused for a second, "I thought you beat Freakshow no problem. He tried to unlock the real power of the Gauntlet. You and your friends stopped him. In a last effort attempt, he tried something stupid and blew up both himself and the Gauntlet."

"Yeah…" Danny let out a smile, "That's what most people remember."

"I see…" Jenifer smiled back, "Now that's a story I'd like to hear with more detail.

"Uh huh…" Danny then remembered the situation. He dropped the smile and gave her a deadpanned look, "But first…"

"Right, right," Jenifer waved off his concerns, "I was bored. All my friends are into their Valentine crap. No missions either. So I had nothing to do, and we haven't really hung out in a long time, so…"

"Yeah," Danny's eyes darted to the side. Out of respect for Valerie, he did limit his time with Jinx. They were never completely unsupervised, and he made sure that everything was one hundred present in the friend zone territory. After Val had died, though, he basically eliminated Jinx from his life. His friends seemed happy about his decision to ditch the 'frenemy,' but Danny still felt guilt trickle at his heart. Jen and him had been friends for a long time now, "I'm sorry. I've just been dealing with a lot of stuff."

"I know. That's why I gave you your space," Jenifer noted, "But today. I was lonely…I just couldn't stay away. I wanted…I needed to see you."

"Oh," Danny nodded slowly.

"I…" Jenifer paused for a brief second before continuing, "I don't want to pressure you into anything. I've already caused you enough trouble in the past. But…I needed to be here tonight."

The woman stood from her position on the bed. She then took a few steps away from mattress. Her walk was not in the least bit seductive. There was no strut, no sway of hip, or even a sideways glance. She merely left her position and placed herself at the crossroads of his door, the bed, and him.

"If you want me to leave, then I will," Jenifer's eyes calmly met his, "I will walk out that door, and I won't come back tonight. I won't blame you if you do. This…is a step over the line. I know that it's only been three months, but…I don't want to wait any longer. Knowing that this is possible, but refusing to act on it…" She brought her arms around herself and squeezed tightly, "It hurts me. So, I need an answer now, because…I don't want to be alone tonight. Not if I don't have to be."

The answer 'no' immediately burned against the inside of his mouth. It was too damn soon. It would be disrespectful to Val. He wasn't ready. They were on the opposite sides of justice. This couldn't possibly work out. And she…and she…

"Damn, you look beautiful in the moonlight," Danny blurted out his inner thoughts. The moonlight continued to pour in from the window that Jenifer probably entered from. Her already stunning features become outright radiant from the lunar light.

Danny's words seemed to please Jenifer more than he expected them to. She smiled, but it wasn't her normal confident smile. This one was a shy, more vulnerable smile. Her cheeks gently lit up with a crimson tint. Her hands folded in front of her in a rather open manner.

"Thank you," Jenifer looked to the moon that glowed outside his room, "I've always had an affinity with the moon. It reminds me of my mom. I never got to know her, but Dad said that she and everyone in her family had been blessed by the moon. It makes us stronger…better…"

"More radiant," Danny whispered.

Jenifer looked back to Danny, "Yeah."

Danny took a deep breath unsure what to do. His mind, heart, and body were all conflicted against themselves. There were as many wrongs as there were rights. There were as many cons as pros. There were as many wants as distastes. He couldn't make a straight decision.

As he interally debated, Jenifer stood patiently waiting. Her eyes never wavered, and her stance never faulted. The trembling of her fingertips and the biting of her lip gave away the great nervousness that boiled beneath her skin.

"I…" Danny's voice shook. With no real decision in mind, he voiced the thoughts that he too had been thinking this very night, "I don't want to be alone tonight either."

Jenifer's face instantly lit up with joy and relief. Her smile made his hear to a flip in his chest. A gentle sigh of relief escaped her lips, "Yes."

Desire burst out in Danny's chest. Three months without a woman to warm his bed instantly made him want to act. He refused to do that, though. Jenifer had been fair enough to place the ball in his side of the court first. Now, it was her turn, "And what do you want, Jen?"

"What…do I want?"

"Yes," Danny took a step towards her, "What exactly do you want from tonight? A date? A one-night stand? A relationship?"

Jenifer's eyes danced in thought. She hadn't exactly thought that part through, "I…I don't know. I just…I just came here and hoped you would say yes. But, if you need an answer, then I want you."

"Me?"

"Yes," Jenifer nodded, "You. I don't care the shape or form. I don't care about what people call our relationship. I just want to be with you."

Danny took a few more steps forward until he was right in front of her, "Then you can have me."

Jenifer's face lit up. Her eyes instantly darted to his hardened body. The years of training and fighting made it so his body looked almost carved out of marble. Years of waiting and wanting burst through her body, but inexperience made her hesitant. She slowly reached out a hand and slowed slid her fingers down his chest towards his hardened stomach, "Danny, I, um, I don't…"

Danny instantly understood. While Jenifer was probably sought after by many of men, she had always said no. She didn't want them. She only wanted one person, and that left her lacking in knowledge that Danny had gained over the past three years.

Gently grabbing her shoulders, he pulled her to his frame. He was shocked by how submissive she was to this. His interactions with woman in this sort of situation had always been more of a battle for dominance. Both of his previous partners liked to be the one to set the pace. Right now, though, Jen seemed to want him to lead the way.

So, he did. Danny brought his lips down and firmly pressed them to hers. He tasted her. He felt her. He pleased her. Sparks seemed to burst out from ever little contact that they made. It was those sparks that led to an inevitable blaze between the two of them. Neither of them tried to stop it. Instead, they did the exact opposite. They let the fires surge in a mutual understanding of one fact.

Everything burns.

* * *

 **Next update: "Magic" on Unknown Date**

 **Important Notice: Due to personal issues, I'm putting all of my stories on hiatus. I hope to get my problems resolved by the beginning of 2016 and start updating again.**

 **Sincerely, The Struggling Warrior.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	12. Magic

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were."

Dwight Eisenhower

* * *

Chapter 12: "Magic"

(Saturday-March 1, 2014)

Morgaine le Fey hummed to herself as she leaned back into her rather comfortable recliner. As usual, she was in her own pocket dimension. From here, she could create anything she wanted and watch how things unfolded in the mortal plane of existence. She had been looking forward to this day, but it seems that something was trying to interrupt her entertainment. Of course, this new development made the day even more interesting, "I'm surprised that you managed to work your way in here."

Dark Dan eyed the woman sitting before him, "I've just spent the past four months learning everything I can about you and your pocket dimensions. That and a little bit of luck and timing were what got me in here."

"But the real test is if you can leave," Morgaine noted.

"Now that, I can't do," Dark Dan frowned slightly, "It was only because of the magic in the air today that I even managed to get past your barriers, and that left me completely drained. Leaving isn't an option for me."

"So you trapped yourself? How out of character…" Nevertheless, Morgaine smiled, "Why would you do that knowing that I could keep you here trapped for eternity if I wanted to."

"That wouldn't give you what you want, though," Dark Dan argued.

"Oh? How so?"

Dark Dan gave a sharp grinned filled with devilish intent, "You want entertainment. Having me locked up in here would limit the entertainment you could get out of me."

Morgaine gave him a small applause for his cunning, "Indeed. I'll probably just throw you out as soon as I grow bored of your presence. Until then, though, let's discuss your reasoning for being here. I'm sure that you will entertain me until the real action happens today."

"Yes…Today is when the Sorcerer Initiative is supposed to get started," Dark Dan sighed, "That's the only reason I got in here today."

"Indeed, but that doesn't explain why you are here, though," Morgaine noted, "Or why you're not trying to stop it right now."

Dark Dan eyed the woman, "What would be the point of that? The Black Lanterns would just intercept my movements again. As soon as I spike my energy even a little, they instantly put an eye on me. Trying to do anything would only get me into a pointless fight."

Morgaine nodded, "That is what probably would happen."

"So, no matter what I plan I make to counteract the Sorcerer Initiative, it would be stopped," Dark Dan sighed, "So it would be dumb to even try. Instead, I decided to do something that could be a little more productive."

"By coming to talk with me?" Morgaine raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I need your help," Dark Dan stated unashamedly.

"Oh?" Now Morgaine was extremely interested, "You? The destroyer of mankind? The bane of Phantom? You need my help?"

"Yes," Dark Dan scowled and gritted his teeth. He fought to keep his annoyance under wraps. It had been too long since he destroyed or killed something, and his nerves were getting to him, "I have come to realize that I cannot stop Nekron on my own. I need someone to help me achieve my greatest plan, and you're one of the few people that can hide your movements from him."

"Oh? But what if I don't want to stop Nekron's plans?" Morgaine questioned, "After all, he's a big source of entertainment for me."

"I don't plan to stop the buildup anymore," Dark Dan explained, "Like I said, the Black Lanterns would just intercept me. Instead, I need you to help me with something at a time where even Nekron will be half-blind. That way, I will be able to fight against him properly when the time comes."

"Hmm, you and Nekron fighting to the death in a glorious battle. Now that is interesting…" Morgaine felt her curiosity peak, "Very well, I'll hear you out."

* * *

Phantom felt nervousness surge beneath his skin. He felt vulnerable in the darkened room. There was no back-up for him here. That was part of the agreement. He had to come alone to have this meeting. If this went badly, then he probably would be captured or killed; but if this worked, then victory in the coming battle would be made significantly more possible.

"I am surprised that you came here today," Vandal Savage noted as he stepped out of the shadows that surrounded the halfa. There were definitely more people in the darkness that was the warehouse, but Phantom could not see them. That's what they wanted. Right now, the Light held all the cards and had the home field advantage. They were in complete control.

"I felt that I didn't have a choice," Phantom noted, "I know that Light is planning something called the 'Sorcerer Initiative,' but I have no idea what it is. The only thing I do know is that it's going to be bad. Really bad, and I have a gut feeling that if you let it happen, everything will go to hell."

"Going by your instinct, huh?" Savaged looked down in thought, "That's smart. I'll give you that."

"I know that you don't want to go through with it," Phantom noted, "Fenton came to me. He's worried too. He said that the Light is divided on this. Almost half of you don't want to go through with this."

"That is true, Vandal," Lex Luthor took his turn to step into the light, "We all know that this project is counterproductive at this point."

"I am aware of this, Lex," Vandal shot a glance to his friend, "But the vote has already occurred. The Light is not mine to completely control. The reason our numbers are the way they are is to keep balance and stability. No one person can get too much control and not abuse it."

"But is that not what Klarion and Ocean Master want?" Queen Bee decided now was the time to step up and speak out, "They have been obsessed with this project for months. The power they'll gain is all they can think about. Not to mention how the Brain has slaved over this without a moments rest. It's like they're possessed."

"That's because they are," With a swirl of pink energy, Jinx appeared beside Phantom, "That's why I brought him here today. He knows that these have been placed on our partners."

Jinx held out her hand to show the Corruption Chip obtained back during Morgaine's attack. Phantom decided to explain what they were, "During Morgaine's attack, she had some ghosts put these chips on a few of the members of the Light. I had these chips evaluated. The main purpose of them seems to be to unleash the victim's darkest desires to the point that the people can't control themselves."

"And how did you get that chip?" Lex questioned.

Phantom was silent.

"I see," Queen Bee's eyes lit up, "You have moles in our organization. I see you have learned from our conflicts."

"You do realize what will happen to those people if we find them?" Lex questioned, "No matter what the circumstances, the Light cannot allow traitor to walk away alive."

"I know," Phantom admitted with a deep frown, "But this is where I place all my cards on the table. I've spent years preparing for this, but it wasn't enough. So, I'm using every resource I have and am going to pull them all back after this. This is important enough for that."

"I see…So you haven't figured it out at all. Not even with strategists as good as Vision and the Batman," Savage shook his head, "Not that I blame you. Even I would have never thought of this. It was all Klarion's sick idea."

"So you admit it. The Sorcerer Initiative is a bad idea," Phantom accused.

"Of course it is," Savage let out a grunt, "It didn't start out that way, but eventually, it changed. They perverted the idea. We just wanted to spread the ability to use magic, but they…they want to pour all of it into themselves."

"What?" Phantom's eyes widened.

"So, yes, I do know that the Sorcerer Initiative is a bad idea," Savage admitted, "But it's too late to stop it. If any of us make contradictory orders, then it will be civil war. The Light will perish, and I won't let that happen."

"Then don't make any orders to your people," Phantom looked around at the three leaders of the Light, "Just step down. Don't give any support to the other half of the Light. The forces of four of you is a lot easier to take on than the seven of you."

"You mean three," Ra's Al Ghul took his own place outside the darkness, "I'm willing to step down as well."

"What?" Queen Bee glanced to Ra's, "But you were the deciding vote. It was because of you that this even happened."

"Indeed," Ra's nodded, "But what I wanted has already been accomplished. I have nothing more to gain from this. I'll accept the conditions of having my assassins step down from this conflict. This way, we might lose three of our members, but we won't be crippled to the point of having less than half our members."

"That…is acceptable," Savage stated, "That's better than the total destruction that would be caused by every other course of action."

"I don't get it, though," Phantom glared to Ra's, "What have you already gained?"

"My final plan to find my successor," Ra's noted, "The Sorcerer Initiative will make Joel see my point of view. If this fails, then there is no more hope for Joel and I will instead have to rely on a different successor. One that will take far more time to raise up to be ready for my position."

Phantom felt unease boil in his stomach, "I see…It's that bad, huh?"

"It is," Talia Al Ghul stepped out beside her father, "The problem with our previous plans were that they were designed to put Joel in a position where he would need to kill. This time, though, he will want to kill. I know that, without a doubt, because even our skin crawls about what Ocean Master wants to do."

Phantom frowned, "Yeah, that's what I thought the Sorcerer Initiative would be like. So tell me, what is this plan? What does it have to do with the Atlantians, Amazons, and the Homo Magi people that have gone missing?"

"The answer is simple," Savage spoke up, "The plan was to kidnap all the magic users in the world, and drain them of their power to distribute in ways that we saw fit. That is why we scoped out Atlantis and Themyscira. Those two places would be the most difficult to infiltrate."

"Damn it…" Phantom clenched his fists, "That was worse than I thought. We thought you were just going to invade them and use their magic rich land…This is much worse. Taking away people's powers like that…"

"Yes, but eventually, the magic users would have regained their power," Luthor mentioned, "But that was the old plan. Now, Klarion and Ocean Master want to pump most of it into themselves and their followers to the point it was also drain the life energy out of the magic users."

"So, they're going to kill them," Phantom growled.

"Yes," Queen Bee nodded.

"Shit!" Phantom scowled deeply, "I have to stop them. Thanks, I guess. Neutrality is a lot to ask from my enemies."

"Indeed, but that's nothing compared to asking for my permission to allow my daughter to help you," Savage noted.

"You saw that coming huh?" Jinx crossed her arms defensively.

"I am more than aware of your relationship," Savage eyed his daughter, "You know that you have my permission for that. He is definitely the most suitable person for you, but this request…This is dangerous, even by your normal standards."

"I have been taking dangerous missions all my life," Jinx stepped up and met her father's gaze, "I know that the real reason you wouldn't want me to help is because my abilities have magic tied to them."

"You're too smart for your own good," Savage noted.

"I get it from you," Jinx noted, "Please, let me do this. I don't care about heroics or even saving people, but Danny needs my help, it won't work against your plans, and…it's what mom would have wanted."

"…Fine," Savage nodded. He then turned to Danny, "I hold you accountable. If anything happens to her…" He left the threat hang there.

"Don't worry," Phantom gained a determined look, "I'll die before I let anything happen to her. That's a promise."

* * *

"I do hate to step on thy hope, but I don't believe that Nyx shall be returning here today," Troia mentioned as she stood next to Spirit on the shores of Themyscira. The golden sand gently crushed beneath their feet. Soothing sounds of waves crashing against the shore filled their ears even as the tension of preparing for battle began to rake on their nerves.

"I know," Spirit crossed her arms and looked across the beach to the Amazons as they prepared for battle, "There's no telling where she'll show up, but this is one of the only places that has a sure chance of me getting some answers. It was either here, Atlantis, or tracking down some of the missing people."

"The missing magic users…" Troia scratched her chin in thought, "What were they called again? The Homo Magi?"

"Yeah, Zatanna said that they are basically a sub-race. It's what they use describe humans that can use magic naturally," Spirit nodded, "Apparently, a lot of them have gone missing."

"That's an understatement," Rocket landed down beside the girls in a blaze of kinetic energy, "Z told me that almost every Homo Magi has gone missing. Even her cousin."

"Didn't even know she had a cousin before today," Spirit noted, "Is her family a bit estranged?"

"Z told me that not every Homo Magi approves of what she and her dad do. You know, use magic to be heroes," Rocket mentioned, "A lot of them just keep to themselves to avoid discrimination. Like with the witch hunts and things like that."

"But that isolation also made it easier for them to be captured," Troia mentioned, "Would it not be smarter for them to stay together for protection?"

"Maybe. But I don't think they probably thought about this happening…whatever this is," Rocket rubbed her temples.

"We probably wouldn't have thought of this if Nyx didn't show herself here," Spirit noted with a contemplative look, "I still don't why she did that…"

"It was a warning," Troia stated with a firm look, "I know it. It cannot be seen just by a glance, but I fought her. Her attacks…her actions…they seemed conflicting. She was battling against something. Herself, or maybe something else."

"So that means that Klarion is controlling her?" Rocket questioned.

"Maybe. Maybe her chaotic nature is clashing with her order nature," Spirit reasoned, "Either way, I'm going to help her. No matter what."

"We will be by thy side the entire time," Troia placed a comforting hand on the halfa's shoulder, "We shall save Nyx."

"Thanks," Spirit smiled, "I really—ah!" The female halfa was interrupted when a large quake suddenly shook the entire island.

"It's time?" Rocket questioned.

"Yeah…" Spirit looked down as the ground continued to tremble as giant metal drones jumped out of the sea and made a bee lint to the island, "It's time."

* * *

"I realize that you are reluctant to fight your brother," Vision gave Aquaman a look of sympathy, "Trust me, I do, but now is not the time to let your personal feelings get in the way of your duty."

"I am aware of this," Aquaman let out a sigh as he peered across the city that called him king, "And I plan to fight with everything I have."

"Your words say one thing, but your eyes say something different," Vision argued, "No matter what you say, you will hold back once you see him. You care too much about him, but you must let that go. He is the enemy now. That is all that matters."

"How can you say that?" Aquaman's eyes snapped to Vision in a deep glare, "My brother was the first to welcome me here. He was the one that helped me for years. He's the godfather of my child. How am I supposed to forget that?"

"Forget? You never forget such things. It is always there in the back of your mind," Vision noted, "But that doesn't matter when you're responsible for hundreds of lives. They are all that matter. When…when my comrades and I turned against the Ghost King, I felt deep shame and guilt for attacking the man that treated me like a daughter, but I did not hold back. I sealed him away, because it was the right thing to do for everyone."

Dusk watched and listened as Vision encouraged the king of Atlantis. They all stood in the courtyard of the royal palace. Soldiers were rushing about preparing themselves and others for what was to come. He saw the Queen consulting all of the magic users about their placement and purpose in the battle. Despite all the chaos, the halfa focused mostly on the one conversation that could steer the battle into two different paths.

"Do you think that Vision will manage to motivate King Orin?" Aqualad questioned as he and the other Atlantians swam next to the halfa.

"Probably," Dusk mentioned through his oxygen mouthpiece, "She has a way with words and was the lead strategist for the Ghost King. If anyone could get Aquaman out of his funk, it'd be her."

"That is good," Aquagirl looked over to Queen Mera, "We have been worried for him. The betrayal of the prince really shook him."

"It shook all of us," Tempest noted, "To think that Ocean Master was not just living in the city, but in the royal palace as well. The thought is chilling."

"I bet it explains a lot of thing, though," Dusk mentioned.

"In a way, it does," Aqualad let out a sigh, "Perhaps we should have seen it coming, but…"

"You never want to see the worst in the people you're closest too," Dusk quickly filled in the blanks of Kaldur's sentence, "Don't worry, I get it."

Aquagirl sensed the lowering mood and energy level and decided to speak up, "With Vision doing her part, we can now focus on our task without worrying about King Orin. What will be our positions?"

"I have asked Queen Mera to help us with that," Aqualad noted, "We need to be placed where can help the best."

Dusk looked around at the now quieting and emptying courtyard, "Then we should get our assignments."

The group of four quickly swam to the queen. Most of the sorcery users she was speaking to had already left, but there was one rather unusual straggler. Dusk was quickly reminded of the swamp monsters from movies that Dani was fond of watching. His skin was green and covered in thick scales. This was shown even more on his shirtless torso and legs that weren't covered by black shorts. Black fins covered his arms, legs, and top of his head. Even more glaring in his features were the red eyes and large fin ears.

"La'gaan, I am sorry, but I must insist that you go hide with the other students," Mera noted to the scaled boy, "You are too young, and it is too dangerous for you to fight."

"Neptune's beard!" The now identified La'gaan exclaimed, "I am ready to fight and serve my home! My age should not matter! I have trained all my life! What is the point of all that, if you will not let me help?!"

"You are indeed skilled with your body enhancing skills," Mera admitted, "But that will not be enough. We have no real idea the scope of the attack that is coming. You might get hurt."

"It sounds to me that he already knows that," Dusk mentioned as his group stopped his approach to the queen.

Mera sighed, "That may be so, but I will not let my students get in harm's way."

Dusk spoke up again. This time, La'gaan looked to who was speaking up for him. The Atlantian's eyes widened when he saw who it was, "Are we really in a position to turn down people that wants to help? Just because he's young doesn't mean he's unable to fight."

"I have already decided on this matter," Mera frowned at the halfa, "Do not argue with me, surface dweller."

Dusk was about to speak, but he stopped when Tempest placed a hand on his shoulder, "Please. She is the queen. Her authority is unquestionable."

Dusk shook off the shoulder, "She may be queen, but that doesn't mean she's unquestionable. If you fail to question authority at least a little, then that leads to blindly following orders. And that doesn't help anyone."

"But Dusk—" Tula never got to finish that sentence.

"I know that I'm an outsider, but…" Dusk glared at the queen, "Your people are at stake here, and I can tell just by looking at him that he knows how to fight. Sending him away is a mistake, and you know that."

Mera looked like she was about to make an angry reply, but she never got the chance. At that time, the water was seemed to be lit up like it was at the center of a fireworks show. It seemed that the members of Young Justice didn't get the time to prepare. The enemy had arrived, and they did with several explosives, hundreds of shoulders, and many submarines.

* * *

In a blaze of golden light, four magic users appeared in a thick jungle area. The trees reached high up into the heavens. Beams of straight sunlight fell through the crack in the leaves. Thick shrubbery and vines surrounded the entire area.

"Hey, love, what the bloody hell is this?" A man with short messy hair and a thick British ascent spoke up. His slick black suit stood out terribly in contrast to the thick jungle, "You told me that we would be going to a bunker or something, not some rubbish jungle to get m' suit all muddy."

Zatanna glanced over to the man with a roll of her eyes, "Constantine, I was told that one of our friends need help collecting someone and bringing him to safety. We have to do that first before we go to the Cave."

"And why the bloody hell couldn't you have come found me after you got this guy?" John Constantine questioned as he took out a cigarate and lit it up with a snap of his fingers. Despite his complaints, he still followed the other three magic users as they began their stroll through the jungle.

"Because you have a tendency to never stay still," Zatara glared at the man, "It would have taken us forever to find you if you wandered off. So, we came to find you first."

"That's bullocks, and you know it," Constantine gave a small frown, "Doctor Fate could have found me in a heartbeat. The only reason I would have wandered off wondered off would be if I found a job. With the magic I would have put off, he…err, she…could sense me from three dimensions away. Besides, Tana does have my number…"

Zatara gritted his teeth, "I am aware of that…"

"He is right you know," Doctor Fate decided to speak up, "Finding an exorcism would have been easy."

"You're not helping!" Zatara snapped.

"I know."

The group continued even as Zatara continued to inwardly seethe. Constantine thought about egging the older man on further but decided against it. The exorcist wanted to get out of the damn jungle as quickly as possible. Things never went well for him in the jungle. The demons always got all jumpy with all those trees around.

Constantine was shook from his thoughts literally when the earth began to rumble. It quickly stopped, but then was proceeded by another shake, "The 'ell? This can't be an earthquake."

"It's not. Evom eht seniv yawa!" With a wave of her hands, Zatanna caused the brush that surrounded them to move out of the way to show a clearing, "It's Colossus."

"You damn fool!" Colossus roared as he looked up at the towering Undergrowth. In his frustration, the giant of a man stomped his foot on the ground and caused the earth to quake below him, "Just come with me already!"

"And why would I do that, flesh bag?" Undergrowth snarled at the brute, "You came here making a bunch of ridiculous claims about me and demanding that I drop all of my work and follow you! That's arrogant even for you, Colossus!"

"That's what Vision told me to tell you…although, I might have worded it wrong," Colossus paused for a brief second, "But that doesn't matter. Just come with me, or I'll make you come with me."

"A threat?!" Spikes and thorns popped out of Undergrowth's body threateningly, "You can try to hurt me, brute, but your powers won't stop my regeneration!"

"Stop this!" Doctor Fate roared out. Golden light blasted out blindingly and the two S-rank ghosts were pushed away from each other. The lord of order then floated in between the two bickering ghosts and held her hands out, "Now is not the time for this. We must get Undergrowth to safety before the Light's forces arrive."

"The Light?" Undergrowth calmed himself a bit when he saw the lord of order step in front of him, "What does the Light have to do with me?"

"They are collecting people with magic power in their bodies," Doctor Fate explained calmly, "You are one such being."

"PSH! MAGIC? HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Undergrowth bellowed out a laugh, "Why in Mother Nature's name would you think that? I'm a ghost, Fatey."

"It's a long story," Zatanna spoke up, "We'll tell you everything when we get you to Mount Justice for safety."

"Hmm…" Undergrowth looked around the jungle, "But if I leave, this jungle will be harmed. Many of the plants are not finished growing yet. They will perish if I am not here to help them to adapt to the climate."

"But if you're captured, then you won't be able to help the plants ever again," Zatara argued.

"That's only if you're telling the truth," Undergrowth noted, "Why should I believe you and your ridiculous claims?"

"OH! OH! I know! I know!"

The group was shocked when a black blur rammed into Colossus and carried him into the jungle. As this happened, a black strand of electricity slammed in to the ground in front of the magic users and caused them to be blasted back. After landing and rolling a few times, they all quickly regained their composure and looked at their assailant.

"Witch Boy!" Doctor Fate roared.

"Why hello to you, Nabu," Klarion grinned wickedly, "I do have to thank you. You brought so many magic users to me. It saved me a lot of work. As thanks, I'll make sure that you won't feel a thing when I suck the magic from out of that helmet of yours."

* * *

Lieutenant Marvel squirmed uncomfortably as she stood in a rather well-lit cave. The walls glowed a serene blue tint. To the left side of the cave was a row of statues depicting the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. The row of statues led towards the end of the cave where a simple stone throne stood. Sitting on the throne was a very elderly man wearing simple white robes that matched the long white beard that hung down to his chest.

"Wizard," Captain Marvel bowed his head to the person that gave him his powers, "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice."

"It is no trouble, Billy," The great wizard Shazam smiled gently to his chose, "It is good to have visitors every now and then, but I do not believe that this is a social call."

"No, sir," Lieutenant Marvel spoke up, "We think that you might be in danger. You see, there's this thing called the Sorcerer Initiative, and magic users are getting kidnapped."

"I am aware of the troubles in the mortal world," Shazam mentioned, "That is why I decided that having a few more people with my gifts was necessary."

"So it was you that allowed this to happen," Sergeant Marvel frowned, "What makes you think that I even wanted these powers?"

"It is the people who lack a desire for power that often deserve it the most," Shazam spoke wisely.

"I don't care if I deserve it," Sergeant Marvel argued, "I didn't ask for it. Heck, the only reason I even got the powers was because I was near Mary when she got hers."

Everyone in the cave raised an eyebrow to that. The other magical brawlers were more shocked about the claim, while Shazam was more surprised that he actually realized the truth, "I see. So you know the truth."

"I do," Sergeant Marvel glanced to the Captain and Lieutenant for a brief moment, "But I didn't feel that it was my place to tell them."

"And you wonder why I gave you powers as well," Shazam smiled and shook his head lightly, "Indeed, the only reason I could give you your powers was because you were close to Mary in the time of crisis, but don't think I allowed it to happen without a reason. I have been watching you just as much as Mary and Billy, Freddie. Destiny was merely kind to us that day."

"Wait," Captain Marvel spoke up, "So Mary was the only reason my powers spread? Why? And why did you refuse to answer me earlier."

Shazam sighed, "I'm in the same position as Freddie, Billy. It's not my place to tell you why the powers could spread to Mary so easily."

"Why? What's the big secret?" Lieutenant Marvel became uncharacteristically angry, "Why would either of you hide the truth from us?"

"Mary…" Sergeant Marvel gave her a steady look, "I talked to your parents…your adopted parents…"

The Lieutenant frowned. Freddie had never brought that up before. He didn't even comment on in when he found out, "About what?"

Sergeant Marvel looked like he was about to say something, but he changed his mind at the last second, "Never mind. We don't have time for this. Let's get Shazam to Mount Justice for safety."

"No," Captain Marvel glanced back and forth between the Sergeant and Shazam, "We deserve to know, and we're not moving until you tell us why."

Shazam closed his eyes and nodded, "Freddie, tell them. I would myself, but I actually can't. There are some rules I have to follow about the Mortal World. That is why I have chosen to battle instead of fighting myself."

Sergeant Marvel let out a tired sigh, "Look…Your parents told me that when they adopted you, they were told that you had a sibling somewhere. A twin."

"What?" Lieutenant Marvel's eyes widened.

"They didn't want me to tell you because there was no way to find him. Your twin had gone missing in the system years ago," Freddie noted, "But I noticed something when I first met you and Billy. You two look a lot alike."

Both Lieutenant and Captain looked at each other then back to Sergeant. Captain Marvel spoke, "But that…that doesn't mean anything. I mean…How would we even meet and become friends like we did. The chances of all this happening…"

"It's impossible, but maybe it is Destiny at work," Sergeant Marvel shrugged, "The reason you looked so alike and Billy lacking parents were the only reasons I asked your parents in the first place, Mary. Even then…I wasn't sure until the power transfer. The reason the powers transferred so easily was because your DNA is almost identical."

"But…but…" Lieutenant Marvel looked to be in a state of shock, "Why didn't I ever notice? Shouldn't twins have…a connection or something?"

"You do," Sergeant Marvel noted, "That's why you found each other. That's why you share powers. That's why I'm just the extra in all this. I really don't matter in the long run."

"Don't say that, Freddie," Shazam spoke up again, "I gave you powers for a reason."

"Even so…" Sergeant Marvel glanced around, "I'm still the odd man out. I only got my powers because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's these two that are destined for greatness. Not me. It's not in my genes."

"Freddie…" Lieutenant Marvel gave him a worrying glance. She always wondered why Freddie seemed so reluctant to use his powers.

"Aww, isn't this an emotional moment. Do you mind if I ruin it?"

The three magical brawlers whirled around to see Nyx approaching them. The stolen Lasso of Truth was twirling slowly in her hands.

"That's Nyx, right?" Lieutenant Marvel questioned.

"Yeah…" Captain Marvel slid into a fighting stance, "That's her. Spirit told us all about her."

"Oh? The Girl Scout is talking about me? How touching," Nyx snorted.

"So we were right," Sergeant Marvel frowned at the ghost, "You were going to come for the Wizard."

Nyx grinned wickedly, "Yep! You totally saw right through our plan! But that won't help you. In fact, you being here only make things easier for me. Now…I don't have to hunt you all down separately."

* * *

Jason Blood stood on the outside of his massive home. His hands were on the front door of the rather older and bleak building. The aging and cracking bricks were covered by odd black scribbles that seemed to dance around as Blood gently chanted magical words. After a few brief moments, the scribbles flashed red and disappeared.

"Are you finished, Sir Blood?" The Fright Knight questioned to the sorcerer.

"Yes," Blood turned to his friends and gave a small smile, "My home is completely locked down. No one will be enter this building for twenty-four hours. Not even me. That should give us enough time to deal with our current problem."

"Good," Raven nodded from her position by the Fright Knight, "We wouldn't want someone else to get their hands on your books."

"No, I won't let that happen again," Magic began to swirl around Blood. A red hurricane of energy the aging form of Jason Blood transformed into the demon Etrigan, "Now let's go. There's more magic users that need our help."

"Yeah," Raven pulled out her phone and showed it to the demon, "Most of the Team is finding out that their targets are missing. So, either they went into hiding themselves, or they're captured."

"Let's hope for the former," Fright Knight mentioned, "You two go ahead. The two of you should be safe when you meet up with the others. With your mansion sealed, I can now focus on the task Lord Phantom has given me."

"And what is that?" Etrigan questioned as all three began to take flight.

"Lord Phantom has some guests coming soon. I need to be there when—"

Fright Knight was cut off when a massive blast of ectoplasm smashed into the Fright Knight and caused the ghost to crash through the forest that surrounded Jason Blood's home. Both of the remaining vigilantes of Amity Park prepared themselves for a follow up attack. This proved fruitful as they managed to block the follow-up attacks to the sneak attack.

Letting their energy fields fade after the attacks stopped, both Raven and Etrigan looked to their attacker. Raven instantly recognized him, "Walker."

"Hello, spawn of Trigon and cursed sorcerer," Walker smirked as his massive form floated a safe distance from the demons.

"None of the half-ghosts are here," Etrigan growled, "You can't fight them now."

"Oh, I am aware of that, but that's the point of this visit," Walker sneered at the demons, "The rules of revenge dictate that the best way to hurt them is to strike at people they care about. Add in my orders from above, and I have very good reason to imprison the two of you."

"For the Sorcerer Initiative?" Raven questioned.

"Yep, although, I don't know if they'll use you," Walker mentioned, "They might just outright kill the Pride of Trigon. But that doesn't matter to me."

"You act as if you've already won!" Etrigan bared his fangs and snarled at the ghost, "But we are far from defeated!"

"Not now, but soon…" Walker began to laugh lightly, "This whole world is going to feel the agony of defeat."

* * *

Black Bat leaned against the wall of the one of the many facilitates in the Sorcerer Initiative. The massive room had hundreds of container tubes covering the sides and walls. Each of the tubes had wires reaching down and stretching to the center of the room where it led into a massive cylinder. The cylinder was actually a battery that was designed to contain and later massive amounts of energy.

"Did you get the message?" Black Bat asked suddenly.

Lady Shiva walked out of the shadows and nodded towards her daughter, "Yes, Ra's wants us all to retreat. Our goal here is done. Klarion, Ocean Master, and Brain have been black listed."

"It seems that Phantom has fulfilled his end of the plan," Black Bat noted.

"Yes, and now it's time for our part," Shiva gained a wistful look, "It's finally time for this charade to end. Once we play our cards, the Light will know of our betrayal. They will try to hunt us down."

"Do you not trust Phantom to keep his word?" Black Bat asked in surprise, "You never questioned him before."

"No, I know that he will give us safety…new names…peace…everything anyone would ever want…" Shiva sighed, "But I don't really know if that will be enough. The thrill in my life will be gone."

"You can still be a mercenary like Dad," Black Bat suggested with a hopeful tone in her voice, "You two could be a team again while I…"

"Play hero? I know that's what you want," Shiva gave a deep frown, "Is that why we did all of this? So you could switch sides? Because I thought it was to give you a peaceful life. One where you could grow old and die in peace."

"Do you really believe that?" Black Bat questioned, "Your and Dad's blood runs through my veins, remember? And I've been trained since birth to live this life. How could I ever live a peaceful, boring life when both nature and nurture have decided that I must live for the moment?"

Shiva clenched her fists, "I know. I…wanted to give you a chance. When I was pregnant, I thought that I could find some way for my child to live whatever way she wished without the Shadows or the heroes influence, but everything I thought of…It didn't end well."

"But when a chance to escape arrived, you took it," Black Bat mentioned, "Not for you, but for me. Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," Shiva looked around the area, "We still have to take this place down first."

"And when we do, we get to move on with our lives," Black Bat sighed in contentment.

"What…what do you plan to do? Where will you stay? In Amity Park?" Shiva questioned.

"No…No, I can't do that," Black Bat shook her head, "I'm not a part of that family, and I've decided to make my own fate. I always knew there was a reason I chose to use this symbol on my chest."

"I see…"

"And what will you do?" Black Bat gave a knowing smirk through her mask, "I know that Dad's saved up some bit savings piles for us. He hasn't spent a cent of it for anything unnecessary. That means that you can at least take a looooooooooong vacation. Maybe work on giving me a sibling?"

"Cassandra?!" Shiva gave a scandalized look to her daughter.

"What? I always wanted a brother or sister," Cassandra took off her mask and grinned at her mother, "Besides, I know that you were thinking the exact same thing."

* * *

Phantom and Jinx appeared at the edge of a jungle in a swirl of pink energy. The jungle seemed rather out of place, because of the desert that surrounded it. They could see that there was a town not far away that seemed to have water feeding into it from the jungle.

"Damn," Phantom felt minor shockwaves spread through the area. He could tell that Colossus was fighting somewhere in that jungle, "Couldn't you have gotten us closer?"

"This is as close as I could get," Jinx mentioned, "Klarion set up a barrier to prevent magical portals from opening too close."

"Then we go the old fashioned way," Phantom held out a hand towards Jinx. The woman slowly took the hand. Suddenly, Jinx felt weightlessness wash over her. Phantom grabbed onto her and began to carry her through the air. Oddly enough, the flight felt natural. It was almost like she was meant to do this.

"This is amazing…" Jinx noted as they took off into the air.

"Right, this is your first flight," Phantom let out a chuckle, "Most people react this way. It's pretty damn awesome, huh?"

"Yeah…" Jinx felt her face flush as Phantom held her close. Deciding to redirect her emotions to stay focused, she questioned, "Hey, I get that you wanted to come stop Klarion, but didn't you have something to do in Amity Park?"

"There are people I need to meet there," Phantom frowned, "I guess you can call them backup. Some of them were hard to get a hold of and others…others I wouldn't use if I had any other choice."

"Why?" Jinx questioned. It wasn't like Danny to avoid using an asset.

"Lack of experience in the field for one guy. Another other one is way too young… and not even involved in this lifestyle," Phantom sighed, "He caught my eye a while ago. I contacted him as Fenton and offered funding to him. He has a lot of potential."

"You do have a good eye for potential," Jinx mentioned.

"Yeah…" Phantom stopped in his flight when a larger shockwave shook through the area. Both he and Jinx looked to where the shockwave came from.

Colossus grabbed the back of Black Adam's head and smashed the ancient user of Shazam's magic into his knee. A shockwave blasted out from Colossus' attack and hit Black Adam's face with even more force. Most people would have instantly died from the blow. Even most super humans would have at least been incapacitated. Black Adam, however, was only stumbled.

Seeing that Black Adam was still away, the giant ghost released Black Adam. He then smashed several different punches into the magical brawler's head. Each blow and shockwave sent Black Adam reeling. After several hits, Black Adam suddenly roared and counterattacked.

Following the force of the last punch, Black Adam spun and sent a devastating back fist to Colossus' jaw. Magical electricity blasted out to increase the damage even more. Colossus' head whipped back from the force of the blow. Black Adam used the opening to send several blows to the red skinned ghost's midsection.

This only seemed to energize Colossus even more, though. Swinging his arms up, the ghost quickly brought his fists down to hammer strike Black Adam. With two combined shockwaves, Black Adam was sent flying down to the jungle below. Colossus quickly followed after him.

"I think we should stay away from that fight," Jinx noted.

"Yeah, I'll let Colossus handle Black Adam," Phantom nodded, "But we still need to find Klarion."

Jinx noticed some flairs of magical lights not too far from their location, "There. I can sense Klarion and a bunch of powerful magic users."

"Alright, hold on. This is probably going to be a bumpy ride."

* * *

The Amazons were incredible warriors. That was a fact that every sane person on the planet had to concede to. As an unnatural combination of superhuman strength, inhuman endurance, and unrivaled skill, the female citizens of Themyscira could fight almost any living thing on Earth and most likely come out the winner. However, the Amazons did have an obvious and glaring weakness that could be exploited with ease.

None of them knew a thing about technology.

As such, when dozens of large mechanical walkers and drones suddenly dropped from the sky, they were shocked and awed. That quickly faded when the machines began to attack and capture the Amazons. They quickly adapted and treated the machines as if the enemy was armor covered beasts. This would have proved fruitful if their swords didn't just leave insignificant scratches and cuts on the machine's outer plating.

The walker robots had four massive legs that stood as wide as the ancient trees that lined Themyscira's jungle. At the top of the silver machine was a massive round container meant to contain as many people as possible. Several different mechanical claws reached from each of the walker's underbellies to grasp onto the fighting Amazon and drag them into the depths of the machine.

At the same time, the flying drones stalked the area and quickly took down. Stun guns jumped out of the top of the cylinder machines as the wings propelled them forward. Each drone flew around at incredible speeds and took shots at the fighting Amazons. With a single shot of the stun gun, an Amazon would drop to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Unlike Wonder Woman and Troia, who had blessed clothing that allowed them to fly, the Amazons did not possess the ability to fly and combat the drones. As such, it fell onto the helpers that could fly to take out the drones. Unfortunately, Troia was too preoccupied with trying to keep her sister Amazons from being captured by the walkers. Thus, it fell on Rocket's and Spirit's shoulders to take down the drones.

Spirit landed on the back of one of the drones. She brutally shoved a fist through the metal of the machine and tore out the wiring. The machine instantly began to fall as its internals were ripped out from it. Not wanting to have someone injured from this, Spirit used her powerful legs to shove the drone away from the island and fall into the rippling sea.

Rocket took a flashier approach. Covered in a shield of kinetic energy, she crashed into one of the drones with brutal force. The kinetic energy around her easily ripped through the metal plating of the drone and tore it in half. Before the two halves could fall, though, they sparked for a few brief seconds and then lit up in a brilliant explosion that shined just as brightly as the burning sun above it.

" _We are in trouble down here,_ " Troia announced through their radio channel, " _These mechanical beasts have armor that seems to be enhanced by magic. Our blades and fists only cause superficial wounds."_

"Damn," Rocket looked to Spirit, "These drones are just a distraction. We need to be down there taking those things out. Our powers should be enough to cut through those things."

"But we can't just let these drones run free," Spirit argued, "They're taking out the Amazons left and right."

A new voice suddenly spoke up through their earpieces, " _Then it's a good thing that I'm here. You two handle the drones. I got this."_

It was at that moment one of the walkers froze mid-step. Like the drone that Spirit had taken out, the machine just shut down as if the life was sucked out of it. With a loud creek followed by a deadening grown, the massive machine began to tumble over. As it fell, it cast a large shadow on its eminent landing area. Shouts of surprise and caution sounded out as the Amazons in that spot quickly rushed and lunged to get out of the way.

With a mighty crash, the walker landed and cracked against the beach. Troia instantly acted. She ran towards the top of the container, rammed her fist through one of the latches on the top of the walker, and began to help her sister Amazons escape the metal monstrosity.

As this happened, a tiny speck flew out of one of the tiny opens where the metal plates met. What looked like a tiny insect flew towards the shocked and recovering Amazons. This surprise was quickly amplified when the insect suddenly grew from the size of a bee to the height of a grown woman, even if she was still shorter than most of the rather bulky Amazons.

"Are you okay?" The woman that spoke wore a skin tight suit had contrasting yellow and black coloring. A mask with similar colors covered her head. Dark goggles protected her eyes from damage. The only part of the woman's darkened skin that was revealed was the lower half of her face.

"Y-yes…" One of the stunned Amazons managed to respond.

"That's good," The new hero smiled, "Sorry I'm late. I had to finish some last minute things before I could come out here."

"Is that so?" Troia gained an amused look, "I did not even know that thou was coming. Phantom said that thy equipment wasn't ready for field deployment yet."

"That's what I was doing. Last minute adjustment," The woman grinned, "The Atom and I were our asses off to get this done in time, so you better be grateful, Donna."

"I am indeed," Troia smiled at her friend. She then placed her hand on her ear and spoke to her airborne comrades, "It seems that a friend has arrived."

" _We can see that! Hi, Karin!_ " Spirit waved down to the black and yellow themed hero.

"Hey there, Spirit," Karin Beecher smiled, "But don't call me that. I finally came up with a codename. Call me Bumblebee."

* * *

Soldiers flooded in from every direction. Armed in underwater armor and laser guns, the soldiers instantly went to work of stunning and capturing the fighting Atlantians. Several submarines shaped like black mantas rocketed through the water. The subs dropped off reinforcements while allowing the current soldiers to carry the downed Atlantians away.

Dusk saw all this happen but could do nothing to stop. They were already surrounded by soldiers themselves. It seemed like they were all focused on capturing the Queen. A few of the submarines even turned to the courtyard to fire larger weapons at them.

Luckily, the Queen seemed to be a formidable fighter underwater. She literally controlled the water as if it was part of her own body. Giant tentacles of magical water surrounded her and began to swing around wildly. The water tentacles managed to attack some of the enemy soldiers, but the submarine canons made it so Mera had to defend far more than attack.

As such, it fell on the soldiers and young heroes to protect the Queen. Dusk had managed to fight off several soldiers himself. Out of the corner of his eye, the halfa noticed that their own forces were quickly getting overwhelmed by the opposing force. Aquaman's protégés seemed to be fairing the best in the situation. Their incredible teamwork and water manipulation managed to push the enemy back.

He was just about to go help his teammates when he noticed something that instantly drew his attention from the battle. Throughout all the chaos, there seemed to be some people sneaking around. Most people would never have noticed such subtle movements, but Dusk was trained for such things. Thus, he was the only one that saw as Ocean Master silently entered the palace from a window on the side of the building.

Dusk immediately decided to inform his teammates, "Ocean Master went into the palace!"

Aqualad turned back to Dusk, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I just saw him."

"Why would he do that?" Tempest questioned as he blasted back several soldiers with a twister of water, "No one that can use sorcery is in the palace right now."

"He must want something else," Aquagirl noted, "It doesn't matter what. No matter what, we have to capture him. If we do that, we might just be able to put an end to this madness."

"Then go! I can defend this position!" Queen Mera shouted out as her muscles strained using her magic to stop so many attacks.

"You are only defending right now! You will be overpowered and taken down if we leave you be," Aqualad looked to Aquagirl, "Tula! Take Dusk and go capture—"

"GAH!" One of the enemy soldiers managed to get a lucky shot in on Tempest. While the sorcerer was fighting off a few enemies from the front, one soldier circled around and shot him in the back. Tempest immediately shouted out in pain and collapsed.

"Garth!" Aquagirl instantly moved to her boyfriend's side and blasted the approaching soldiers with a condensed ball of water.

"Damn it," Aqualad grunted out and looked around briefly. With Garth down and the Queen completely focused on defending against the submarines, he and Aquagirl would have to stay and protect the area. He instinctively wanted to order Tula to leave, but he knew she wouldn't leave with Garth injured. If he left, though, Tula would be overwhelmed by protecting the Queen and Tempest at the same time. He couldn't just make Dusk go alone, though…

"Hey!" La'gaan spoke up as he swam next to Dusk, "I will go with the ghost. You two protect the Queen!"

"No! La'gaan, you need to go hide with the other children!" Mera commanded.

"I am no longer a child! You need my help, so I will fight!" La'gaan shouted angrily, "There are no longer any other options."

Aqualad nodded, "He is correct. Dusk, take La'gaan and get Ocean Master. La'gaan make sure you listen to everything Dusk has to say. Go! Put an end to this!"

Ignoring Queen Mera's protests, both Dusk and La'gaan turned and swam at top speeds into the palace. With the fighting mostly outside, the palace halls were empty. This allowed the two young men to move quickly through the walls. With no other way to track Ocean Master through the water, they followed the distant sounds of fighting that bounced through the hallways.

"King Orin!" La'gaan shouted out as they found Aquaman and Vision in the throne room. There were dozens of soldiers all around them. Aquaman was fighting them in close combat while Vision was using her ectoplasm to blast them away from afar.

La'gaan's shout distracted Aquaman for a brief second. This allowed his opponent to get in a strong punch across the jaw. The man that managed to get a hit on the king wore the exact same black armor as the rest of the soldiers. Unlike them, though, his helmet was extremely large, looked like a manta head, and had glowing red eyes.

With Aquaman stunned for a moment, Black Manta turned towards Vision. A rocket launcher popped out of his shoulder armor and fired a rocket towards Vision. Seeing the explosive coming at her, Vision stopped all of her attacks and formed a shield to stop the rocket. The purple ectoplasmic shield held against the explosion, but Vision was forced to keep the shield up as more soldiers fired their laser guns at her. With the force of the attacks significantly weaker, though, the ghost managed a counter attack. Balls of ectoplasm formed from the shield and slammed into the attacking soldiers.

After recovering from the blow, Aquaman quickly righted himself and kicked Black Manta away, "Dusk! La'gaan! Do you see the opening behind my throne! Go down there now and stop my brother!"

Dusk looked to the opening. It appeared that the throne had been moved to the side to show a secret passage way.

"You must stop him!" Vision shouted, "He's after—"

Black Manta once again fired a missile at Vision and cut her off before she could finish her explanation. Despite this, Dusk and La'gaan had their orders. They quickly swam towards the opening behind the throne. A few soldiers quickly got in their path.

Dusk went to take the initiative but stopped when La'gaan used his greater swimming speed to rush forward. To the halfa's great surprise, La'gaan's fins began to glow. His muscles expanded like a pufferfish until he was a hulking beast. With a loud roar, the Atlantian grabbed onto one of the soldiers and swung him around like a bat knocking the other soldiers away with ease. Tossing the enemy away, La'gaan then quickly shrug down to his normal size.

"That was amazing," Dusk stated as they swam through the secret entrance behind the thrown, "I didn't know Atlantians can do that."

"Most cannot," La'gaan smirked, "I have been practicing that most of my life. But I think ghost powers are far more interesting. Tell me, why do you need an oxygen mask while that ghost…Lady Vision, I believe, doesn't?"

Dusk frowned at that. Technically, he and the other half-ghosts could talk underwater. Their ectoplasm would work to replace the oxygen to vibrate their vocal chords, but most of the time they chose not to do it for long periods of time. They still needed their lungs to work correctly when they turned human again, after all, and that wouldn't be possible if they were full of water. But Dusk couldn't tell La'gaan that, "It's a more advanced technique of ectoplasm manipulation. I can't do that yet."

"Oh, I see. Fair enough," La'gaan quickly bought the explanation. Considering Atlantian customs and sorcery, it probably made a lot of sense to him.

The two fighters continued their swim in silence until they reached the end of the hall. A few of the enemy soldiers stood above the downed Atlantian guards. Dusk couldn't see Ocean Master, so he assumed that the villain had entered the door at the end of the secret hallway.

"I will hold off these chum heads," La'gaan noted, "You go get the traitor."

"Right, let me give you a boost," Dusk formed his Scribe Staff, "Hold on!"

La'gaan did as instructed. He tightly grabbed onto the staff. Dusk then did a spin and flung La'gaan towards the enemy soldiers. La'gaan ducked and dodged the lasers being fired at him as he rocked towards the enemy with incredible speeds. Then, just as he was about to hit them, La'gaan expanded like a pufferfish once again. He mowed them all over and knocked many of them out as he tackled them to the ground. His massive form barely fit the hallway, but while laying down on the enemy, La'gaan created just enough space above him for Dusk to swim through.

Dusk squeezed by La'gaan and continued his journey towards the end of the hall. Forming his Burst Gauntlets, the halfa used the weapons to propel himself forward as if he were a rocket. Then, just before he rammed into the door, he turned his weapons forward and broke right through the entrance of the secret room.

There were many things that Dusk had been expecting. A secret weapon, Atlantis's power source, or even a secret tome of all of Atlantis's secrets were all things that popped up in his mind. The truth was, however, that this was a secret bunker for people to hide in during a crisis. It wasn't meant for the King or Queen, though.

It was meant for their son.

Dusk felt his the blood in his body freeze. Shock and disgust blared through his stomach as he looked towards Ocean Master. The villain stood over a sickeningly silent crib. His golden trident stood straight up from the center of the toddler's bed. Red liquid drifted up out of the crib and began to spread out through the water.

As for the child that lie in the crib, well…Some things are better left unsaid.

* * *

It didn't take long for the agents of Shazam to act. All three of the Marvels rushed towards Nyx hoping to stop her before she could do anything. Seeing this, Nyx quickly dissolved and became one within the shadows of the cave. Her three attacks instantly stopped their speedy charge. Each one of them looked around in alarm in a desperate attempt to find their enemy.

Nyx acted far before they could find her, though. Without a sound, the golden rope the ghost carried snared out from the shadows of the statues and ensnared Captain Marvel. Trapped by the magical rope, Captain Marvel could do nothing as he was yanked backwards and into the shadows. His friends quickly went to assist him, but found that Nyx had already dragged him into a realm that they could not reach.

Nevertheless, they searched behind the statues with wild eyes and whipped heads in a desperate attempt to find their leader. Nyx had predicted that they would do that, though. Thus, she had dragged him to the opposite end of the cave, giving her enough distance to enact her plan without instantly being stopped by the other magic users.

The rope surrounded Captain Marvel began to glow as Nyx gently whispered into his ear, "How do you transform?"

Captain Marvel desperately tried to fight the words that jumping up his throat. The Lasso of Truth, though, compelled all to speak the facts without deviation, "I have to say…the wizard's…name…"

A wicked grin danced across Nyx's face, "And what is his name?"

"S-Shazam," Lighting blasted down from the ceiling and covered the trapped form of Captain Marvel. In a flash of light, the mighty chosen of Shazam had reverted back to his skinny, teenage, and weak self. Despite all this, the shaggy haired boy still looked just like a younger version of the powerful Captain Marvel.

Knowing that Billy would try to say the wizard's name again, she quickly spoke a spell's name, "Piz sih htuom tuhs."

Billy's mouth sealed shut side to side as if it was a zipper being closed. He desperately tried to open his mouth but could not force himself to say the magic word. At this point, Lieutenant and Sergeant Marvel were already charging towards their location. They quickly stopped their approach, though, when Nyx formed a knife made out of the dancing shadows around her and held it to Billy's throat.

"Oh? So you're not completely stupid," Nyx giggled to herself.

"Let him go!" Sergeant Marvel demanded.

"Um…no," Nyx rolled her eyes, "I worked hard to capture him. Why would I do that?"

"What…What do you want?" Lieutenant Marvel questioned.

"Now that's the real question," Nyx nodded, "What I want is really simple. Say the magic word, and I promise I'll let the boy go."

"Please?"

"No! The wizard's name, you smart ass!"

"…How do we know you'll keep your word?' Sergeant Marvel questioned.

"I guess you don't, but…" Nyx gave a sweet and sincere smile, "I'm a girl of my word. Trust me, I won't hurt Billy if you transform."

Sergeant and Lieutenant Marvel shared a look. They both nodded and turned back to Nyx, "Shazam!"

With a roar of lightning and a blaze of golden light, Lieutenant and Sergeant Marvel instantly turned back into Mary and Freddie.

"Now keep your promise!" Freddie demanded.

"Okay!" Nyx tossed Billy to the side and pointed a hand at the now powerless teens. The shadows below their feet instantly jumped up and began to wrap around Marry and Freddie like snakes choking their prey. The strands of shadows even covered their mouths to prevent them from saying the wizard's name again, "There we go! Two hostages for the price of one. Pretty smart, huh?"

All she received was dirty glares from the downed teenagers. Nyx ignored this, though, and turned to Shazam, "Alright, here's the deal, Whitebeard. You cooperate, and I don't kill your agents."

"I could not fight back even if I wanted to," Shazam noted, "I am an old being that has sworn and oath to never interfere directly with the mortal plane. That is why I pick people to take up my powers. That way, I can indirectly fight against evil."

"Cunning, but ineffective," Nyx gestured around, "See? I took them down pretty easily."

"Even giants fall before brilliant plans," Shazam noted, "And this was a brilliant plan. Your mind is truly your greatest weapon. It's too bad that the Witch Boy is controlling it. Such a shame. Your affinity with order is being overshadowed by your puppet master."

Nyx's grin faltered, "No…He's…my dad. He loves me. I…I…don't…know…"

"I see…" Shazam stroked his beard in thought, "He has placed many different controls over you. Yet you still fight. What an amazing spirit you have."

Black electricity spared around Nyx. Her eyes turned a violent red. The veins beneath her skin gained a black tint, "No! I am chaos! My father loves me! I know this! Now shut up and get up! I'm taking you to Dad!"

"Very well, young one," With a pained groan and the crack of popping knees, Shazam stood from his throne, "Let us go. I do hope that mind of yours has come up with a plan to fight against Klarion. Because if not, then I fear that this whole world is doomed."

* * *

Raven watched in shock as Walker lifted Etrigan over his head. She had not expected Walker to be able to physically overpower the demon. His raw power was unbelievable, and it was shown even more when the ghost slammed Etrigan into the ground a few times before tossing him towards Raven.

With a wave of her hand, Raven spread out her match and caught her teacher, "I don't think that we can beat him directly."

"Indeed," Etrigan rubbed his sore back, "It would be best to fight from afar and use magic."

"Agreed," Raven's eyes began to glow, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Swirling black and white magic blasted at Walker. This caused the giant ghost to lung to the side with surprising speeds for someone his size. He zipped out of the range of the blast and tried to jump up to attack them. He was quickly stopped when the ground below him softened into mud, grabbed him, and began to pull them down into the Earth below him. The mud seemed to follow the demon's commands as Etrigan's finger silently carved runes into the air.

As this happened, scratch covered Fright Knight burst from the woods. He swung his sword down to try and cut Walker with his blade of fear. Walker quickly used his energy arm to block the attack. The fake limb stopped the attack, but it was almost cut in half during the process. Fright Knight was prepared for that, though, and had readied another attack.

With a groan of pain, Walker went flying back in a burning blaze. A burning jewel had hit him in the stomach after it had fired out of the Fright Knight's free hand. With that done, Fright Knight looked up towards his comrades, "Trap him!"

Nodding, both magic users followed the directions. They quickly chanted their spells out and caused a swirling cage of energy to appear around Walker. Before the magic could settle, though, a giant wave of ectoplasmic energy blasted out and shattered the cage. The wave didn't stop there. Walker was covered in a giant cocoon of energy that was possibly one of the biggest physical manifestations of a ghost's energies they had seen.

"What did you do?!" Fright Knight questioned, "How did you gain so much power? Was it the Cobra Venom?"

"It was part of my boost," Walker admitted, "But I have several secrets, and telling you about them would be against the rules."

With that said, Walker sent a three large blasts of energy towards his three opponents. Fright Knight stopped his by cutting it with the Soul Shredder. Despite the blade's sharpness, it still took a few precious seconds to cut through the attack, and, even then, he was pushed back a little bit. The other two attacks flew towards the flying part demons. Student and teacher quickly chanted out a shield spell and combined their energy to form a massive red shield.

The blasts of energy rammed into the shield with a large crack and boom. Both Raven and Etrigan struggled to keep the shield up under the force of the massive blasts. They did manage to stop the attack that exploded against their shield, but they were weakened.

Walker quickly used this to his advantage. While the attacks were still being defended, he burst through the sky and slammed against the shield. The magic shattered like glass, and both magic users were forced off balance. They tried to regain their control but failed when Walker grabbed each of them around the neck.

"T-This power…" Etrigan gasped out, "You…What have you done?"

"What I had to," Walker grinned, "You're both coming with me. I'm sure the half-ghosts will be quite upset when they learn that I captured two of their friends right from their hometown."

"If we would let you do that, you mean."

Raven was suddenly released when green bat flew up and cut through the rest of Walker's energy hand. The energy hand quickly dropped to the ground below. The green creature was quickly followed by dozens more of the green creatures. The swarmed around Walker and forced him to retreat. Before he could do anything, though, multiple blasts of ectoplasmic cannons slammed into him and forced him towards the ground.

Walker landed on his stomach and caused the ground to crack beneath him. With a grunt of pain, Walker released Etrigan. He then quickly tried to get up, but he stopped on his hands when he saw a somewhat small body stand in front of him.

"Hello," Ace greeted the agent of the Light, "And goodbye."

"AH!" Walker cried out in pain as his eyes met Ace's. Terrible images of blood and torture shot through his mind. His skin felt like it was dissolving. He attempted to scream, but stopped as the sounds froze in his throat and began to choke him.

"Wait…" Suddenly Ace stopped her mental assault on Walker, and the ghost tumbled to the ground. Drool escaped from his slackened and uncontrolled jaw, "That was too easy for a ghost—whoa!"

Ace was surprised when the green creatures grabbed onto her, pulled her back, and then shielded her. They were just in time, too. Walker's body suddenly exploded in a blaze of green. Everyone was forced to cover their eyes and retreat as the explosion spread. Once the flames had died down, black smoke began to reach up and stroked the blue sky. As more of the smoke escaped into the air above them, something very strange floated before them.

"It's about time you showed up," Walker's voice sounded out from his dismembered energy hand. The hand was grabbing onto Entrigan and holding him into the air, "Any longer, and I would have been forced to show them something really shocking. I thought all this noise would draw attention pretty quickly. I guess you're all just slow."

Everyone's eyes widened as Walker's body began to reform from the ectoplasmic limb. He was completely unscratched, both physically and mentally.

Fright Knight was the first one to regain his voice, "And that isn't shocking? What kind of power is that?!"

"The Hand of the Law. Useful, but extremely draining," Walker shrugged, "I have nothing left to fight with, so you would win easily at this point. That's fine, though. I finally have my excuse to leave and follow the rules."

"What are you talking about?" Raven questioned.

"Oh, nothing, Pride," Walker chuckled, "It's just that I didn't want to capture you. You're the Gem after all, and I'm sure you'll bring the Phantom Family more trouble if you live than if you die."

A glowing black portal appeared behind Walker. He quickly took a step back and dragged the unconscious Etrigan into the portal.

"Do you really think we'll just let you leave?!" King snarled as he and the rest of the Royal Flush Gang opened fire at the portal. Each blast bounced off the entrance of the portal like they were wads of paper, though.

"You really don't have a choice," Walker noted, "I'm already gone."

With that, the portal closed. Raven, who had been rushing to try and stop the ghosts, quickly fell through the now open space and landed on the ground, "No! Master Blood!"

Fright Knight gently placed a hand on Raven's shoulder, "Do not worry. We will get him back. I promise."

"How? The entire point of the Sorcerer Initiative is to make people stronger right? Like Walker?" Raven questioned in a low tone, "If they have a bunch of people even half as strong as Walker, we're doomed to fail."

"Lord Phantom thought of that," Fright Knight noted as he looked towards the now grounded Royal Flush Gang, "That's why he called for assistance."

Lydia nodded as she stepped forward, "The Royal Flush Gang's plans have always been to take down the Light. Phantom knew this and knew that I had joined Ace's team. He contacted us with a plan to stop the Sorcerer Initiative and cripple the Light. How could we refuse?"

"So Danny really thought ahead," Raven looked towards the people who often stood as her enemy, "So you're going to help us?"

"Of course," Ace nodded, "I really don't care if the magic users live or die. But if the Light gets their hands on that energy, they'll be unstoppable. We can't let that happen. So, it's time to finally take the fight to them. I'll enjoy melting their brains into a mushy goo."

* * *

If there was one thing Zatanna knew about battle, it was that it could all go badly in a few brief seconds. Maybe her time in Young Justice had made her cynical. After all, things often never went as planned for the young heroes. Her experiences made so she was well aware of how quickly things could go to hell. Still, she never expected so many powerful individuals could be stopped so easily. Klarion did not come alone. It seemed even he was aware that he wasn't invisible. In fact, he brought the right people to fight against her allies.

Undergrowth stood frozen in place. His state actually didn't involve his weakness to cold and ice, but rather someone else's ability to control plants. Right beside him at the base of his vines and roots stood a rather beautiful woman whose crimson hair held a deep contrast with her green skin and leaf covered clothing.

"A human…stopping the power of Undergrowth?" Undergrowth groaned through gritted teeth, "Inconceivable!"

"It would be if I were human," Poison Ivy smiled up at the planet, "You can call me Mother Nature, and every plant bows to my whim. Even the dead ones."

Zatara grunted as he was tackled to the ground. Metallic arms shoved pushed him down and then wrapped around his throat. The older magic user got a glimpse of his attacker. The shining silver body gleamed in the sunlight. A metallic skull grinned down at him, while a glowing green rock shined from the opening in his chest.

"Metallo—Mmmh!"

"Woops, almost forgot to stop you from speakin'. You magic users are dangerous even to me," Metallo mentioned as his metal arms wrapped around the magician's neck and mouth, "Go ahead and try to bite me. You'll only crack your own teeth, mate."

Zatanna saw her father's distress and went to help him. As she ran, a spell chanted from her lips. Before she could do that, however, a large red portal appeared in front of her. Feeling the danger from the portal, Zatanna flipped backwards just in time to avoid the strands of dark energy that lashed out to try and cut her.

Once a decent distance away from the portal, Zatanna looked up just in time to see what was coming out of a portal the size of a building. First, a massive paw with sharp claws stepped out. The giant leg shook the ground as it met the earth. Then, a second paw followed. Finally, a head appeared. Fur black as night, teeth sharper than knives, and eyes a crimson red peered down at them. Shaped in the form of a massive cat, the creature roared and caused the jungle to tremble in fear.

"Kekekekekekekeke! You like her?!" Klarion cheered as the three remaining magic heroines stared up at the giant feline, "This is what I first imagined when I created Nyx! But what I got was better! With Nyx, I can make one of these babies a day! Course, the first prototype didn't do all that well against that team in Atlantis, but the new design is much, much stronger!"

With that, the monster let out another massive roar. Its front, right paw struck out with lighting fast speeds. The targets of the attack managed to move out of the way for the most part. Unfortunately, Constantine wasn't fast enough. His arm dragged behind him and was cut on the top of his forearm.

"John!" Zatanna saw the blood as it began to pore down his arm.

"I'm fine!" Constantine shouted as he continued to move around the battlefield to avoid getting hit again, "Just attack!"

"He's right!" Doctor Fate agreed. She held out her arms and sent a blast of magical energy out towards the beasts. Zatanna copied the motion and cast a spell to send a fireball at the monstrous feline. Both attacks hit their targets, but to the complete surprise of the fighters, there was no effect. In fact…

"Did that thing just absorb our magic?!" Zatanna could not believe her eyes.

"RAW!" The massive beast roared and smacked Doctor Fate away. The dazed Lord of Order was quickly followed by Klarion.

Zatanna went to help Doctor Fate but was once again stopped by the beast, "Damn! How do we stop this thing?!"

"I have a plan," Constantine called out. Zatanna noticed that he had been tracing the blood around the area.

"Did you…get cut on purpose?" Zatanna questioned.

"I needed to get my freakin' blood on it!" Constantine shouted, "It's the only surefire way to make sure this works! Can you shield me for a minute?!"

Zatanna looked up at the growling monster, "I-I can try…"

"No try only do!" Constantine cried as the monster swung down at them.

"Esaelp tel siht dleihs krow!" Zatanna shouted out. A golden bubbled formed around her and Constantine. The monster's paw crashed down on the shield. This instantly caused Zatanna to fall to her knees in pain. The agony only intensified as the beast several more blows against the shield. Each strike sent a signal of agony through her spine. This was only intensified when the beast stopped the physical attack and opened its mouth to roar once more. This time, though, a waves of shadow energy poured out of its mouth.

"Gah!" Zatanna trembled in pain. The constant flow of power against her shield was too much for her to bear. A trickle of blood began to flow from her nose.

"A little longer, Z!" Constantine shouted.

"I…can't…" Zatanna's arm shook in exhaustion. Her shield began to creak and crack. In a few seconds, the shield would fall, and they would be overtaken by the attack.

"Stupid cat!" Phantom roared as he dropped from the sky and slammed into the monster's back. This caused the beast to reel in pain and cancel the attack.

"Good on you, mate!" Constantine grinned. He placed his hands on the set of runes that he painted on the ground. The red markings quickly began to dance around. Then, they raced towards the demon cat's feet. The monster noticed and tried to stop the carvings by stomping on them. This was what Constantine wanted, though. The runes quickly began to climb up the beast's body. Once the markings covered the beast, the beast froze. White light began to shine out from various pores on the beast's body. Then, with a roar, the monster disintegrated into a burst of light.

"And that is how exorcise a bloody demon," Constantine grinned before he and Zatanna collapsed in exhaustion.

Phantom quickly rushed towards them. He gently turned Zatanna over and cradled her head, "Guess I made it in time, huh?"

"You did…" Zatanna noted, "But you still need to stop—"

"AH!" Constantine shouted out in pain as Klarion landed on his back.

Phantom quickly and gently placed Zatanna down and looked towards the Lord of Chaos. He noticed that Doctor Fate was dropped into an unconscious heap beside the exorcist. The halfa wondered how that was possible. Doctor Fate was too strong to be taken easily. Klarion must have done something to either weaken her or strengthen himself. Maybe both, "Klarion, you need to stop this."

"No can do, ghosty!" Klarion gestured all around, "Just look! My plans are going great!"

Phantom glanced around at his defeated allies. Metallo and Poison Ivy stood possessively by their victims, "For now, but I'm going to stop you."

"Oooooooh? You will?" Klarion gave an evil smirk, "Why don't you come try it?"

Phantom began to rush forward, "Fine!"

With a snort and a shake of the head, Klarion raised his hand and pointed it at Phantom. A bolt of black electricity shot out of his hand. Phantom moved to block it but was shocked when the energy suddenly curved around him. Time slowed as Phantom turned to watch the attack. He already knew where it was going. There was only one place it could go…

"AH!" Zatanna cried out in agony as the electricity slammed into her stomach. Her body arched in pain, and she began to spasm as the energy carved deeply into her stomach leaving a smoking black burn.

"Z!" Phantom shouted out in concern. He quickly returned to his friend and looked over her wound. The smell of cooked flesh wafted up into his nose and made him feel ill.

"Too predictable. I always know what you're gonna do," Klarion noted, "Let's go! Time to blow this popstan—"

Sensing the danger behind him, Klarion got off of Constantine and jumped over to the downed Doctor Fate who seemed to begin to spark and shake in pain as Klarion go closer. The lord of chaos did this just in time to avoid several hex bolts that would have torn into him. Jinx frowned as she saw this. She had Phantom drop her earlier so that she could sneak around and get the jump on Klarion. This only partially worked. He didn't get hit, but he was forced to abandon one of his captives.

With a snarl, Klarion snapped his fingers. This caused energy to swirl around him, his allies, and his captives. They disappeared in an instant and left Phantom and Jinx alone with the two remained magic users.

"Danny, we have a problem," Jinx noted as he looked over Constantine, "I saw what Klarion did to Doctor Fate. It was…unnerving."

"We can talk about that later," Phantom noted. As gently as possible, he lifted Zatanna up and carried her to Jinx, "She needs medical attention now. Now that Klarion is gone, can you teleport?"

Jinx nodded.

"Then get us out of here."

* * *

It took only one minute for everything to go to hell. One moment, they were winning the battle. The next moment, they were on the brink of defeat, and it was all because of a cat. Granted, the cat was bigger than a building and could shake the ground with a single roar, but still, Spirit was sure that the Amazons were more ashamed of what beat them instead of actually being defeated.

The monster appeared through a blood red portal. It instantly began its rampage. Massive swipes of its paws sent Amazons flying. Energy breath attacks blazed the area. Attacks with swords and shields seemed useless. The energy that made up the beast seemed to lash out at anyone that got even remotely close.

Everyone was forced to turn their attention to that monster. At the same time, though, the machines were still a threat. With their backs turned, the Amazons could do nothing to stop the machines' attacks and abduction attempts. When the Amazons turned back towards the machines, though, the monster cat would strike. Its tale would lash like a whip. Strands of energy reached out, grabbed several victims, and dragged it into its body. Whatever way they looked, they would be defeated. Within seconds, the battle had turned.

"What do we do?" Bumblebee questioned through the coms system, "Do we go after the monster or the machines?"

"I don't know," Rocket sounded concerned, "If we go after one, that leaves us vulnerable to the other. Fighting doesn't seem like the best option right now. I think we should retreat. Get everyone off the island."

"Amazons don't retreat," Troia mention as she dodged a swipe of the demon cat, "My sisters will never agree to leave this island."

"They can either leave on their own, or be dragged away. By us, or the enemy," Spirit noted as she used her Spectral Claws to cut through one of the machines.

"Fine…I'll contact Mother and Diana—"

" _Donna_!" Wonder Woman's voice called through the earpieces, " _There is some kind of monster on the North side of the island. We need help now_!"

"That won't work, sister! We have a monster ourselves! There's too big of a threat. We need to leave the island."

" _Agreed. It will be difficult to convince Mother, but—AH_!"

"Diana? Diana!" Troia whirled around to face the other side of the island. She watched as shadow energy and machines rose up and began to drag the Amazons away.

"Donna! Watch out!"

Spirit's warning was too late, though. In her distraction, Troia had left herself open. The monster quickly took advantage. It lunged its head out and ate the Amazon whole.

Seeing her friend in distress, Spirit instantly flew towards her friend. She used her Spectral Claws to cut through the monster's mouth. The shadows tore and oozed away like black ink. Spirit peered into the mouth of the beast and saw Donna being dragged down its through by strands of black tentacles.

"Take my hand!" Spirit ordered as she reached into the mouth.

Troia quickly obeyed. Reached up, her hand clamped on to the hand of her friend. With a roar, Spirit began to try to drag the Amazon free from the monster. To her horror, though, more black strands reached out and continued to pull Troia down. It was made even worse when Spirit began to get dragged in as well

"Thou needs to let go!" Troia demanded, "The beast only wants me! Let go, and thou can go free!"

"No! I won't abandon a friend!" Spirit reached in with her other hand and grabbed onto the seeking Amazon. She used her feet to hook the sides of the opening she made. Unfortunately, the opening in the monster's mouth was quickly closing, Spirit wasn't any closer to freeing her friend.

"Dani…" Troia looked up to her ally, "Thou cannot help anyone if thou gets dragged in with me. Let go. Then, thou can come rescue me and my sisters later."

"NO!" Spirit roared in anger, "I won't let another friend go! Never again."

"I see…" Troia gained a hardened look, "Then, I'm sorry. Thou dost not leave me any other choice."

Troia jerked her other hand free from the pool of shadows she was sinking into. With a roar, she punched up and struck Spirit square in the nose. Not expecting that move, Spirt was instantly stunned and forced to let go of her friend. Troia then reached up and pushed Spirit out of the mouth of the beast.

With blurry vision, Spirit fell from the monster's mouth. She barely recognized what was happening. Brief images of retreating machines filled her vision. The beast roared. Then, it was gone in a swirl of energy.

"Gotcha!" Bumblebee shouted as she returned to normal size and caught the falling ghost. The newest member of Young Justice then gently laid the halfa on the ground to rest.

"No!" Spirit refused to stay down, though. She instantly pushed herself up and away from Bumblebee to see an empty battlefield. All the Amazons were gone, "No…"

Rocket landed down next to the grounded heroine. She had a deep frown covering her face, "I tried to stop them, but there was too many of them. They overwhelmed me."

"Then…They got everyone?" Bumblebee questioned.

"Yeah…" Rocket looked around at the abandoned beach and silent island, "They got everyone."

* * *

Disgust and rage surged through Dusk's stomach. His eyes burned from the sight before him, but he couldn't turn away. Not that it would help. Dusk was sure that he would see it in his mind even if he closed his eyes. Sudden pressure on his knees revealed that his legs had collapsed. Bile tried to force its way up his throat. It took all of his willpower to force the vomit back down.

"You monster," Dusk's voice came out in a verminous hiss, "How could you even consider doing that?"

"It is quite simple," Ocean Master's words came out slowly and calmly, "I had to do it to clear my way to the throne."

"What? You did that…so you could be the king?" Dusk trembled in a terrible rage.

"Of course. That is all I ever wanted, but people always stood in my way. Mother chose my bastard brother over me, and with this little brat alive, no one in Atlantis would ever consider me the rightful king by blood," Ocean Master explained. He pulled his trident up, and Duck flinched back from the squish sound that sounded through the water, "With this brat gone, I can focus on my brother, his protégés, and the Queen. Mera and the brats will soon be dealt with at the Sorcerer Initiative. By now, they have already been captured, and when my brother sees that he has lost his entire family…I doubt that he will have enough heart left in him to fight back."

"Do you really think that will make you king?" Dusk glared so hard towards Ocean Master that he felt as if his eyes were going to pop out of his skull, "This…this is unforgivable. Why would anyone in Atlantis follow you after this?"

"They will not have a choice," Ocean Master gave an evil smirk, "You do not think I know this city and its people? They are all followers. That is who they are and what they always will be. Only a few have the initiative to fight against me, and I will crush them the instant I take the throne. And with the power I will gain from the Sorcerer Initiative, my kingdom will only grow. The Atlantian Empire shall soon take its place the dominant world power."

"You're insane if you think that the rest of the world will just let that happen," Dusk noted, "We will stop you."

"Just like you stopped me today?"

Dusk was silent.

"I must say, I don't know why Ra's is so fixated on you. You're so weak that you can't even stand after seeing this," Ocean Master noted, "You could never stomach his job. I can see why he has plans to replace you if this fails."

"What?"

Ocean Master looked like he was about to speak again but paused. He placed a hand over his ear and spoke into what Dusk assumed was an earpiece, "I see. You are done? Good. My tracker is activated. Come pick me up."

With gritted teeth, Dusk tried to force himself to his feet. The sight of the crib and its contents made it nearly impossible, though. His legs felt numb even as the wall behind Ocean Master suddenly burst out in an explosive mess. One of the massive manta submarines hovered right outside the wall.

The Atlantian villain quickly began to swim away. Dusk wanted to do something, to say something. Yet he couldn't bring himself to. His body refused to respond. All he could do was watch as Ocean Master escaped through the darkened water. Once the villain was gone and room was silent, Dusk tumbled forward and fell on his hands and knees with his head bowed forward.

"Hey, ghost! The enemy retreated! Did you beat back…the traitor…" La'gaan swam into the room right behind the ghost. The Atlantian's eyes instantly fell on the still crib. Dusk didn't have the heart to look up towards La'gaan's full reaction, but based on the gagging noises, La'gaan wasn't able force down the vomit the way Dusk did earlier.

When the gagging noises finally stopped, they were replaced by soft sobs and cries, "Neptune have mercy…This is…"

"Yeah…It is…" Dusk spoke in a pained whisper. For a few minutes, the two teenagers just stayed there. The silence was so sick that they thought their ears would bleed from the tension. Neither of them made an effort to move. The gravity of the situation was just too heavy on their shoulders for them to move.

"Dusk!" Vision called out as she swam up towards the downed halfa, "What's wrong?"

She probably hadn't seen the crib yet. Dusk decided to ignore the question. It was too horrible for words, "Aquaman…Where's Aquaman?"

"He was injured by Black Manta. I left him with some of his guards…" Vision entered the room and saw what had caused Dusk to collapse, "Oh God…"

The woman gently floated over to the crib. Her eyes were wide and shined with unshed tears. She gently reached down and stroked the head of the silent child in the crib. The usual control Vision had begun to crumble as her emotions began to leak out in the form of her Haunting Aura. Sorrow and regret were thick in the room, but another emotion blasted out heavier. A righteous rage trickled around the room and seemed to accuse everything in its reach.

"Ocean Master did this?" Vision gently questioned, "He…killed this innocent child?"

"Yes," Dusk trembled as he finally began to cry, "Yes…"

"I see…" Slowly, Vision retracted her hand from the crib. She returned to reveal the tears drifting off her rage filled eyes and the snarl that snapped out from behind her veil, "Then I know who I have to kill for causing this tragedy."

* * *

The Fright Knight and Raven were followed by the Royal Flush Gang through the streets of Amity Park to the meeting spot. None of them seemed worried about being attacked or captured. It made both of the city natives somewhat angered that they could feel so comfortable. Of course, it wasn't as if they had the manpower right now to do anything to fight them, but it was more of the principle of the matter.

"Lord Phantom instructed me to bring any of his 'guests' to Fenton Works," Fright Knight addressed the people behind him, "Although, I don't agree with some of his choices, I do know that this is not the time to be picky with our allies."

"There are more people he contacted?" Ace frowned. She did not like being around new people.

"Contacted would be putting it lightly," Fright Knight actually let out a chuckle, "He was well aware of that this situation might get out of hand, so he used every single he person he knew that might be willing to help. From what I heard, challenged, goaded, and hired would be the best way to describe why they are here."

Turning the corner, the Royal Flush Gang was surprised at the group they saw in front of Fenton Works. Most of them were familiar in some way, but they never would have suspected that they would be willing to work with Fenton.

"This is surprising," Lydia's voice made the group look to them.

David Cain grinned as he took a puff of smoke, "He even called in the terrorists, huh? Shrewd brat."

Red Arrow, who was now sporting a thin beard and shaggy hair, frowned at the Royal Flush Gang, "Are you kidding me? Working with them? What is he thinking?"

" _My guess is that he was planning for the worst. From what he told us, this is like final boss…no! Secret boss level serious. Rage out and stay up until three in the morning kind of serious,"_ The voice of Richard Foley sounded out of a slick silver metal walker. The machine was at a size that would allow it to be carried on his back and had three legs on each side to hold it up. A camera extended out the front of the machine and allowed its user to look at the new people that had come. On the back of the machine was the bold words of Backpack 2.0.

Gizmo, who had been quite intrigued with the technology before him finally turned to see what they were talking about, "What are you…Holy snot burgers! Who's the cute girl?"

"Her name is Ace. She is the leader of the Royal Flush Gang," Red X mentioned as the A.I. controlled suit leaned against the wall of Fenton Works, "And with them here, that means our group is complete."

"And what exactly is our little group?" David Cain questioned.

" **Isn't it obvious?** " Everyone turned to see Fenton's famed Exorcist armor walk out of the Fenton Works building.

"No, barf breath, it isn't," Gizmo glared at the armor, "You just called and said that you had a challenge and job for us. I just came out of curiosity, but being around these weirdoes is getting on my nerves really fast."

"The feeling is mutual," Red Arrow gave a grunt, "Danny, what exactly is going on?"

" **Danny? I'm not Danny,** " The Exorcist stepped down towards the group, " **And the answer is pretty simple. We're over our head, so we're going to need all the help we can get.** "

" _So we're the helpers?_ " Backpack 2.0's camera eyed the armor up and down.

" **No,** " The mask of the Exorcist armor shifted and lifted to reveal the face of Damon Gray, "We're the backup."

* * *

 **Next update: "Chaos" on January 4, 2016**

 **I'm back. I know I said I'd be on hiatus until the new year, but Christmas time gets to me. Plus I felt the need to put out a new chapter before I get caught up in the celebration. Of course...it's a bit dark and depressing, so it doesn't fit the season...Well, Merry Christmas anyway. New chapters of Conviction will be out starting the first Monday of the new year. Until then, stay safe and enjoy whatever holiday you're celebrating.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	13. Chaos

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency."

Aldous Huxley

* * *

Chapter 13: "Chaos"

(Sunday-March 2, 2014)

Phantom's eyes swept around the group that stood in the meeting hall of Mount Justice, "Alright, first let's address the elephant in the room. Not all of us are exactly friends. Some of us are even enemies, but drastic times call for drastic measures. If we want to stop the Sorcerer Initiative, we need to work together. If we don't, we'll fail. So, if anyone can't get over any grudges for one mission, speak up now."

Everyone was silent.

"Alright," Phantom nodded, "Just so everyone knows, this is everyone we've got. Every member of the Justice League not captured is working their asses off to stop Klarion's monsters," Holographic images of giant shadow cats popped up all across the Hall, "Klarion has his monsters attacking all across the planet. All still active League members, unaffiliated heroes like Black Lighting, and even a lot of our ghost allies are fighting them right now. As such, it falls on us to attack the main base."

Another image popped up. This time, it was a giant overhead image of an island. Four square buildings stood at the he four corners of the island. At the center of the island was a large facility covered in steel platting. Around the circular building were there crescent shaped buildings around the same and build of the main base. Only a small gap existed between each crescent surrounding the main buildings.

Jinx stepped up and pointed at the holograms, "Those four surrounding buildings are were the captives are held. Each person is hooked up to the pod that will drain the magic out from that person's body. The energy will then be transferred from that building's generator to the main part of the Sorcerer Initiative."

"Do you know where everyone is being held?" Dusk questioned.

Phantom nodded, "Yes. Base 1 is holding the Undergrowth specifically. Base 2 is reserved for the Homo Magi. Base 3 has the Atlantians. And base 4 is where the Amazons are being held."

"Why dose Undergrowth get his own base?" Gizmos questioned in curiosity.

Phantom sighed, "Some of you might forget this, but Undergrowth was actually a member of the Injustice League."

" _What?_ " Backpack 2.0's camera flared around, " _When was that?_ "

Vision decided to speak up, "It's a long story. It has to do with the Reality Gauntlet and differences in history. It would take a long time to go over completely."

"Not really," Superboy shrugged, "He was bad. Allied himself with the Light. Was pumped full of chemicals and magic. Became strong. Danny beat him. Later, we changed history to make Undergrowth good, but there was a problem."

"Not even the Reality Gauntlet could change his genetic makeup after everything that happened to him," Phantom let out a sigh, "Doing so would kill him. As such, some of what existed in the alternate history bled into the current timeline. Undergrowth still has enough energy in him to be comparable to an entire race of magical people."

"So, let me get this shit straight," David Cain took a long drag of his cigarrate, "You just let that SOB run around free even though he could basically be used to power a nuke?"

"Lord Phantom couldn't just imprison him," Fright Knight mentioned, "Undergrowth was doing good in the world, and capturing might just put him on a dark path again. It was better to let him run free and keep an eye on him. Unfortunately, we were forced to call on him when le Fey took control of the ghosts."

"The stink burger Light took notice of the weed," Gizmo snorted, "Nice going."

"Not like we had a lot of choice back then," Raven eyed the diminutive villain, "We had to use you after all."

"Hey, what about the Marvels and Doctor Fate?" Spirit spoke up before arguing could break out, "Where are they being held? Are they with the Homo Magi?"

"No," Jinx shook her head, "They are at the core base. Brain is planning to use them as a filter to transfer the untamed magic into useable energy. Then, the energy will be transferred to the three crescent bases. Each one of those buildings holds an ex-member of the Light."

Phantom glared at the hologram, "We don't know exactly what they're planning on using the energy for, but it will definitely be bad."

"So how do we stop them?" Artemis questioned.

"We divide into teams," Phantom waved his hand. Four pictures appeared in front of him, "Each team gets a technology expert. They'll be needed to shut down the machines. Gizmo, Red X, Gear, and Batgirl will have to focus on shutting everything down. That's why it will be up to the rest of you to protect them. First up, the Royal Flush Gang. You guys work best together, so we won't split you up. You'll be with Gizmo at base 1."

"So…" Ace scowled, "We're not going near the Light members?"

"No, we're going to try and capture them alive," Phantom stated sternly.

Ace looked like she wanted to say something, but Lydia placed a hand on her shoulder to silence her, "Very well. We will accept your type of justice. Besides, it will be better punishment if they have to live with their same, right, Ace?"

Ace looked away, "I guess."

"Good," Phantom nodded, "Damon and Rocket will cover Red X. The sheer power of the Exorcist suit would make it dangerous to have too many people around."

"Agreed," Red X nodded.

"So I use my shield to cover me and Red X while Damon blows everything up?" Rocket smiled, "Sounds fun."

"Glad you think that way," Phantom acknowledged, "Base three will have Artemis, Kid Flash, Red Arrow, and La'gaan protecting Gear. La'gaan, I know you're inexperienced, but we and your people are counting you. Make sure to follow every command the senior members give you."

"You have my word," La'gaan saluted the ghost.

Phantom smiled, "Base 4 will have the lightest force. Based on what little info we have, that base will have the lightest overall protection because Black Adam is still fighting against Colossus, and no one wants to get in their way. That leaves it vulnerable to sneak attack."

Nightwing placed a hand on Robin's shoulder, "So it's going to be the two of us coving Batgirl's back while Bumblebee assists with the tech."

"I'm good with that," Robin eyed the holograms. Troia was in Base 4…That was good. He would make sure to save her first.

"What about the main buildings?" Cyborg questioned.

"Jinx and I will be going after Klarion. He's showed an unusual power against Doctor Fate, and we think that we're the best ones to handle it," Phantom explained, "Vision and Cain will go after Ocean Master. Shiva will be in there to back you up."

"Oh, that fish bastard won't know what hit him," Cain snorted.

Phantom continued with his orders, "Superboy, Miss Martian, Wolf, and Beast Boy. You four will go after the Brain. Despite the beginning setback, Madame Rogue did manage to infiltrate the Light and get closer to the Brain. She'll be to take him down."

"Yeah! My first real mission!" Beast Boy was almost vibrating in excitement, "This is going to be awesome!"

"Calm down, Gar…Beast Boy," M'gaan stated gently, "We need to stay focused."

"Okay, sis…"

"As for the center…Cyborg, you're going to be there. You're in charge of shutting everything down. Try to prevent as much energy as possible from getting transferred. Spirit, Raven, and Youngblood will cover you. Be careful, though. The person guarding that base…is Nyx."

Spirit's eyes hardened, "Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say."

"Don't do anything stupid. And…just be careful. If you can talk her down, that's great. But if you can't…" Phantom paused, "Thousands of lives are on the line. Hell, the whole world might be on the line. Keep that in mind."

"We will," Raven spoke up before Spirit or Youngblood could get a word in.

Phantom turned to the remaining members of the meeting, "Last group will be Fright Knight, Dusk, and Constantine. Klarion has hidden his stupid cat underground. If we don't get that cat, we can't stop Klarion. Black Bat and Cujo will help you track it down. Find it. Then…take care of it. Ideally, we capture all the bad guys, but too much is at stake to be hesitant. Kill it if you have to."

Dusk looked away, "You know that I won't do that."

"But I will," Fright Knight spoke up.

"So will I," Constantine clenched his cane, "I'll send that little burger back to hell if I have to."

"Killing the demon isn't the first option," Phantom tried to appease Dusk, "But this isn't a mission where we can fail. Do what needs to be done."

Dusk looked away, "I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

"Danny! Danny!" Harriet Chin roared as she entered the Cave in a burst of light through the Zeta Tube's visitor function. She instantly stormed to the halfa and glared up at him, "What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

Phantom turned from his conversation with Vision and a rather bulky African American man and turned to his publicist and assistant, "Um, trying to talk with this mission's communications coordinator."

Mal Duncan raised a hand, "Hi."

"Not that," Harriet grabbed Phantom's sleeve and pulled him down to her level, "I mean, you using Damon and an untrained child in a dangerous mission."

Phantom looked at Harriet's angered features and sighed, "It wasn't my first option, but we're shorthanded. About half of Young Justice is captured, and I can't leave Amity Park unprotected, especially with J.A.Z.Z. focusing on controlling the Red X suit instead of the defense system. We need Plasmius there to coordinate the remaining Council members. Calling in unexperienced fighters and any enemies we could was my last options."

"I'm okay with the bad guys. Hell, I've seen all your secret files about your ideas with them. Sometimes, using them is necessary, but…" Harriet's grip on Phantom's sleeve tightened, "A man with a borderline death wish and kids that never fought before? Are you trying to get them killed?"

"Damon will be protected by the Exorcist Armor," Vision spoke up, "I have personally tested it. To destroy that machine, you would need an absurd amount of force. Damon is safer than most of us."

"But…"

"It's my choice, Harriet," Damon noted as he walked across the main hall, "They need my help. Trust me, if I could, I would work here with Duncan in communications, but you know Fenton isn't an option and J.A.Z.Z. can't control both suits at once."

" _That is correct. Using the Red X suit requires an absurd amount of concentration_ ," J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded through the computer, " _Especially with how far away we'll be from Amity Park._ "

"And the children?" Harriet glared at them, "How do you justify untrained child soldiers? It's bad enough that you have them starting your war when they're barely hitting puberty, but now you don't even train them properly?"

"Beast Boy has been training for almost three years," Phantom argued, "La'gaan's been training most of his life too. And Gear won't even really be there. He's just controlling Backpack from his home base. It's more like a high stakes video game for him."

"Are your excuses supposed to make me like this?" Harriet crossed her arms with a huff.

"No, it's supposed to make you understand that even if we're desperate, we're not stupid. They will be safe, but we'll need help to ensure that. That's why I called you," Phantom gestured to Mal, "He's new to all of this. Has no clue how any of our systems work yet. With J.A.Z.Z. and Damon preoccupied, you're the only one that can help him."

"So you want me to help your insane mission to save the world?" Harriet didn't look pleased.

Vision took a step forward. She gently grabbed the other woman's hands and held them tightly, "Please. I have seen what these rogue Light members can do. They'll do anything to get what they want. They've gone completely unhinged. We have to stop them, even if it means doing things that we don't want to."

Harriet looked at Vision's pleading eyes and sighed, "Fine. I'll help you, but don't expect me to be happy about it."

"Great," Phantom smiled at her, "Now all you need is a codename for safety. No real names on open channels."

"Mine is Hornblower," Mal grumbled, "One stupid year of playing the horn comes back to bite me in the ass."

"We can give you a cool name if it helps," Damon gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "Someone with knowledge, like Minerva or Oracle?"

"That sounds stupid," Harriet rolled her eyes, "I want a name that will make you wince because I'm going to be screaming in your damn minute telling you not to die. Just call me Banshee."

* * *

"Dusk?" Robin questioned as he walked down to the Cave's deepest portion. The cavern was wet and poorly lit. The basement of Mount Justice had only been used for storage, but after the affair with Morgaine le Fey, the Team made it into a memorial for members of the Team that had died, "You down here, dude?"

"Yeah," Dusk stated weakly. Beside him stood the Fright Knight. Both ghosts were looking onto the two holograms that shined in the darkened cavern. One memorial was a proud standing Red Huntress. The other hologram was of a meeker figure. The hooded Secret looked on bleakly to the dark cave. There had been a little debate if Greta's ascension should count, but the Team did mourn and thought that she deserved a bit of a memorial.

"Tsk," Robin grunted as he looked upon the holograms, "The Grotto. These two should be in the Hall of Justice, or at least the Watchtower."

"That's the League's call, no ours," Dusk noted, "If it makes you feel better, Mentor has stones for them in our memorial room. He would have made statues, but they wouldn't want that."

"Yeah, the boss man always cares like that," Robin felt like smiling but stopped himself when he saw Dusk's blank look, "You okay man? You haven't been looking good since you got back from Atlantis."

"I don't want to talk about it," Dusk's eyes stared at the image of Greta.

"Don't bother, I've already tried," The Fright Knight let out a sigh, "Sir Dusk refuses to speak, as do Lady Vision and the new Atlantian."

"La'gaan? Yeah, he seems to be trying to distract himself," Robin eyed Dusk, "But you seem distracted. You sure you're up for this, man?"

"No, I'm definitely not," Dusk never looked away from Greta. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar necklace, "But I have to do this. Our friends are in trouble. If I don't do anything, then they'll die. I can't let that happen."

"No rest for the weary, I'm afraid," Fright Knight noted while placing a comforting hand on Dusk's shoulder.

Dusk clenched the necklace in his hand, "Was I naïve?"

"Excuse me?"

"When I said that the act of taking another life was always wrong. That it was never justified. Was I naïve and stupid to say that?" Dusk questioned while turning to his companions.

Robin's eyes widened, "Damn! Something really bad must have happened to make you say that."

"It's just…There are things that are unforgivable. There are people who can't be redeemed. They should never be allowed free, but…there's always the risk that they'll escape," Dusk's face twisted and turned with conflict and concern, "But killing them…taking away everything they know and have…it just seems so wrong."

The Fright Knight sighed, "I wish I could say that I hold your strong views on this, young knight. That cannot be so, though. I fight for my lord. His will is mine. If he orders I cut someone down, I will. Without regret. That's how it's always been. I do not worry about right and wrong. I worry about my orders."

"Man, you know my view on it," Robin looked away, "Batman says not to kill, but…taking people out of the equation just seems so effective. They had their chance, after all. But I do see your argument, and we are the ones with the responsibility to hold back…"

"I see…Then let me ask you this," Dusk's neon green eyes stared at them, "Is it hypocritical for me to want to kill? To have something inside me that demands another's death?"

"Dusk…" The Fright Knight lowered himself to the young teen's level, "There is no sin in temptation. The only way to be a hypocritical is to having differing words and actions. As long as you follow your words, you will be fine. Have control over your hands and emotions, and you will be free of guilt."

* * *

Spirit stood in the corner of the hanger. All of the people involved in the mission were rushing around the hanger trying to prepare for what was to come. Most of the more experienced people were calmly prepping the Bioship and weapons. Even the more villainous people made themselves busy. The Royal Flush Gang and Cain was checking their guns. Gizmo, on the other hand, was busy trying to examine Gear's Backpack. The metallic bag was rushing around on its six legs to avoid being dissected.

The halfa girl wasn't paying attention to them, though. Her focus was on a picture that she brought from home. It was a picture taken years ago, back before Youngblood left and Nyx was taken. All four of her childhood friends stood in front of Masters Mansion. They were all smiling and waving at the camera, well, Rachel's face was blank, but the halfa knew her friend was smiling on the inside.

"Hey," Cyborg noted as he moved by his girlfriend. He placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and hugged her tight, "You alright?"

"No," Spirit gently traced the picture with her thumbs. Her thumbs drifted more to the image of Nyx, "I don't think I am. I miss this. When did things change so much?"

Cyborg glanced to his younger picture and then to his metallic arm, "I have no idea."

"It was inevitable," Raven mentioned as she sat meditating on the ground by the couple, "Things change. Time marches on. People change."

"Does it have to?" Spirit gained a saddened look, "Can't we all stay together? Be friends forever like back then. I mean, I know things weren't perfect, but…Everything was so simple then."

"That's the thing about being young," Youngblood noted as he leaned against the wall not far away from his friends, "Everything is simple. Maturity…time makes everything more complicated."

"Yeah, it does," Spirit gave Youngblood a sad smile, "Maybe your way is best, huh, Chuck? Staying young forever sounds nice."

Youngblood looked away from her piercing gaze, "It's not as good as you think. There are things I'll never get to experience. I'm jealous you guys sometimes."

"Even with everything with Nyx?" Spirit questioned.

"You're better equipped to deal with it," Youngblood shrugged, "Me…I don't really understand it all. It's beyond me. With the way that I am, I don't think I can help Nyx."

Spirit looked down at the photo in her hands, "I don't think being older helps me all that much. I don't' think I can help her either."

"Ahem…" Everyone in the group besides Spirit looked over to see Miss Martian and her squad standing in front of them. Beast Boy looked like he wanted to speak up but was stopped when Superboy shook his head. Thus, the young boy looked away as Miss Martian gave Spirit a look of empathy.

"We're leaving soon…" M'gann stated to the younger girl.

"I know." Spirit didn't look up. She continued to look at the picture in her hands.

"Are…you ready?" Superboy questioned.

"Not sure." Spirit sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do…"

"This is important." M'gann noted. "People…our friends are in danger. If you don't think you can handle this..."

"I can handle it!" Spirit looked up and glared at the two aliens.

"I know." Superboy nodded to his fellow clone. "But I know what it's like to be conflicted. To feel pulled in two different directions. It's not easy. Can you handle it during the mission?"

"Yes. I can." Spirit nodded.

"And if you're forced to fight your friend?"

"…I'll do what I have to."

Cyborg gently squeezed the girl, "No, we'll do what we have to. Nyx is our friend too. We'll save her. I don't know how, but we will."

Spirit smiled up to her boyfriend, "Thanks."

* * *

Pandora floated over Amity Park. She clenched her box of Chaos tightly between her fingers. Klarion's monsters dared not come to this city she would stop them in an instant with her box. Still, her nerves were on edge.

"Pandora?" Plasmius questioned as he floated up to the tall woman.

"Yes, Plasmius, what is it?" Pandora could not tear her eyes away from the horizon.

"Are you sure that you don't want to go help save your daughter?" Plasmius questioned, "I can use the box while you help Danielle and her friends."

"No, I can't do that. I am better suited here or in the Ghost Zone. They need us to protect them while the others are away," Pandora argued.

"True, but I think the others and I can handle it," Plasmius noted, "None of us would blame you if you went ahead."

"I can't do that," Pandora shook her head, "If I go to that place, I will be drawn to Nyx, but I won't be able to do anything but get in the way. I couldn't bear hurting my daughter."

"Yes…I understand that," Plasmius let out a sigh.

"I will just have to put my faith in the younger generation," Pandora reasoned, "Nyx has good friends. They won't give up on her. I believe in them. They will bring my daughter back to me. I know this in my heart."

* * *

"Kekekekekeke!" Klarion giggled in glee as he peered up at the main battery. Reaching up and down from the ceiling with electrical wired glowing beneath the surface, the batter looked like a giant hourglass. At the center of the hourglass battery were five figures, Doctor Fate, Shazam, and the Marvels. Their limbs were all trapped in the metal tubes connecting to the batteries, "This is perfect! In a few hours, I'll get all the power I could ever want! Imagine the chaos we could cause!"

"Yeah," Nyx smiled up to her father as she swung the lasso of truth in her hands, "It will be just like in your stories, right, Dad? The world go back to how it was in the beginning. Total anarchy."

"That's right!" Klarion clapped his hands together in joy, "Imagine the fun we will have!"

"Your plans will fail, Witch Boy!" Doctor Fate roared up from the hourglass, "Our allies will come to stop you!"

"Oh, I know, but by the time they show up, I'll be ready!" Klarion's features became demonic as he rubbed his hands together, "With all the power I get from the magic, I'll crush them all in an instant."

"You're wrong!" Lieutenant Marvel glared down at the Lord of Chaos, "Our Team will stop you! Just like they always have!"

"Not this time," Klarion's sharp teeth shined as he grinned, "I know just how to deal with each member of your little group. Everything is in place. Even with that traitor Jinx on their side, they can't stop me!"

Nyx grinned up at her father, "You'll kill them, right? My friends?"

"Yep! You'll never be held back by them again!"

"And then you'll conquer the world?"

"Exactly!"

"And you've been using me and plan to absorb me after everything is done."

"Oh, absolutely! That was my plan from the beginning…" Klarion's eyes widened as he noticed that Nyx had slipped the Lasso of Truth onto his leg.

The room became utterly silent. Klarion looked horrified. The captured heroes looked on with curiously. Nyx's expression was basically the same, though. Slowly, though, her lips began to twitch. Her eyes began to tear up as she fought to control of her actions.

"You little whore!" Klarion roared as he viciously slapped Nyx across the face. The force of the blow sent Nyx tumbling back, but that was what Nyx had been hoping for. Rolling back and then jumping up, Nyx gave a proud smirk to her father.

"Ha! About time! I've been fighting that for months!" Nyx let out a laugh.

"So I was right!" Klarion snarled at her, "You did reveal yourself in Atlantis and Themyscira on purpose!"

"You bet I did! I was hoping Dani would get the hint when I hit the art gallery. She has to know that was a message to her," Nyx cracked her knuckles, "And I finally got the chance to use that damn rope. I've been waiting months for you to put your guard down and confess the truth. Spell's broken now, you Darth Vader wannabe!"

Shazam looked down at the two figures, "I knew something was wrong when she showed up. Her actions weren't her own. There was a spell placed on her. It altered her core to align more with chaos…with her father. All under the illusion that he cared for her."

"She's been fighting," Doctor Fate realized, "Trying to get Klarion to reveal the truth…to snap her out of it."

"Yeah!" Captain Marvel smiled down at the girl, "Go Nyx!"

"Damn you! Why'd you have to fight it!? Why!? Why!? Why!?" Klarion stomped the ground in anger.

"Sorry, papi," Nyx rolled her eyes and shoved the Lasso of Truth into her armor, "I always knew that you didn't care, but I needed you to release the seal yourself."

"Well done, you little brat!" Klarion hissed as black electricity danced across his fingers, "You did all that and now you get to go back!"

"Not without a fight!" Nyx slammed her hands onto the ground. Shadows spread out all around her. She sunk into the darkness as shadow cats jumped up and pounced at Klarion.

As Klarion fought off the animals, Nyx burst from the shadows below the heroes. She went to try and free Doctor Fate, but she was shocked by the machine. Hissing, she pulled her hand back. Through the smoke, the heroes could see that strands of energy stretched off her hand and into the battery.

"Damn it, I was hoping to get at least one of you free," Nyx gained a look of despair.

"Quick! Run away!" Lieutenant Marvel shouted to the other girl.

"No…I wouldn't get far. I'm connect to this machine," Nyx looked down, "It needs a living filter to transfer the energy. I'm the core of all this. The energy will rush through me, and filter into chaos energy that Klarion can use."

"But if that happens…" Doctor Fate's eyes widened, "You'll be burnt out. The backlash will turn you into a vegetable or worse."

"Yeah…" Nyx looked back at Klarion as he fought off the cats, "I can't beat him. He's too powerful and immortal as long as his demon cat is locked up underground."

"Then what are you going to do?" Sergeant Marvel asked calmly.

Nyx looked at the calmest of the Marvels, "I can't do anything, but I can give you instructions. The reason we had you transformed back to your hero forms was to drain all of the energy from you when you transfer back."

"What?" Captain Marvel's eyes widened.

"Yeah, when the lightning crashes down and the energy leaves your body, it will rush through me and then to Klarion," Nyx let out a shuddered breath, "And from what I understand, it's a permanent change. You won't be able to change back. Your powers will be stolen."

"No…" Lieutenant Marvel gained a look of fear.

"What do you want us to do, then?" Sergeant Marvel questioned.

"Don't change back, no matter what. No matter how much pain I'm in, or what happens, don't change," Nyx instructed, "Not even when Klarion is about to kill the helmet guy or Santa Clause here. Which he will, trust me."

Sergeant Marvel ignored his companions protests, "And what else."

"Tell my friends—AH!" Nyx cried out in pain as Klarion zapped her with more electricity.

"Got you, you little traitor!" Klarion giggled. The lighting solidified and turned into what appeared to be black puppet strings, "Time to go back!"

Groaning in agony, Nyx tried to fight off the strings that seemed to connect to her muscles and nerves, "Tell my friend…Ah!...Tell them that I'm the filter! The Sorcerer Initiative can only work if I'm here! When they come to save me…tell them…tell them that I want…"

"GET DOWN HERE!" Klarion yanked his arms and pulled Nyx down to him.

Nyx looked up desperately to the heroes as she was dragged away, "TELL MY FRIENDS I WANT THEM TO KILL ME!"

* * *

Black Manta stood before his employer. Despite being covered completely in armor and not having his face shown, the man's anger was incredibly apparent. His stand was rigid and filled with rage. The anger could almost be felt coming off of him in waved, "You lied to me, Ocean Master! You said that you would leave my son out of this!"

"I said I would try," Ocean Master shrugged as he said on a makeshift throne. The seat stood in front of the larger battery converter. Different plugs and electrodes shot off from the chair and were taped to Ocean Master's skin, "He proved to put up too much of an effort in protecting Queen Mira, so I had him captured as punishment."

"The hell you did!" Black Manta hissed, "That. Is. My. Son! You do not get to decide that. Release him, or I will go over there and rip him from the machine myself!"

"The boy has already chosen his side," Ocean Master scoffed, "You waited too long to reveal the truth to him, Manta."

"Learning the truth from me would only push him away from me," Manta argued, "It needed to come from Aquaman. Only then would Kaldur realize how much of the liar his king really is."

Standing on the upper deck of facility, both Lady Shiva and Black Bat leaned against the railing and peered down at the arguing enemies of Aquaman. Shiva's eyes narrowed at the new knowledge, "Now that is interesting."

"Yes," Cassandra gripped her mask tightly in her hands, "It seems that everyone is having family issues as of late."

"This life makes everything complicated," Shiva agreed, "Especially having families."

"What should we do with that information?" Cassandra questioned.

"Tell Phantom," Shiva shrugged, "He will know the best way to inform Aqualad."

"Yes, that's for the best. I'll tell him when this is all over," Cassandra looked to her mother, "Speaking of which, I should get going. I need to lead the others to the Witch Boy's demon cat."

"Right," Shiva stopped leaning on the railing and looked to her daughter, "Don't do anything stupid, okay? Let the others handle the bigger risks. Remember your limits."

"I will, Mom," Cassandra nodded and pulled her mask over her face, "But I need to do my fair share."

"I know, but I worry," Shiva stepped forward and hugged her daughter, "I always will."

"Thanks, Mom, but I'll be fine. You know that," Black Bat smiled under her mask, "You're the one that trained me after all."

* * *

Phantom stood hidden in the bushes. In a few short hours, his entire team had made their way to the Sorcerer Initiative. They managed to get to the island undetected, but as soon as the plan started, every enemy on the island would go on high alert. As such, everyone had a time limit to get in position. Due to the distance, telepathic communication was impossible, and no one wanted to risk having their coms intercepted. Thus, Phantom would have to alert everyone in his group in a flashier manner.

"Danny?" Jinx spoke up from behind the halfa.

Phantom stopped peering at the facility in front of him and turned to his lover, "Yeah?"

Jinx walked up beside the halfa. He was grateful that she didn't just disappear into the forest. Her stealth skills were way above his, "How much time do we have left?"

Phantom glanced at his Tucker Phone, "A few minutes. Hopefully, by then, everyone will be ready."

"Hmm…" Jinx's arm brushed against his arm, "Everyone…I don't think any of them liked the idea of me being with you."

"In what way?" Phantom brought his hand around and gently grasped Jinx's arm, "On this mission or overall?"

"Both," Jinx squeezed his hand, "Not that I blame them. I did swoop in and seduce you not long after Valerie died."

"They can get over that. I already made my choice. If they don't like it, then so what," Phantom looked up towards the blue sky, "I don't want to keep looking back like before. No one that died would want that. I have to keep moving forward. We have to keep moving forward. Nothing anyone can say will make me regret being with you."

Jinx gave him a gentle smile, "And what about the mission?"

Phantom snorted. He brought their still intertwined hands up. Both the hands began to glow. Green and pink energy began to dance around each other, flickering, dancing, almost like kissing, "They haven't seen what we can do together. Our powers together do things I never thought possible. Only we stand a chance against Klarion as it is. The others would just get in our way."

"Yeah," Jinx looked fondly at their dancing energy, "I love how that works, but I do wonder why."

"No idea," Phantom gained a contemplative look, "You get magic from your mom, right? But your powers always have a tint of ectoplasm to it. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable. Was it because of you that Savage thought the Ghoul Project was possible?"

"Yes, but not in the way you think," Jinx explained, "I was never injected with outside ectoplasm. My powers are completely natural."

"Interesting…" Phantom's eyes twitched. For some reason, he felt that the answer to a big mystery was right in front of his face, but he wasn't seeing all of it, "I wonder…"

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Phantom immediately reached into his pocket with his free hand and turned off the small alarm, "It's time."

Jinx released Phantom's hand, "Alright. Mission time. Let's take that weirdo down."

"Yeah," Phantom's hand lit up with a large ball of ectoplasmic energy. Thrusting his hand up, Phantom flung the ball into the air where it blew up like a firework, "He's going down."

* * *

During his few interactions with Phantom and his allies, Gizmo had always been forced into stressful situations. Every time the ghosts were involved, Gizmo had been forced to try to fix machines, fight, or run away in distress with enemies right on his back. This was very different than how the usual shut-in usually worked. As such, he was grateful when he could actually work in peace and not have either enemies or backseat drivers to deal with.

"That was easy," King noted and knelt down to examine the drones that had been destroyed in the fight.

"Are you complaining?" Jack questioned, "I thought you'd be happy that the risks turned out to be so small."

King shook his head, "It's not that. I assumed that the threat would be higher."

"I probably would have been if it wasn't for the Light's division, and for Ace of course," Queen noted as she crushed a drone's head beneath her foot.

"Yeah! I doubt those dudes even realized that half their forces left," Ten let out a grin, "Man, I would love to see the look on those Light douches face when they find out how we took down their base with ease."

"First, I'm still a girl, Ten. Second…" Queen looked over to Ace who stood over a downed Poison Ivy, "I think things would have been a lot more complicated without Ace or Lydia here."

Ace frowned as her unblinking eyes stared down as the drooling Poison Ivy, "Her mind was strange. Half plant, I suppose. It was an interesting experience, but she was already on the edge of madness. It will take her a while to drag herself back into reality."

"Was that really necessary?" Lydia questioned as she looked over to the girl, "You could have easily incapacitated her."

"She was a cancer on people that actually cared about the environment," Ace noted as she tore her gaze away from the comatose woman, "The world will be better off with her madness. Gotham especially. Besides, you never criticized Fenton's actions. He made sure Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and the Penguin didn't cause any more problems."

"That was different," Lydia noted, "They are still able to function and move about freely."

"Yet they forever live in fear of Fenton and Masters taking them down," Ace shook her head, "I don't see much of a difference really. Both my and his way took away their free wills."

Lydia sighed. She looked up towards the towering Undergrowth, "Let's not discuss this now. We're still in enemy territory after all."

"You are correct!" Undergrowth snarled. His entire body besides his head was covered in metal. Thousands of tubes and wires stretched out from his prison and stretched downwards to the main battery converter, "With that vile woman defeated, I can now control myself! Prepare yourself for the wrath of Undergrowth!"

"No!" Gizmo roared from his position at the consol. His equipment was plugged in to the computer and he was rapidly typing on the keyboard, "If you tear yourself free, you'll bring this whole place down and give the Light more energy."

"Huh?"

"That machine is constantly draining energy from you. You not moving actually makes it so the energy flows slower because it comes straight from you," Gizmo explained, "Tearing yourself free with cause a massive amount of energy to be transferred to the battery and then to the Light. It will be too much for the battery, and as it transfers out of here, this place will go boom. And it will be a big boom."

"What do we do then?" Ace questioned.

"I'm working on shutting down the battery," Gizmo stated, "But that'll take a while. That snot bag Brain designed this pretty well. While I'm doing that, tattoo girl can use her freaky beast thingies to unplug Undergrowth safely."

"Done," Lydia nodded as she opened her cloak and allowed her tattoos to jump alive and fly all around Undergrowth to destroy the equipment holding him.

"What about us?" Ace inquired with a wanting look on her face, "Can we head out and hunt those Light bastards down now?"

"No, I need you to protect me from the backup drones," Gizmo explained without looking away from his console.

Ten looked up in alarm, "What backup drones?"

Just as he said this, a few of the walls opened up to reveal more humanoid drones armed with rifles. Queen glared at Ten, "You just had to ask…"

With a grimace, King pulled out his ecto-gun and began to fire at the drone, "I knew it was too easy."

"As if…" Ace's face twisted with anger as her eyes began to glow, "These pieces of scrap are nothing compared to my power."

* * *

Spirit blinked as the swirling magic faded. Raven had used her magic to move their squad into the center of the Sorcerer Initiative as soon as they saw the signal. The bird shaped transportation proved effective as all four of them popped up from the shadows of the building. The halfa girl's eyes instantly dashed around the metallic room. She instantly saw the giant battery holding her friends. Something else caught her attention first, though.

Nyx floated near the center of the battery. Dark energy flowed off her limbs in cold puffs of smoke. The veins in her neck and face bulged and pulped with black energy. Her form twitched and shook as energy was pushed into her and retracted from the hundreds of energy strands that were stuck into her back.

"Nyx!" Spirit shouted up to her friend, "What the hell happened to you?!"

" **Ahhh…** " Nyx's form continued to spasm unnaturally. She was borderline vibrating.

"Gah!" Raven clutched her head and dropped to her knees in pain, "I can feel it…She's in so much pain…She's holding too much energy…"

"What do we do?" Cyborg questioned carefully, "Chuck, do you think you could de-age her to help her?"

Youngblood frowned up at his friend, "I don't think that would help. The energy would still be pumped into her. Having a smaller body might kill her."

"Then do we destroy the battery?" Cyborg questioned.

"No…I can hear her intention," Spirit spoke up, "She's not attacking right now because her only line of thought is to protect the batter. Once we get close to that, she'll attack."

"So, the three of us hold her off while Cyborg does his thing and shut down the battery?" Youngblood suggested.

"Yes…" Raven focused on closing off her empathy and managed to force herself up, "Let's do that."

"Here we go then! Cyborg, shut that thing down. Chuck, Raven, let's knock some sense into Nyx," With that, Spirit instantly rushed towards Nyx with Youngblood and Raven right behind them. As they did this, Cyborg rushed towards the battery.

Nyx, however, didn't seem fazed as her friends rushed forward to save her. She just looked towards Cyborg. Just as the three heroes rushing at Nyx were about to hit her with some stunning blows, a large blast of energy blasted off of the ghost and knocked the heroes away. Then, with a wave of her hand, Nyx caused shadows to jump out of the ground in front of Cyborg right before the machine man made it to the battery. The shadows danced around and formed into a massive shadow cat. With a giant roar, the cat swatted at Cyborg causing the teen to lung back to avoid being hit.

"Holy cow…" Youngblood grunted as he picked himself up, "What was that?"

"She has too much energy in her…" Raven noted, "She can literally do anything she wants right now, but it has to be putting a huge strain on her body?"

"Then what do we do?" Cyborg readied his arm cannon and pointed it at the beast that looked ready to pounce at her.

"You have to go all out!" A voice called from the middle of the battery.

The heroes looked up to see Sergeant Marvel glaring down at them. Lieutenant Marvel quickly snapped at her friend, "No! Don't tell them!"

"She used her single moment of freedom to give us a message," Sergeant Marvel argued, "I can't ignore that! I can't disrespect that!"

Lieutenant Marvel gained a pained looked. Her eyes drifted from her fellow Marvel down to her teammates, "N-Nyx broke free earlier! S-she told us t-that...t-that you NEED TO KILL HER!"

Spirit's eyes widened, "What?"

"That was her message! You can't hold back, or you'll die! Take her out! That's what she wants! Don't let her die giving Klarion more power!" Sergeant Marvel exclaimed.

"But…" Raven's face twitched in confliction.

"No…They're right…" Youngblood trembled in rage, "We have to do what we have to. If we don't, everyone will die."

"Damn it…" Cyborg gritted his teeth.

Spirit looked up to the suffering form of Nyx. She remembered days that had long passed. When she and Nyx first met…the first meeting of the Council of the Elite…Nyx joining human school…Playing together…fighting together…No, she couldn't do it. She couldn't try to kill Nyx. Despite her words to M'gann and Conner, Dani knew that she could never kill Nyx. Not her best friend.

" _No! Nononononono!" Spirit shouted, "Don't die! Stay with me! Come on, Wulf! What will we do at if you're not here!? We can't protect Amity Park without you! Home won't be the same without you! Who will I fight with over who gets the last strip of bacon!?"_

" _I'm sorry, but this is it for me…" Wulf's body was almost gone, "It may not have been perfect…but it was good enough. I'm so grateful..."_

 _With that, Wulf was gone. His form dissolved and spilt through Spirit's fingers to the street below. All that was left was a puddle of ectoplasmic ooze that rippled as Spirit's many tears continued to rapidly roll down her face and fell down like tiny rain drops._

Spirit's eyes flashed with her green ectoplasm. No! Last time she held back, her friend died. She had to be decisive. Nyx was tough enough to take some punishment. If Spirit could go all out against anyone, it would be her.

"Alright…We don't have a choice" Spirit nodded as she activated her Spectral Claws, "Let's take her down."

* * *

"Oi, you! Get away from that!" Metallo shouted as he rushed towards the main council of the battery. He was quickly stopped as the Exorcist suit rammed into him and knocked him to the wall. Before the android could even slide to the floor, he was bombarded with a barrage of ectoplasmic bullets.

Damon continued to fire the gantlet gun at Metallo to hold him off. As he did this, he looked towards Red X, "How you doing?"

"Fine," Red X had several plugs sticking out of her suit that all stretched out and connected to the main console of the battery, "I feel a little useless having the suit stay stationary like this while you and Rocket do all the physical work."

"Just work on shutting the system down, we got this," Damon noted. He then noticed that Metallo was trying to force himself through the barrage of bullets, "Oops. No you don't."

Rocket launchers popped out of the suit's shoulders and fired multiple missiles at the android. Each rocket slammed into the machine man and covered in a large blaze of fire. In a smoking mess, Metallo flew back into the wall. This time, though, when the android slammed into the wall the damage caused by the previous assault caused the wall to let out a pained groan as it well forward and buried Metallo in a massive pile of smoking rubble.

"Damn," Rocket mumbled as her eyes alternated their attention between the Exorcist armor's show of power and the magician she was helping out of a pod.

"Indeed…" Zatara groaned as he leaned against Rocket's shoulder, "Fenton's work never fails to impress."

"Makes me feel a bit jealous," Rocket joked as she flew Zatara down to ground level, "Maybe I should get him to upgrade my gear?"

"I don't think it would do the League any favors that have someone working directly under us use that kind of fire power on a regular basis," Zatara argued.

"Tsk! Ruin my fun…" Rocket released the man. He stumbled for a bit but managed to stay on his feet, "Before you ask, Zatanna's fine. She was hurt, but she's safely resting at the Cave."

Zatara gained a relieve look, "Thank goodness."

With a nod, Rocket floated up once again, "You stay here. I'll go get the others out."

"Doing it alone will take forever. I'll help," Zatara noted.

"No offense, but you don't look up to doing anything," Rocket gave him a worried look.

"I can't just stand by and watch as my people are hurt," Zatara groaned as he raised his hands, "I must help. Nepo eht sdop!"

* * *

"WOOF!" Cujo barked as he led the charge down the tunnels beneath the island. While the tunnels lacked light, the ghosts could use their ectoplasm to light their way fairly easily beneath the earth.

"Damn cat must be running," Black Bat noted as she ran beside her allies, "It's a long way away from the original holding area."

"It's not dumb," Dusk noted, "It probably sensed us coming since you showed us the entrance."

"It can't flee forever, though," The Fright Knight let out a chuckle, "Cujo has practice chasing cats after all. It's only a matter of time before he hunts it down."

"BARK!" Cujo seemed to agree.

"But we don't have the time for a cat and mouse chase," Constantine argued, "Klarion is invincible until we stop that demon. Who knows how long Phantom and that Jinx character can hold him off."

"That's why we should—"

"What was that?" Black Bat looked around in alarm. Dusk was nowhere to be seen, "What?! Where did he go?"

That was the last thing Dusk hears as he was pulled through a swirling energy portal known as a Boom Tube. It was a short trip, but he was quickly released by his captive and thrown to the ground in a better lit room. He still seemed to be underground judging by all the dirt and rocks that covered the walls and ceilings. The only difference as the single lightbulb that hung above him lighting the immediate area around him.

"It's good to see you, brother. It's been a long time."

Dusk quickly pushed himself to his feet and looked at who addressed him, "Talia. How did you do that? I was surrounded by people and had my guard up."

"Do you think that I have not been trained? I am the great Ra's Al Ghul's child too after all," Talia smirked at him, "I know my way around stealth and traps. All I had to do was get the cat to go where I wanted, and that was easy when Klarion told it to obey my orders."

"Does he even know that you betrayed him yet?" Dusk questioned.

"No. He thinks that Jinx has gone rogue with Phantom, but nothing else," Talia smiled, "It all went according to plan. Everything is in place. Cassandra led you to the bunker's location. Just like we predicted."

"Predicted, but how…" Dusk paused, "Wait…did you know?"

"Know about what? Shiva's betrayal? Yes, we did," Talia shrugged, "She must have thought that I was blind to what was happening back during le Fey's attack, but I convinced Father to postpone punishment for now. Especially with how close you've grown to Shiva's daughter."

Dusk's eyes narrowed, "What?"

"I don't believe it's a romantic attachment," Talia noted idly with a thoughtful look across her face, "Not after everything that happened with that ghost girl you spent so much time with. But you are friends. In fact, besides the other ghosts that wear that DP symbol, the people you're closest too are all down here…except Robin. But I'm glad he's not here. The possibility of his death would certainly devastate my beloved."

"What are you talking about?!" Dusk quickly formed his Scribe Staff and pointed it at his sister, "Have you been watching me?"

"It's been a pet project of mine. I couldn't get a lot of information on you, but I did monitor your school and that tree you liked to hang around after I learned about Shiva. I noticed that the people you're closest too are Robin, Black Bat, and that knight character. You see, most have given up on you. Even Father has wavered, but I have hope. You have the blood of the demon inside you, after all," Taila let out a delicate laugh, "We just needed to shock it awake. Give you a reason to kill, just like your mother. There's so much of her in you after all."

"My mother…What does that mean?!" Dusk swung his staff at her, but Talia merely jumped back into the shadows.

Talia's voice then bounced around the cave, "It means that this is it. My final plan. Either you kill today, or we have to resort to the next planned heir. I pray that you succeed. You're best equipped to take Father's place, after all. You won't need the Lazarus Pit like the other heir would…"

"Wait? Other heir? What do you mean?" He was met with silence, "Talia! TALIA!"

His voice echoed around the caverns. He stood in the one source of light and looked around desperately. Talia was already gone. He knew it, but he didn't want to believe it. There were still so many things he didn't understand.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

At hearing the scream, Dusk twirled around to where the noise came from, "Cassandra!"

With that, Dusk instantly ran out of the light and in towards the darkness. With only the glow of his ectoplasm to light the way, the halfa raced towards the source of the scream now knowing that Talia's plan all along had been to separate him from his friends long enough for them to get into trouble. And he had fallen for it completely.

* * *

"I got to say, this is amazing tech," Kid Flash leaned down to examine Gear's Backpack as it stood over the main console of the third base, "Did you really make it on your own."

" _Yep. The original one was made from scrap, but this version came from the best tech money could buy. It was so freaking cool to be given all this stuff,_ " Gear's voice sounded from the machine.

"Yeah, Phantom can get some cool toys. Never saw him give someone such free reign over his tech, though," Kid Flash stroked his chin, "Especially to make a drone capable of high speed calibration and hacking."

A different voice sounded through the machine, " _Really? Guy seems pretty alright to me, man. Total BA_."

" _Virg! I told you, you can watch but you can't talk!"_

" _But this is getting boring! All you're doing is working on a computer that is working on a computer!"_

" _I told you that was what was going to happen. Backpack isn't made for fighting."_

" _Still, I thought that we'd get to watch some fighting…_ "

"Um…" Kid Flash blinked at the argument. He then looked around to see his other teammates working to free the different Atlantians. The other voice had a point. They had yet to fight anyone at this base, "Hey, Artemis, wasn't Walker supposed be guarding this place?!"

"Yes," Artemis looked over as she helped Kaldur out of his pod, "But he hasn't shown his face. We shouldn't look gift horse in the mouth, so...Stop goofing around and help us!"

"Oh…Oh right! Sorry!" With that, Kid Flash instantly zoomed away and began to rapidly open pods.

"Gah…" Kaldur groaned as Artemis helped him move across the room, "Walker was here, but he left a while ago. Said something about a plan…"

"So he's planning something," Red Arrow frowned as he carried both Tempest and Aquagirl over his shoulders, "We need to keep are guard up."

" _Don't worry,"_ Gear's voice now sounded through the intercom system, " _I installed an ectoplasmic radar into my systems. I'll be able to tell if any ghost gets close—"_

" _Richard!"_ A new voice sounded out.

" _M-Mom? I told you we were busy."_

" _Get off that computer already. Dinner's ready. Virgil, are you staying? We're having lasagna."_

" _Yeah, thanks, but can it wait? The fate of the world is at stake."_

" _Oh, you two and your video games. Fine. You got five more minutes, but that's it."_

" _Okay!"_ The two voices called out together.

Everyone in the facility blinked in surprise at the exchange. No one knew how to interpret what just happened.

"Gah…" Queen Mera sighed as L'gann supported her weight, "L'gann? What's happening?"

"I am not sure, my queen," L'gann gave an unsure look at across the massive room, "I believe one of our allies is having technical difficulties."

"No…Why are you here? It is too dangerous…" Queen Mera noted.

"It may be dangerous, but I am prepared and trained. You should know that already," L'gann slowly began to move the woman towards the exit.

* * *

For once, Vision decided against a subtle approach. She wasn't in the mood for approaching things carefully when they were already on alert from the other attacks. As such, she decided to take Dani's usual approach and just blew up a wall. As calmly as possible, she floated past the smoking rubble. Ectoplasmic energy balls floated around her for a brief second, then they blasted out and smacked the enemies away from her. The energy balls continued to fly around the room and take out almost every henchmen in the base before returning back to Vision's orbit.

"Damn, woman," David Cain muttered as he followed after the ghost, "Remind me not to mess with you."

"Done," Vision hissed out as she stared towards the middle of the room past all the fallen followers of Black Manta.

"Interesting…" Ocean Master noted as he continued to recline on his thrown, "I never knew you had such power. How come you didn't use that back in Atlantis?"

"For me, fighting on land is much easier, especially with Atlantians involved," Vision stared the villain down, "Not to mention that I have a whole lot more emotion to feed off of this time."

"Oh? What's with that look?" Ocean Master tilted his head in confusion, "Have I done something to wrong you? I don't remember."

"You have wronged the world," Vision's hand began to glow like the orbs of energy the floated around her, "And I'm going to right that wrong."

"Funny, Shiva said something similar right before you…" Ocean Master looked up to the upper balcony.

Cain quickly followed Ocean Master's eyes to see Lady Shiva being chocked out by Sportsmaster while Talia and Cheshire, "Shiva!"

Talia's eyes lazily danced down to the people below her, "Oh, you got here faster than I expected. I thought we could get Shiva and leave before the drama started."

"Let her go. Now," Cain commanded while pointing his gun up at Talia.

Talia shook her head, "I apologize, but no. The Great One has spoken. The traitor must face trial."

"Talia, send your assassins down here," Ocean Master called out, "I need more time to absorb the energy."

"Once again, my apologies," Talia smirked as she spoke, "From a majority vote of the Light, you have been blacklisted. Consider this your burn notice."

"What?!"

"Don't ignore me, bitch!" Cain roared and opened fire at Talia. The assassin quickly got out of the way and retreated out of sight with Sportsmaster and Cheshire dragging Shiva right behind her, "Damn it!"

"Go. Save your wife. I can handle this," Vision stated.

"Yeah!" David didn't need to be told twice. He quickly ran after the assassins and out of the building, "Thanks!"

"You send away your help? Foolish," Ocean Master snorted, "Black Manta, take her out."

Black Manta looked up towards Ocean Master then turned to Vision. A rocket launcher popped out of his shoulder and pointed at the ghost. Right before the missile fired from the gun, though, he turned back to Ocean Master and fired the rocket at him. Both the villain and the throne were consumed in a blaze of fire, smoke, and rubble.

"You heard Talia. You're blacklisted. I don't have to listen to you anymore," Black Manta then began to walk away from the downed villain. In his retreat, he paused for a second then looked to Vision, "Are you going to kill him?"

"Yes," Vision nodded without looking away from the smoking crater where Ocean Master lie. Danny did try to convince her to try to imprison him for trial, but Vision wasn't really in the mood for that.

"Good," With that Black Manta continued to walk away. Vision did nothing to stop him. He wasn't her target. No, all she cared about was the Atlantian that was stumbling out of the smoke.

"Everyone…Everyone betrays me!" Ocean Master snarled. His armor was now cracked and scorched from the explosion, "Fine then! I have gained enough power already! I destroy everyone that stands against me and take the throne myself!"

"Big words for such a little man," Vision reached up and removed her veil and headdress. She tossed them to the side and allowed her long blond hair to flow down her back, "I'll enjoy making you eat them."

* * *

"The Brain can be so stupid," Batgirl muttered as her fingers danced across the keyboard of the main console, "Having this whole place have a lockdown function just because Black Adam isn't here. But it also stops reinforcements from getting in. Gives us all the time in the world to save the Amazons."

Nightwing looked across the room to Batgirl as he helped Wonder Woman out of her pod, "To be fair, we're the only ones that could get in without getting shut out."

"Just proves that he's an idiot," Batgirl smirked back at him, "He should have known Batman's protégé's could sneak in here."

Wonder Woman quickly pushed herself off of Nightwing, "Thank you, Nightwing. I do not know what would have become of us without your interference."

"I could suggest a few outcomes. Most of them are pretty some, though," Nightwing smiled at her.

"Some?" Wonder Woman blinked at him.

"Just go with it! Gruesome without the grue!" Batgirl shouted out, "It's his new thing."

"Er…Okay," Wonder Woman looked confused, "I am thankful that we did not have to face these 'some' circumstances, but many of my sisters lack my endurance. They are strong, but they will need help."

"That's I went to you first," Nightwing explained, "Your mom's over there, and Robin's getting Troia right now." The grown up Boy Wonder pointed to his successor as he ripped Troia's pod open.

"Uh…Jase?" Troia squinted as Robin gently eased her out of the pod, "What are thou doing here?"

"Saving you, duh," Robin let out a snort as he carried her bridal style to the ground floor, "What else would I be doing if you were in trouble?"

"True…"

"Oh, please don't go into a rant right now," Robin rolled his eyes, "I get it, you aren't a 'helpless maiden.' You can take care of yourself. Tell you what, next time one of use is trapped by a psychotic villain, I can be the damsel. How about that?"

"Sounds good," Troia sighed and leaned into him.

Robin let out a smirk, "But you do realize that I'm going to keep bringing this up until that happens."

Troia gently smacked his arm, "I am sure that I can think of a few ways to shut thee up."

* * *

When Superboy crashed into the Brain's hideout, he was expecting many things. Guns were going to be fired at him. Genetically modified animals would attack him. Stupid monkeys would be involved in some God forsaken way. Superboy was certain of all of that. Yet the moment he looked into the base, he knew he was dead wrong.

"Walker?" Superboy's eyes widened as he took in the carnage around the base. Drones were destroyed to the point that most of the floor was covered in their broken parts. Monsieur Mallah was lying in the corner splattered with his own blood. The Brain's transportation and communication machine was completely wrecked, and the brain part of the Brain was now held in Walker's arms.

"Oh, the punks arrive just in time to see the show," Walker looked over and grinned at Superboy just as Miss Martian, Wolf, and Beast Boy followed him into the room.

"What…" Miss Martian frantically looked around, "Why would you do this to your own allies?"

"They outlived their usefulness. Not just the blacklisted ones, the Light as a whole," Walker shook his head, "They've broken the rules too many times, and now I'm breaking off with a new group. Well…already broken off. Been playing the mole for quite some time now."

"Mole? Like that big thing Young Justice went through before I moved to the cave?" Beast Boy looked back and forth between M'gann and Conner.

"Not now, BB," Superboy growled.

"Now's the final play for everything we've been building to with these fools," Walker chuckled as he crossed his arms, "They're too obsessed with evolution. Law of the jungle my ass. There's only one law that everyone has to follow. One that my new group showed me. The law of death."

"What does that even mean?" Beast Boy questioned.

"It means…" Madame Rogue stepped out from behind Walker, "Vat everyving is coming to an end."

"Rogue?! What are you doing!? You were already paid to help us!" Superboy shouted in outrage.

"I vas given a better offer," Madame Rouge shrugged, "Vhos are vhe works, kid."

"Betraying us isn't a smart move," M'gann's eyes began to glow, "We're not very forgiving."

"Don't get too mad at her," Walker mentioned, "We gave her an offer she couldn't refuse."

"Yes…" Rogue looked away, "I vant to live."

"Exactly. Death comes to everyone, but everyone fights to live. Those are the rules," Walker mentioned, "And now she'll be equipped to live a long time."

"Yes…" Rogue took a fighting stance and glared at the heroes, "And for me to live, you zhree must die."

"Sorry kiddies," Walker chuckled as he stepped forward to reveal that he had been hiding something.

"Etrigan?" Beast Boy's eyes widened as he saw the demon hooked up to the main battery of the base.

"Yep," Walker looked back at the demon for a brief second. The demon's veins pulsed with energy as the magic was pumped into him, "It's all part of the end game plan. Unfortunately, you three aren't going to be a part of it."

Walker uncrossed his arms and stood at a relaxed stance. His green energy began to flair around him but slowly began to change color. As this happened, Walker's fake arm changed from its green color into a deep, pulsing black. The former jailer then lifted his remaining real hand to show a black ring.

"You afraid yet, punks?"

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

After a few seconds, Ravager stopped the scream and looked down at her prisoner, "Pretty good impression, huh Cass?"

Black Bat glared up at her former ally and friend, "I don't scream."

"Meh," Ravager shrugged as she placed a foot on the other girl's chest. Her blade never left Black Bat's neck, "You know that. I know that. Hell, Dusk probably knows that. But men are guilable. They run when they hear women scream."

Deathstroke looked over to his daughter.

"Well…" Ravager met her father's gaze, "Most men."

"What are you planning?" The Fright Knight growled as an anti-ectoplasm handcuffs held his arms tightly behind his back. Deathstroke used a sneak attack to subdue Fright Knight before he even knew the assassin was there. While Fright Knight was sure he could beat the assassin in a straight up fight, stealth and ambushes had never been his strongest area, "Why do all this? The Light wants Klarion dead just as much as we do."

"That's the point, knight," Deathstroke chuckled as he held his ecto-pistol level with Fright Knight's head, "We both get what we want, only you won't be a part of it."

"Well, how come we have to be a bloody part of it!?" Constantine shouted as a giant version of Teekl swatted at him. Normally, the demonic cat could turn into the size of a tiger to fight off threats when Klarion was gone. Now though, with an untold magic being pumped into its master, the demon had grown to the size of a single story house.

As soon as Dusk disappeared, the cat changed. The four fighters went to take the cat down quickly so they could find Dusk. That was when Deathstroke and Ravager struck. With the element of surprise, they managed to subdue Black Bat and Fright Knight, and drag them away from the fight.

Constantine and Cujo wanted to go help their allies, but Teekl would not allow them to get close. Even when one of them were about to almost get away, Deathstroke and Ravager would open fire at them to prevent them from trying to free their allies.

"The boy will need some help. That's your job," Deathstroke chuckled as he pressed his gun to the front of the Fright Knight's helmet, "These two will be the motivation."

* * *

Phantom and Jinx didn't give Klarion a moment of reprieve when they entered the base. Jinx teleported in from one side while Phantom fazed in from the other side. Without a word or a chance for Klarion to react, they attacked. They both sent dozens of blasts to the center of the room to try and destroy Klarion's power source. There was only one problem to that plan.

There was no main battery in the base.

"Wait…What?" Phantom blinked at the empty base.

"Kekekekeke…" Klarion's voice echoed throughout the area, "Nice try, kiddies!"

The smoke from their attacks cleared to show a completely unharmed Klarion. That was not to say that he didn't appear different. In fact, he looked far more monstrous than they had ever seen him. Gone was his scrawny frame. His muscle had bulged out to show someone that looked extremely fit instead of sickly thin. The small horns on the top of his head had grown and cured into something that Phantom could compare to pictures people drew of the devil. His normally deathly pale skin was now glowing and pulsing with blue and black energy to the point that the energy seemed to be drifting off of him like smoke.

'He's the battery,' Phantom realized, 'The energy is flowing directly to him from Nyx.'

"The traitor and the little hero! I'm so glad that it was you two that showed up!" Klarion grinned at them and showed his sharpened teeth, "This is the perfect opportunity to test out my new power."

"Don't act like your power is natural, Witch Boy," Jinx made sure not to open up her guard. She held her glowing pink hands up, ready to defend at any moment, "You stole it."

"True! But I did work hard to get it! Gah! You won't believe the amount of planning involved to get all of this working," Klarion snorted, "But it was worth it!"

Phantom took a step towards Klarion, "I'm guessing I should skip the attempts to try to get you to surrender."

"Surrender!? Kekekekekekeke! You always had a good sense of humor! Even back when I first went to see you, but look how you've change!" Klarion eyed the halfa, "Back then you were a scrawny little nobody. Barely a blip on my radar. You really lived up to your potential. It's too bad that you refused to join the Light. We could have made you better! We could have made you a god just like me!"

"A god? That's stupid. Who would want that?" Phantom shook his head, "I'm content with my power. And if it isn't enough, then I'll bring in help. Just like I'm doing now."

"Do you really think that the two of you can take me down without help?! Kekekekekekekekekekekekeke!" Klarion burst out laughing, "You saw that I beat Nabu, right? And that was before I got my upgrades! I'll kill the two of you in an instant!"

"You think so?" Jinx quickly teleported to Phantom's side, "Just try it then."

"Gladly!" Klarion pointed a hand at them, "Magic Dominance!"

Klarion's glaring red energy instantly flooded to them. It covered the duo in a halo of crimson. Just like with Doctor Fate, it began to leach the energy off of them. Phantom quickly grabbed Jinx's shoulders and pulsed his energy out. His and Jinx's energy instantly lashed out. The combined energies grabbed Klarion's magic and pulled it in to the flowing pink and green wave. Quickly, the red bled away and integrated into the duo's powers.

"What!?" Klarion's eyes widened, "Impossible! Nobody can just absorb my energy like that! It would be poisonous to them!"

"It was surprising to us too," Jinx eyes glanced at their combined energy, "But it seems that our powers are incredibly compatible. They combined to make some new…something more powerful."

"I don't know how you got that Magic Dominance thing, but it won't work on us," Phantom declared.

"Not while the two of you are together it seems," Klarion gave a grin filled with madness, "So all I need to do is separate the two of you!"

In the blink of the eye, Klarion rushed right in front the two of them. He went to push the two of them away from each other, but the duo managed to dodge. They jumped to the side, but Klarion was prepared for that. He sent a blast of magic at the floor below them. A sliver of electricity shot out of his fingers and crashed into the metal causing it explode from the unstable energy. Luckily, Jinx managed to teleport them away so that they didn't stumble away.

Landing on the other side of the room, the two of them exchanged glances. For the two of them to survive, they would need to be in constant contact with each other. Even a second apart could prove fatal. With a simultaneous nod, they ran towards Klarion and quite possibly the strangest fight they had ever experienced.

* * *

"Things are going better for the heroes than expected."

"True, they might slow things down and limit the amount of energy we get."

"Then we might have to play our hand."

"Hmm…" Nocturne looked across to his comrades, "It really depends on how much we need from this. Where are we at?"

Hotep Ra looked at his ring. Different images popped up from his ring, "We'll probably be below projections."

"We still have the next part of the plan," Aragon noted, "Do we need this to be perfect?"

"No, but it's impossible to predict what will happen then," Hotep Ra mentioned.

"…Master Nekron would prefer more energy than not enough," Nocturne stated.

The three Black Lanterns shared a look and then looked down at the main base to the Sorcerer Initiative. They all nodded.

"It took a lot of work to get this from Colossus while he was dealing with Black Adam," Hotep Ra pulled out a shining hand mirror. His energy immediately flooded to the mirror and showed an image of a green skinned ghost with wild white hair, "Let's make the most of it."

* * *

He stood over his desk. Stacks of papers and books sat before him in disarray. Part of him hated leaving the library in such a mess, but now wasn't the time to think about. There was too many problems and concerns to deal with right now.

The math and logic was solid. He could make a difference if he left right now. His guidance could save a lot of lives. The only problem was that it would put him into the spotlight. This would bring him a lot of trouble, just like with his mentor.

…But could he live with himself if he didn't help? He was still regretting not helping during the incident with Morgaine le Fey. Every life that was lost was on his shoulders. He could have saved them. He knew it. It haunted his thoughts and dreams.

"I'm scared."

" **Everyone there is scared. But they're fighting through it. It won't be enough, though. They need you!** "

"I know, alright! That doesn't make it any easier! I'd be putting my entire future at risk!"

" **Psh! Your future? What about everyone's future, book worm? If you don't go, then everything is ruined. Either way, you're screwed. At the very least, you should build some things up that will survive the storm, dumbass."**

 **"Hey! Be nice! And it's not like you're one to talk, lazy butt. You haven't done what you're supposed to in a millennia. Ever since the words of the Jabberwocky got the better of you."**

 **"Shut it, crazy. I never agreed to be nice. Besides, this nerd won't do anything to save my favorite if I don't kick his ass into gear."**

 **"Don't. Call. Me. Crazy."**

 **"I calls it as I sees it, sister."**

 **"Oh yeah, Mister Self-Conscious? What would you do if I called out how big of a cry baby you are?"**

 **"Why you! I ought to** **—"**

"Be quiet and leave me alone!" Poindexter covered his ears and shook his head, "I need to think without you Endless clouding my thoughts."

 **"Fine! But if you don't save the creation guy, I'm going to be pissed!"**

 **"Please think through your choices wisely, Oh Reader and Writer. Cheer is on the line."**

"I know..." Poindexter muttered as the voice disappeared, "I know..."

Looking down at the paper on his desk, Poindexter let out a sigh, "I know what you would do, Master Scribe. You would risk yourself, just like before. But that led to your end. I don't have that kind of courage."

Thankfully, this time he was met with silence, at least on the outside. In his mind, things couldn't be louder. He hated bullies. He always wished that he had the power to stop them. Now that he had that power, though, he realized the burden power presented. The risk. The reward. The ability to change a person's direction in life.

It made him feel regret for judging Phantom all those years ago. Freshly gaining powers like that, it must have felt good to get revenge…to pay back the bullies that wronged him so many times. Yet he did learn. He learned that there was a wrong way to use his powers and a right, and no matter the risk, he always went out of his way to do the right thing, to help the helpless.

Taking a deep breath, Poindexter turned. He had his answer. It may put him at risk, but it would also help him sleep at night. He had to help stop the Sorcerer Initiative.

* * *

 **Next update: "Instruction" on January 18, 2016**

 **A Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you enjoyed the holidays. I sure did, and now I'm completely rested up and ready to continue writing. I'm really excited for this arc. I should probably go ahead and tell you here that I am going to make some BIG changes to season 2 of YJ starting in this arc. Keep that in mind as this continues.**

 **Also, so I can go ahead and answer a commonly asked question. What am I going to do with Wally at the end of season 2? Will he be connected to the speed force? Will he be sent to an alternate dimension? Allow me to answer such questions with an inquiry of my own. What makes you think that Wally will even make it to season 2? I'm not saying that I'm going to kill him, but I am saying that things will be different. Your assumptions will only bleed into shock and outrage when (insert spoiler) happens.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	14. Instruction

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction."

Xun Zi

* * *

Chapter 14: "Instruction"

(Sunday-March 2, 2014)

Colossus couldn't stop himself from smiling. Even as Black Adam continuously barraged him with a flurry of punches across his face, the grin didn't even dim for a second. It was rare that he managed to find a person that could hold out against him for so long. It was even rarer when he got the opportunity to fight such people considering that half of them belonged to the Justice League.

As Black Adam tackled Colossus and slammed him into the ground, Colossus couldn't help but feel grateful. A fight for almost a full day, it was almost too much to ask for. Hell, Black Adam had even cheated or tried to flee once during the scrummage. It had been a good day, but like every good day, it had to come to an end at some point.

Above Colossus, Black Adam was breathing heavily. Sweat was pouring down his brow. Thanks to his near invincibility, the villain wasn't injured at all, but even he was exhausted at this point. Looking down at the giant brute, Black Adam couldn't help but smile. He just beat the ghost with the most raw strength. His ego surged. He was definitely the strongest—

Colossus's massive hand grabbing his face interrupted his thought process. A single shocked blasted directly into his face. The direct contact of the force caused even Black Adam to groan in agony.

"I thought Atlas never tires?" Colossus grinned as he stood, making sure to continue to hold Black Adam above the ground, "I guess even a titan needs a chance to get his second wind, eh?"

Releasing Black Adam so that the villain would fall, Colossus gathered his energy to his other fist. Glowing and trembling from the power behind it, the fist soared forward to Black Adam's unprotected torso. As soon as the fist made contact, the fallout occurred. A massive shockwave consumed Black Adam. The wave spread out and carried the villain away. Like a tsunami, the wave smashed against the jungle trees, causing them to splinter and shatter before Colossus's power.

Taking a deep breath, Colossus examined the decimated forest in front of him. Instead of the lush green beauty that existed before, there was only a brown crater of death and destruction. At the center of the chaos was an unconscious Black Adam sprawled out on top of several fallen trees.

Letting out a laugh, Colossus held his arms up in a victory pose. It was a magnificent fight, one of the best of his life so far. He savored the aches of pain that rushed across his body. Fatigue had finally caught up to him. Damn, he was getting old. He used to be able to hold his own against Pariah for days on end. One day of fighting and he was ready to collapsed.

Luckily, he didn't have to go all out. If that happened, he would have just passed out. That wasn't good considering that they still needed to get Undergrowth to safety.

…Wait…

"Ah, shit, I forgot about that. They're all probably long gone by now," Colossus groaned and smacked his palm against his forehead, "I'm going to get a tongue lashing by Vision now. Damn. And this day was almost perfect too."

He was too tired to be too much of a help now, even if he could track them down. His only chance of finding out what happened would be going to Amity Park. For once, Colossus cursed his tendency to break everything. It would be a lot easier to call with their weird communication devices, but they always broke whenever he carried them around for more than a few hours.

With a sigh, Colossus flopped down to rest. He would head back when he regained his energy—

Crack!

…Huh? Did he sit on something?

Reaching under him, Colossus found that there wasn't anything below him. But something was in his pocket. Pulling what appeared to be a broken hand mirror out of his pocket, Colossus stared at the shattered glass.

"Wait, I thought the Mirror of Memories was indestructible?"

* * *

"The Mirror of Memories is indestructible," Nocturne spoke to his companions, "But Colossus breaks almost everything he touches. Once his fight ends, he'll probably notice almost immediately that we switched the mirrors."

"That is fine," Hotep Ra nodded to his ally, "There's nothing he can do to stop us now."

"Stupid brute," Aragon sneered at the thought of the giant of a ghost, "He notices nothing around him during battle."

Holding the mirror with his ringed hand, Hotep Ra began to pour his ring's energy into the ancient artifact. Nocturne and Aragon soon followed his exampling, pointing their rings at the mirror and allowing thin beams of energy to strike the mirror and causing the energy to flood into the reflective item.

Glowing with the black energy, the mirror sent a burst of light up and created a shade. Dressed in a white lab boat, the shade had green skin and thick white hair. Dark shades covered his eyes, but the Black Lanterns knew that the shade didn't have the soul of the ghost that had once existed but was now human.

"Technus," Hotep Ra spoke to the shade, "Take control of the Sorcerer Initiative. Speed everything up to max levels. Do not worry about safety. The more people who die, the better."

"And while we're at it," Aragon let out a toothy grin, "Why don't we activate the Corruption Chips fully and see what kind of chaos can come from Master Nekron's full influence?"

Nocturne smiled at his companion, "Excellent idea."

* * *

Harriet looked across the various holograms around her. Her mouth and ears were in constant motion as feedback of the progress of the Sorcerer Initiative was flooded into her Fenton Phones. A quick glance to Mal showed that he was in the same situation as she. They had complete access to everything that was happening with the mission, and it was a bit overwhelming.

"Amity Park is still clear. Ghost Zone is still clear. Metropolis still has two more shadow cats. Gotham has three…" Harriet once again glanced to Mal, "How are things at the bases?"

"Everything is under control under the four surrounding bases," Mal stated as his eyes danced across the holographic screens, "Haven't gotten an update by the four squads at the center bases though. That's probably to be expected, though. As soon as the perimeter bases are shut down, the main bases will calm down."

"Then we can start sending in the others as backup," Harriet agreed.

"That won't work."

The suddenness of the new voice caused the two operations managers to jump. They quickly turned around to see a ghost standing behind them at the center of the Cave.

"Who are you?!" Mal glared at the new ghost defensively.

"Wait, I recognize him…" Harriet pointed a calming hand out at Mal, "He was at the Ghost Zone's Christmas feast."

"The Ghost Zone celebrates Christmas?" Mal raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"Yeah, that was my thought when I first heard about it too. Apparently, Christmas is a big deal to ghosts," Harriet stared at the ghost quickly oddly lacked any color besides black and white, "I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

"It's alright. A lot of people have forgotten about. I'm just glad you remembered me at all. My name is Sydney Poindexter," Poindexter adjusted his classes and nodded at the woman.

"Now that's a name," Mal forced himself not to snort. He hated bullying, but by God did this guy's partners set him up or something?

"Yes, I'm aware," Poindexter gave him a gentle smile.

"No offense, Poindexter, but we're kind of busy at the moment," Harriet's eyes snapped back to the holograms for a brief second, "Is this important?"

"Yes. I'm sorry that I didn't start with that. You see, I've done the math, and I've found that this operation will end badly," Poindexter waved his hands into the air. A scream popped up in front of him showing various numbers and calculations, "I've kept an eye on what was happening with the techniques Master Scribe has shown me. I believe that many people will die at the hands of these bullies if something is not done to change it."

"Wait…Scribe? The Ghost Writer?" Harriet remembered that name. It was one of the names in Masters Mansion's memorial room, "You must be the apprentice he took. Danny mentioned you a few times, but you never agreed to work with us."

"Yes, I was worried about the consequences of interfering," Poindexter admitted as shame filled his face, "Now, I'm worried about the consequences if I don't."

Mal gave Harriet a sideways glance, "Should we trust him?"

"If the alarms didn't go off, this guy must be keyed into the system," Harriet reasoned, "That means Danny trusts him. Alright, what do you want us to do?"

"The coms system is about to be hacked. Soon, you're going to be blind. So I'm going to give you instructions to tell them with the use of my powers," Poindexter shyly stepped forward, "Using the skills Master Scribe has provided me, we can direct them in the best way to avoid dying."

* * *

Phantom once again nearly avoided being incinerated. Once again, Jinx had dragged him away through the use of her teleportation spell. Klarion quickly reacted as soon as they appeared on the others side of the base. He swung his arms around and dragged the stream of fire blasting from his hands behind with him creating an arc of flames that left only a blaze in its wake.

This time, Phantom reacted. His blazing green ectoplasm quickly shifted to a cold blue. A blast of ice exited his hands and met the flames in a heads on struggle of power and elements. The meeting blue and red elements struggled for a few seconds before the combination of energy finally became unstable. A burst of steam and energy blasted from the connecting points, causing the combatants to stop their attacks in order to avoid damage.

Klarion quickly jumped through the room looking to sneak around his enemies. Unfortunately for him, the smoke greatly impaired his vision to the point that he couldn't even see his hand if he waved it in front of his face. That was quickly fixed when Klarion took a deep breath that his entire body expanded like a balloon and let out a breath that would make the Big Bad Wolf jealous. The smoke quickly disappeared from the force of the wind. It was just in time too, because Klarion could see that Phantom had found him in the choke and was charging at him.

The only problem for the halfa, though, was that Jinx was not by his side. The ghost was completely alone. Letting a maddening grin stretch across his face, Klarion extended both his arms towards the ghost. A few muttered words caused red energy to swirl around the Lord of Chaos's enemy. Freezing in midair, Phantom began to scream in agony as Klarion controlled his own energy to suffocate him. Just as the pressure grew to be too much, Phantom disappeared in a flash of green energy and smoke revealing him to be a duplicate.

Klarion didn't get a chance to comment on that revelation. Just as the duplicate disappeared, a giant claws of ice burst through his back all the way out from his chest. In a blaze of blue, the Lord of Chaos was completely frozen within a block of ice. With that task done, Jinx teleported them away from the frozen Klarion just like she teleported them behind him merely seconds ago.

This was revealed to be the smart choice as Klarion was not held for long. A giant burst of crimson energy blasted off of Klarion and shattered all the ice surrounding him. Snarling in rage, he quickly turned to the duo and sent magically charge electricity at them. Jinx merely extended a hand and absorbed the energy before the attack could do any damage.

"Gah!" Klarion glared at them. Energy danced around him, "This is pointless! Even if your combination is strong, I'm still stronger! Eventually you'll tire out or mess up!"

Phantom and Jinx shared a look. He was right. They had yet to perfect their teamwork, and Klarion had been closing to separating them more than once. Luckily, the entire point of fighting Klarion was not to beat him, but to distract and keep Klarion occupied and away from the other bases. To do that, though, they didn't necessarily need to fight the whole time though. After all, without Teekl, Klarion lacked a sense of tact and common sense.

"Not if you keep feeding us with energy," Phantom smirked at his enemy, "The more you fight, the stronger you make us."

"Idiot! All I need to do is separate you! Then I'll kill you! I will! I will! I will!" Klarion stomped his foot on the ground in frustration, "I have to! I have that new power! I beat Nabu with it! How can two babies beat me if Nabu couldn't!?"

"Where did you get that power anyway?" Jinx questioned.

Klarion calmed down a bit, "I…I actually have no idea, really. It just popped up one day."

"Was it after le Fey's attacks?" Phantom questioned with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, I guess…Kekekekekekekekekeke! With so much chaos in the air, I must have leveled up! Chaos is destined to take over again!" Klarion cackled in ignorance.

Phantom bit his lip, "Klarion…I think le Fey did something to you. She attacked a few members of the Light. I wanted to keep this secret but—"

"Shut up! You're just trying to distract me!" Klarion exclaimed, "Well, no more! Time to kill you and that half-breed freak!"

Phantom froze. Did Klarion know about his real nature? "Half-breed freak?"

"Oh!? She never told you?!" Klarion laughed so hard that he nearly fell over in his glee, "Well, her whore mother screwed a ghost—"

"Shut your goddamn mouth!" Jinx snapped. Her energy flared as rage flooded her system. Phantom looked at her in shock. Was she actually some type of natural hybrid? That was impossible. Normal ghosts could not have children with humans no matter what the circumstances.

"She was originally the reason we knew that humans could gain at least a bit of ghost powers. Not to mention how ectoplasm can power magic," Klarion gained a sick grin, "So you can blame her for me trying to create Nyx and for the Ghoul project as a whole. None of that would have been possible if Sorceress didn't get pregnant from sleeping around with a ghost."

"But I thought Savage was your Dad…" Phantom muttered.

"Yeah…" Jinx admitted as she clenched Phantom's hand, "He is. He raised me after my mom died from birth complications. Truth is, he's my ancestor, but he never treated me like a descendant. He treated me like a daughter, so he's my dad. Not the ghost that helped conceive me."

"But that's not possible. The only ghosts that could possibly have children with humans are…" Phantoms' eyes widened as he examined Jinx's features. She obviously took after her mother more than her father, but there were traces and clues. The hair…the energy…the nose… "Oh my God…"

"Ha! Distracted you!" Klarion slammed his hands to the ground. A magic circle appeared below the distracted duo. Jinx went to try to stop the attack, but she was too late. She could do nothing as the magic prepared to incinerate her, or at least that's what she thought before the magic disappeared altogether.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Klarion clutched the back of his neck and tumbled to the ground as black veins traveled from the center of his neck and out to his face.

* * *

With a swing of her hand, Spirit cut through the magic that was protecting Nyx. Her Spectral Claws sliced away the strands of shadow that had been keeping them away from the ghost for several minutes. With a victorious grin on her face, Sprit finally made it to her friend.

Grabbing the front of Nyx's armor, Spirit pulled Nyx forward into a vicious punch. She then followed up with several strikes in the same manner. Each blow pushed then lower until Nyx's back smashed into the steel below. Even then, Spirit did not let up knowing that if Nyx recovered, the magic strands would cut into her.

Even without out Nyx's main form of protection, though, she wasn't defenseless. Dozens of shadow cats were now lunging at Spirit's back. They were smaller than the beast that Cyborg was dealing with, but the greater numbers had pushed Spirit and her friends back for a while. Before the cats could latch unto Spirit's unprotected back, they were destroyed.

Youngblood, still in child form, used his peg leg canon to destroy most of the cats. Raven then used her own magic to banish the remaining cats away. She then created a shield of magic around Spirit and Nyx to prevent further intervention.

This didn't stop Nyx's remaining cat on the battlefield. Turning around from the battery, it charged at Nyx's position with the full intent of protecting its creator. Cyborg wasn't going to let that happen, though. From his position on the top of the monster's head, he used the distraction and swung down to grab the side of the giant feline's mouth.

Using his enhanced strength and weight, Cyborg dragged the shadow cat to the ground. As the cat tumbled over, Cyborg reversed his position. Keeping his hold intact, He rolled back onto the cat's chin. He then thrusted his sonic cannon into the beast's mouth.

"Booyah!" With a blaze of blue energy, the cat's head exploded. Its body quickly followed after it into oblivion.

Knowing that she was completely defended, Spirit finally stopped her assault and released Nyx. She then activated her Spectral Claws. With a loud roar, she brought her claws down between Nyx's amour and cut deeply into the other ghost's shoulders. This caused Nyx to cry out in agony as the control of her arms were ripped away from her.

Spirit didn't stop there. She quickly grabbed the Lasso of Truth from Nyx's side and flipped the other girl over. With Nyx now lying on her stomach, Spirit quickly tied up Nyx's torso and legs to prevent them from moving and to lock up Nyx's magic. With that done, Spirit remained on top of Nyx and shoved her face into the floor to completely immobilize the girl.

"Sorry, Nyx, but it's for your own good. Being nice won't help you here," Spirit looked over her shoulder tot her friends, "Cy! Go shut the battery down, now!"

"Got it!" Cyborg then turned and rushed back towards the battery.

With that done, Spirit looked back down to Nyx and sighed with relief. She was grateful that she didn't have to go for the kill. The halfa girl had the full intention of taking Nyx down any way she could. Luckily, it didn't come to that—

"AH!" Cyborg yelled out in shock as a large blast of energy shoved Cyborg away from the battery into the far wall.

Just as Spirit looked back to her boyfriend, she instantly wished that she hadn't. She didn't even see as Nyx writhed in absolute agony. A roar of pain like which Spirit had never heard before left Nyx's throat. Then, just like Cyborg, Spirit was shoved away as a giant surge of energy blasted off of the daughter of Pandora.

Then, everything turned into anarchy.

* * *

Dusk rushed into the opening to the large cavern to see all of his friends either captured or trying to fight against Teekl. His first instinct was to rush in and try to rush to save his captive friends, but the guns and blades pointed at Fright Knight and Black Bat gave Dusk pause. The halfa may be fast, but he wasn't fast enough to get across the room before Deathstroke or Ravager could kill his allies.

"Ah! The prodigal son is here," Deathstroke noted, "Took you long enough. Now the fun can begin."

Deathstroke pulled out his other pistol with his free hand. Without even a small glance, he pointed the gun at Constantine and fire. With the giant bang from the gun echoing across the wall, Constantine was shot in the back of his shoulder. With loud curses and shouts of pain, he clutched at his bleeding shoulder and dropped to his knees.

"Bloody hell! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…." Constantine was cut off when he was forced to dodge Teekl's latest strike, "You bloody prick! I thought you were going to leave me alone!"

"Can't make it too easy on the boy," Deathstroke looked to Dusk, "I'd hurry boy. They'll die if you don't fight. Along with these two. Either you kill that cat and Klarion, or everyone here dies."

"Dusk, don't—" Black Bat was cut off when Ravager pressed the blade closer to her neck.

"Hush now. You lost the chance to talk, traitor. Just watch. I'm sure the son of the so called Great One will show us something interesting," Ravager whispered gently into Black Bat's ear.

Fright Knight was in a similar position, but Deathstroke wasn't going to shoot him without reason. As such, he had more room to move. He turned his dark helm towards Dusk and gave the boy a look of confidence showing that he believed in the boy and whatever decision he was about to make.

Dusk saw this. His mind was working overtime, but it still wasn't fast enough. With Constantine injured and Teekl continuously growing and looking more demonic with each passing second, Dusk didn't have the time to evaluate what to do. At this rate, both Cujo and Constantine would get killed.

"RAW!" Teekl suddenly stopped her assault and let out a giant roar. Energy burst around her in a massive blur. It bled into her, causing her fur, claws, and teeth to sharpen into razer sharpness. With a dangerous glint in its eyes, it moved with increased speeds to the downed Constantine.

That was when Dusk knew that he head to act. There was no time to think. If he didn't act, his friends would die. So, without really understanding the situation, he rushed in towards the demon cat intending to subdue the cat, not knowing that such a plan was doomed to fail.

* * *

When Ocean Master suddenly collapsed to the ground clutching his neck and screaming in pain, Vision did not stop her assault. She took advantage of Ocean Master's opening and sent dozens of her concentrated energy balls at the Atlantian villain. Each one struck the downed Ocean Master at full force. Soon, he was completely covered in explosions and smoke.

Even when the screaming stopped, Vision did not let up her assault. She continued to pelt the smoking crater once known as Ocean Master with a constant stream of attacks. He deserved nothing less. Vision had no mercy or pity for that monster.

Vision only paused when she felt a disgusting energy that sparked memories from long ago. She had encountered the energy many times in her long existence, but it had been a long since the extinct of the energy had been this clear. It was that the stink of Nekron's full corruption on a human being.

That was when the entire room became a swimming pool. Vision had never seen anything like it. One moment, the room was dry. The next second, the entire room was filled with water. Her mind raced as she realized that Ocean Master had actually managed to solidify the moisture in the air to such an extent.

Before she could even react, hands of water reached up from the pool below her. It grabbed her and pulled her down into the depths of the water. It was there that she was assaulted just like she had assaulted Ocean Master mere moments ago. A barrage of water bullets slammed into her from all directing. Sharks made of water appeared around her and began to bite into her. The water around her neck seemed to constrict and began to choke her like a noose.

" **Hahahahahahahaha!** " Ocean Master bellowed out in laughter as he swam out of his crater. His armor was almost completely shattered, revealing his new features to the world. His skin was now covered in black veins. Red eyes of rage replaced his once collected orbs. Magic combined with black energy danced around him in a giant halo, quickly latching back to his skin and creating a black version of his previous armor, " **You think you got the best of me, ghost! You have never been more wrong. I have finally achieved my destiny. I'm now a god of the sea! Even Poseidon will bow before my power!** "

His energy then flared around his hands. It stretched out into a large black trident. Ocean Master then pointed his weapon at the woman and sent a concentrated blast of water that smashed into the woman's stomach, instantly shattering all her ribs.

" **Don't die too quickly. I want to test all of my power on you before you pass into oblivion!** "

* * *

Superboy never really carried weapons. He never really needed to in most cases. His strength and invulnerability generally made them redundant. Considering the nature of the mission, though, Superboy made an exception this one time and brought some of Danny's specially made weapons in a special Portable Fenton Crammer.

As soon as he saw Walker's Black Power Ring, he was instantly grateful that he did. While he had never faced a Black Lantern in battle, he knew of their strength. It was an unholy power, one that was incredibly difficult to fight against. Even with the numbers being three to two, Superboy was sure that their defeat was eminent without any help.

Luckily, he had help in his back pocket.

The Kryptonian clone didn't pull it out at first. He wanted to catch Walker off guard. So, he charged forward with the intent of getting Walker off guard before pulling out any weaponry. It worked, of course. Walker was definitely underestimating as he literally swung Superboy around the room and smashed him against the walls.

Miss Martian wasn't fairing much better. While she had her telekinesis on her side to give her mobility, Madame Rogue was quick to adapt. Her rubber arms and legs stretched out and chased M'gann across the room. The Martian girl wasn't given the chance to attack. If she paused to try to use a mental attack on the other woman, she would get hit. If she tried to rush forward for physical attacks, Madame Rogue would use her greater experience and flexibility to dance around the attacks, even when Miss Martian changed her shape to try to use dozen of limbs to try and hit the woman.

Not even psychic blasts seemed to work. Whenever M'gann tried to do that, Madame Rogue seemed to know. She either jumped out of range or rushed forward to physically stop the other woman. It appeared that Madame Rogue had her fair share of experience on fighting telepaths.

"Where did zee lizzle boy go?" Madame Rouge suddenly questioned.

Walker released his hold on Superboy and pointed a ring. A tiny blast of energy blast our and hit was appeared to be a fly buzzing around the now screaming Etrigan. The energy smashed into the fly, knocking it away and to the ground. The bug then quickly transformed back into a groaning Beast Boy holding his stomach in pain.

"BB!" Miss Martian's concern got her a punch across the face for her trouble.

Quickly getting to his feet, Superboy forced himself to ignore his injured girlfriend and brother figure. He had to take the big threat down first. Quickly pulling out his Portable Fenton Crammer from his pocket, Superboy managed to pull out a large ecto-bazooka without anyone noticing yet.

Most of the ectoplasmic weaponry failed to hurt Black Lanterns. Danny, however, wasn't one to back down to a challenge. He managed to study the energy waves released by the Black Power Rings and create weaponry that bypassed the energy's protection. It had worked once again Nocturne, and Superboy hoped it would work against Walker.

Raising his massive weapon, Superboy set the bazooka to the setting Danny showed him to use against Black Lanterns and fired the giant gun. An energy ball the size of a cannon ball shot out of the weapon and rocketed towards Walker's unprotected back. It struck the enemy before Walker even realized it was coming at him.

Superboy grinned as he saw the Walker covered in the following explosion. It worked. Now with Walker out of the way, he could deal with Rogue—

"OOF!" Superboy set out a grunt as a giant rule book landed on top of him, crushing him to the floor.

Walker stepped out of the smoke completely unharmed. The jailer ghost had his power ring pointed at the Kryptonian clone with a beam of light connecting the ring to the rule book, "Nice try, but did you really think that was going to work?"

"Gah…But, it worked on Nocturne…" Superboy grunted as he tried to push the book of him.

"Because the halfa was around the guns," Walker let out a chuckle, "Those weapons don't really work on bypassing our shields. It's because of Phantom that they work."

"H-how?"

"That would be telling, and telling is against the rules."

* * *

"Alright, let's start getting the Amazons to the evacuation ships," Nightwing stated once all the women had been freed from their pods.

"I'll lead them out," Bumblebee stated as she grew back to normal size.

"Right," Robin looked to Troia, "Go with Bee. I'm going to help the rest of your sisters."

"Oh? So thou are in charge now?" Troia gave him a small smile.

"Only this one time," Robin smiled back, "I prefer your aggressive sense of leading."

"I'm sure," Troia looked to be ready to say something else when suddenly the alarms from the base suddenly sounded to life. Red lights flashed all around the room. Everyone in the base looked around the room in surprise.

"Batgirl, what's going on?" Nightwing snapped his head over to his fellow protégé of Batman.

Batgirl type furiously into her keyboard, "I don't know. Everything is overheating for some reason. The machines are pushing themselves past their limits, and none of my commands are stopping them."

It was then that all the Amazons began to scream. Strings of energy jumped out of their back and reached up into the main battery. All the women collapsed in a combination of exhaustion in pain as their energy was once again ripped from their body.

"What's going on!?" Bumble Bee questioned.

"I have no idea," Nightwing's face twisted in concern and panic as he desperately thought about what to do, "We need to get them out of here. Maybe if we get them far enough away, the energy drain will stop."

Just as he finished that sentence, though, the exits were all shut by what appeared to be walls of black energy.

"Damn it!"

* * *

"RAW!" La'gaan, now in his giant puffer mode, rammed himself into the black wall blocking the exit. Despite his massive strength, though, the energy didn't even waiver a tiny bit, "Come on!"

"What's happening?" Artemis looked around desperately, knowing that she didn't have anything in her toolbox to deal with the situation. All the Atlantians that had been in the tubes now had strange energy strings sticking out of their back. For some reason, La'gaan was okay, but that might be because he wasn't keyed into the system.

Kid Flash was running rapidly around the battery checking to what the problem was exactly, "Nothing's wrong with systems. Someone must be hacking from the outside."

" _He's right,"_ Gear's voice sounded nervous, " _I think…trying…hack…system…won't respond…Failing..."_

"Damn," Red Arrow scowled, "And just when I thought things were going good enough for me to check the systems for the real Roy Harper."

"Really? Now is not the time for that!" Artemis looked over to her boyfriend, "Kid, would destroying the battery stop this?"

"Are you kidding? If one of the cooling mechanics or control monitors are broken, this whole place will go sky high, and not in the fun way," Kid Flash gained a worried look.

"How can going sky high ever be a good thing," Red Arrow blinked when he noticed Artemis blush, "Shouldn't have asked…"

"Shut up!" Artemis forced the redness of her face, "We need to figure something out right now, not have our head in the gutters."

" _Attention bases 2, 3, and 4! This is Hornblower! I have instructions that might help you right now!"_

* * *

Phantom didn't know what to make of what was happening to Klarion. At first, he thought that the Lord of Chaos was hurt because his familiar Teekl was being injured and possibly killed. That didn't seem to be the case, though. Klarion's body wasn't flickering or disappearing, and his magical power wasn't disappearing. In fact, it was growing.

"Stop him!" Phantom sent a large blast of ectoplasm at the downed Klarion. The blast just passed through the magic user, as did the follow up attacks from Phantom and Jinx. It was almost as if Klarion wasn't there.

"It's not working," Jinx hissed into the halfa's ear, "What do we do?"

"Try to survive!" Phantom quickly pulled Jinx back just as the ground below them exploded. Black ropes of energy were jumping out of Klarion and smashing against the ground and the walls. Each time the energy made contact with something, an explosion ensued.

" **Kekekekekekekeke!** " Klarion burst into laughter as he pushed himself up. His pale skin was now covered in pulsing black veins. Giant black horns rose from his head and solid crimson eyes now danced with complete madness, making Klarion look completely like a demon, **"Now that's what I call a power up! I knew this Sorcerer Initiative would pay off!** "

Pointing a hand out towards the duo, Klarion sent a massive bolt of lightning at them. Unlike the previous lightning he used, this blast was ten times bigger. It was wide enough to cover both of them, and, based on the way it scorched the ground as it passed above it, it was also stronger.

Unable to dodge, Phantom and Jinx tried to absorb the energy. As soon as the electricity touched them, though, they quickly regretted it. Pain surged through them as the electricity bypassed their protection and passed through them. It was only Jinx's quick recovery and speed that helped them avoid the follow-up blast.

Just as they teleported away from Klarion, though, he was upon them once again. This time, however, Klarion decided to take a more hands on approach. He swiped wildly at them with his hands. Knowing that Klarion could now bypass their protection, the two fighters ducked and weaved around his attacks. They were immediately grateful they took such actions when black energy burst out from his hands after each attack and tore through the metal in its path.

Their dance of dodging continued for several minutes before their relief finally came. A thin barrier popped up in front of them and stopped Klarion in his tracts. Before Klarion could even question where the shield came from, it folded around him, trapping him within a thin box of energy.

"What…" Jinx blinked at the strange occurrence.

" _Phantom!"_ Poindexter's image appeared in a window right next to the duo.

"Poindexter? Is that you?" Phantom gestured to the box holding Klarion.

" _It is, but it won't hold him long!"_ Poindexter stated, his voice brimming with panic and urgency, " _You need to listen to me, the Absorption ability you gain when working together won't work anymore. Energy from Black Power rings can't be processed like other energy, even if you overcome the will of the user."_

"Block Power ring? He's not wearing a ring," Phantom noted.

"But I can sense it. It's tainting him. Its reeks of death, like rotting meat. I remember that energy from when we fought against Nocturne," Jinx gave Klarion a look of utter disgust.

"But how did he get that energy?" Phantom questioned, "And why are you helping, Poindexter? You always refused to help us before."

" _I don't have the time to explain. He'll break out any second,_ " Poindexter stated, " _Now listen! You can still win, but you need to use a different tactic! When fighting the power of death, don't rely on death! The key is life—"_

Poindexter was suddenly cut off when Klarion managed to shatter the box like it was energy. Now free, Klarion sent another wave of black energy at them. Jinx managed to pull Phantom out of the way, but Poindexter's window was caught in the blast. Then, before the window could reform, Klarion raised his hands into the air and shouted a chant that made no sense to either of his enemies. The result was clear, though. Energy burst from his hands, jumped up into air, and spread all around them to form a massive green dome.

"A ghost shield!" Phantom's eyes widened in alarm.

" **Not exactly! It's a shield designed to keep everyone out! No outside interference! No running!** " Klarion giggled in glee, " **It's just you against me now, kiddies! And I have the feeling that I'm gonna win!** "

* * *

Spirit could only grit her teeth as the force of Nyx's magic pushed her against the wall so hard that the steel began to bend around her. She could see that all of her friends were in similar states of entrapment against the wall. Like her, they tried to fight against the force of the magic, but they were failing as well.

Her eyes then turned to the pained form of Nyx. Shadows rolled off of every inch of her skin. Black smoke piled of her mouth and eyes. Magical energy continuously flowed of her in constant waves. Hundreds, maybe thousands of strings of energy were now jumping out of her back, pumping her over her limit with magical energy. Several of the strings were directly connected to the five magic users connected to the main battery. Each one of the captives were screaming in agony as their powers were ripped from their bodies.

Nyx's magic was overflowing so much that it had bled across the room. The shadows now pooled at the floor, either moving around like a black goo or reaching wildly around in the shape of deformed hands. Dozens of giant shadow cats popped quickly popped up all around the room to surround the woman at the center of the chaos.

Despite the anarchy around her, Nyx was still covered in the lasso of truth. The rope held strong against the girl's frame. The rope glowed a golden light and fought against the shadows that rolled off of Nyx. With tears running from her eyes, Nyx looked to her friends. Her mouth moved, and it looked like she was about to say a threat or a taunt, but the lasso compelled Nyx's true feelings through the veil established by Klarion.

" **Help…me…** " Nyx pleaded, " **Hurts…Help me…please…** "

Spirit's eyes lit up with rage and protectiveness. With a shout of anger, she pealed herself from the wall and tried to push herself forward, "Raven! What do we do?!"

Raven too had managed to free herself. She looked to see her other friends also pulling themselves free, "I…I don't know…"

"What can we do?!" Youngblood questioned, "If we do anything to weaken her, she'll overload!"

"So the only option left is to kill her?" Cyborg question. An uncomfortable silence fell over the heroes. They exchanged looks of despair, not knowing what to do.

" _The strings…_ " A familiar window popped up in front of Spirit. She instantly recognize the form of Poindexter despite the static and fuzzy image.

"Poindexter?" Spirit questioned.

" _Cut…strings…Cut…power!_ " Poindexter's words were barely audible, " _Energy…interference…can't….clearly…"_

"Cut the strings on her back? And the power in the battery?" Spirit questioned.

Poindexter nodded, " _Won't…easy…You need to…otherwise…"_

"I can't hear what you're saying!" Spirit shouted.

Poindexter appeared to be trying to say something, but it wasn't coming out right. With a determined look, he expanded his window to massive size. He then turned his window so that he could look back and forth between Spirit and the captive magic users at the center of the battery. He then shouted out as loud as possible, " _FOLLOW YOUR GUT! DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO!_ "

With that, Poindexter's image finally disappeared as the energy interference finally caught up to him. His message was clear, though. They had a game plan now, at least.

"All right! I can't think of anything else we can do!" Spirit addressed her team, "Let's do it!"

* * *

Teekl's head was smashed to the side as Dusk rammed one of his Burst Gauntlets to the side of the beast's face. He quickly followed up with a giant uppercut to the cat's chin. Energy blasted from the gauntlet, consuming the beasts head in green and lifting the beast slightly off the ground. Cujo quickly capitalized on this. The dog rammed into the demon cat was as much force as he could muster and sent the cat stumbling away.

Before Teekl could even land on her feet, Dusk was there. He absorbed one of his Gauntlets and formed a Pendulum Nunchuku in its place. Jumping on the feline's back, he grabbed its head and used the Gauntlet's burst to pull the cat's head back. He then wrapped the chain of his other weapon around the cat's neck. Extending the chain, Dusk flipped under his enemy and wrapped the chain around the beast's legs in order to tumble the beast to the ground.

"Great work!" Constantine placed his hands on the ground over the symbols he had written with his own blood. The symbols began to glow as Constantine muttered a chant that Dusk couldn't even begin to understand. As Constantine worked, a crimson circle appeared beneath Teekl. Magical energy reached up to grab the cat and pull through the portal to banish is from the physical realm of existence.

Dusk let out a small grin as he saw this. With Teekl taken care of, he turned to see Fright Knight and Black Bat's capturers. He didn't know how to deal with that, but he would think of something. After Deathstroke obviously didn't want them dead. If he dead, they wouldn't be breathing right now—

" **ROAR!** " Teekl suddenly let out a massive roar. Flexing its muscles, it shattered the chains holding in and sent both Dusk and Cujo flying away from it as energy poured from its body. With a shake of its body, it dispelled the magic holding it in place and turned to Constantine. Opening its mouth wide, Teekl sent out a concentrated blast of energy at the exorcist.

Constantine tried to move out of the way, but his legs gave out on him before he could even move a centimeter. His body was already too tired and injured for this fight. Looking up at the blast heading at him, Constantine could only scoff.

"Ah, burger…"

The blast of energy rammed into him, exploding against his chest and sending him flying back to the far wall. He quickly crashed into the steel and slowly slid to the ground where he tumbled to his face unconscious. His breathing was shallow and his body was badly burnt, but he still appeared to be alive.

Unfortunately, Constantine was their best bet in this battle. The entire plan revolved around him banishing Teekl and Klarion as a result. With him out of the fight, things were a lot more complicated. Dusk had no idea how to take the demon cat down.

" _You need to kill it!_ " Poindexter's face popped up next to Dusk.

"Poindexter?"

" _Glad the connection is clear with you at least,_ " Poindexter adjusted his glasses, " _Look, I don't have a lot of time. Just know that you need to kill Teekl immediately. I know it may hurt, but it will lead to the best possible result. If you hesitate, the consequences will be dire for a lot of people._ "

"Don't talk about killing someone with such ease!" Dusk glared at the other ghost, "I can't just do something like that on command!"

" _Please, Dusk! If Teekl continues to exist—"_ Poindexter was cut off when Teekl lunged at Dusk. The halfa flipped out of the way and formed his Scribe Staff to try to trap Teekl. He weaved around the beast, leaving a trail of ectoplasm in his wake. Soon Teekl was covered in strands of ectoplasm, but like before, she quickly broke free.

" _No! Create something sharp! Kill it! Kill it now!"_

Dusk gritted his teeth as he dodged the animal's attacks. His eyes jumped to the downed Constantine to the captured Fright Knight and Black Bat. Deep down, he knew that he really didn't have a choice right now. People were depending on him. Besides, Klarion and Teekl could reform in a few hundred years anyway. It was for the best…

At least, that's what Dusk told himself to ease the ache he felt in his chest.

"Fine!" Dusk formed a bladed at the end of his staff to create a spear, "I'll do what I have to!"

* * *

" _Attention bases 2, 3, and 4! This is Hornblower! I have instructions that might help you right now!"_

Damon stopped his constant barrage of bullets at the wall blocking their exit and looked to the strange window hologram that showed Hornblower's face, "What's going on? I thought the coms systems were being hacked?"

"They are," Red X noted, "I'm…struggling….with it. Powerful force…can barely think…"

Rocket looked up from her attempts to help the Homo Magi and looked to the window, "Then that's not our tech. How's he doing that?"

" _Right now, I'm using a ghost's powers to communicate,"_ Mal answered Rocket's question unintentionally, " _Banshee says that we can trust this ghost, and he's giving us a bunch of directions. You need to herd all of the people to one side of the room. Giants shadow cats are about to appear in the room. Form a protective position and defend the people being drained at all cost. Don't worry about trying to escape or shut the system down, that won't work._ "

"Is he insane?" Damon looked up to the sparking and overheating battery, "That thing will definitely blow if we don't do anything."

" _It might sound crazy, but from what I'm told, if you don't do this, a lot of people will die,_ " Mal gave them a pleading look, " _Please, just follow the commands Poindexter gave us."_

"Poindexter? I remember that guy. Kind of weird, if you ask me," Rocket mentioned.

"Yeah, but it's not like we have a whole lot of options right now," Damn let out a sigh. He then looked in alarm as he saw the shadows around the lab slowly began to take shape, "Let's just do it and hope that it doesn't get us killed."

"What…about…Metallo?" Red X looked to the downed android. His armor and mechanics were long since cracked and destroyed from his fight with the Exorcist Armor.

"We'll put him with the others. Guard him with your lives," The helmet to the Exorcist Armor closed. The man then looked to the Homo Magi that were all having their magic drained, " **Okay, all magic people, please move to the west side of the base as quickly as you can. We're going to protect you, but we need you to stay together.** "

* * *

"What in the hell do you mean, screamer lady?!" Gizmo glared at the strange window beside him, "Why the hell shouldn't I just shut this place down?"

" _I don't know…and don't call me that, you brat! That sounds terrible!"_ Harriet glared at Gizmo, " _He just told me to plea to your better nature. Tell you that you need to use your special software to reroute the power._ "

"Reroute the power…Snot balls! REROUTE THE POWER MY ASS!" Gizmo sneered at Harriet, "Do you have any idea what that would do, ya dumb blond!?"

" _One, not blond. Two, no_."

"Blond's more than a hair color, burger breath," Gizmo gained an angry look, "I'm not doing it. I'm freeing Undergrowth and getting the hell out of here."

" _Please! Poindexter says that you're the only person that can stop the other bases from exploding! You're the only one that hasn't been hacked—"_ The window suddenly disappeared when Gizmo raised a laser gun and blasted the image away. He then calmly went back to work.

"What is she talking about?" Lydia land next to the diminutive hacker.

"Something stupid…" Gizmo grumbled, "Don't listen to her. I'm just going to free Undergrowth, and then we can get the hell out of here. Forget the others."

"What did she mean that the other bases have been hacked," Ace asked curiously. He sudden appearance caused Gizmos to jump.

"JEZZE! Woman, do you make any noise at all when you move? Sheesh!" Gizmo grumbled as he looked over his shoulder. He could see the rest of the Royal Flush Gang along with Lydia's tattoos fighting of what appeared to be giant shadows in the shape of cats. Weirdly enough, that was probably the most normal thing he had seen today, "There's some hacker taking control of all the systems of the perimeter bases. I'm the only one that hasn't been hacked."

"And why is that?" Lydia questioned.

"Because I'm sick of magic and ghost types getting into my systems with ease!" Gizmo slammed his hand into his equipment, "I made a software designed to fight off empowered hackers like that. My systems say that it's ghostly in nature this time."

"How in the world did you do that?" Ace asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I stole all of Fenton's research data after the Le Fey thing. You know, as payment for my help. I didn't want to get jumped again, so I spent the last four months trying to mesh my software with Fenton's ectoplasmic empowered computer equipment. I only recently got it working," Gizmo explained, "Luckily I have a lot of free time on my hands. If I had any distractions at all, I wouldn't have gotten it to work."

"And that's how you kept yourself from getting hacked," Lydia realized.

"Yep! And now I'm going to free Undergrowth and leave this crappy island before it goes boom," Gizmo stated.

"Goes boom?" Ace blinked.

"The hacker is causing every system to overload. Every single base is going to blow up soon, and I don't want to be around when it does," Gizmo rapidly typed on his keyboard.

"Can you stop it?" Lydia questioned.

"Yeah, but I would have to reroute the power, and that would be stupid," Gizmo grumbled, "I risked my neck enough already for these hero douches. This sorcerer thing has been stopped. The world is safe, so I get to go home and play some video games."

"At the cost of hundreds of lives," Lydia glared at Gizmo.

"Don't act all high and mighty, toots, look who you hang out with," Gizmo sneered at her, "First that Freakshow nut, then a bunch of terrorists. You have no right to lecture me."

"I only help them because Ace needs guidance to stop her reckless actions," Lydia hissed, "You don't understand the situation, so don't act like you do."

"Bitch, I understand everything perfectly, isn't that right, Andromeda?" Gizmo gave Ace a side glance.

Ace frowned, "Where did you learn that name?"

"I'm a hacker. One that pretty much hates the Light. I made sure to learn as many of their dirty little secrets as I could. Luckily, one of their dirty gym shorts is hanging out in plain sight for everyone to see. As long as you know where to look," Gizmo snorted, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"I see…"

"Please!" Lydia grabbed Gizmo's shoulders and stared into his eyes, "I don't want any more people to die. That's why I'm with the Royal Flush Gang. That's why I left Frederick. That's why I'm here. You need to save those people. It's wrong to just ignore it if you have the power to save people."

Gizmo just gave the ghost woman a deadpanned look. With a shake of his head, he turned back to his work, "Sorry, lady. I'm not a hero. Saving people isn't my thing. Especially when doing so has a one hundred percent chance of getting me killed."

* * *

David Cain ignored all the chaos going on around him. He was well aware of how every base was in trouble considering the energy being emitted by each one of them. In his personal opinion, it looked like they were about to explode, and he had a very intimate relationship with explosions.

Unfortunately, that wasn't something he could deal with right now. He would have to leave that to the others on the mission. Right now, he had to deal with those cowardice Shadow douches. They were moving fast for people dragging an unconscious body. Of course, Cain managed to catch up, but that wasn't the problem.

"Move you cannon fodder!" Cain shouted he kicked one of the assassins blocking his way. Dozens of the suckers stood in his way. That damn Talia had too many people under command. It was even worse considering they were all willing to die for her.

Cain could see his targets right beyond the fodder. They moving away rapidly, not even giving him a passing glance. Rage flooded his system. They take his wife and ignore him? Bastards!

Taking out one of his twin pistols, the freelance killer quickly took aim at Sportsmaster's back. Before he could get off a clean shot, though, one of the assassins in front of him jumped forward to cut him. This forced David to turn his shot towards his attacker. A quick twitch of the finger relieved him from that problem, but the other assassins decided to rush in at that moment.

With an angry grunt, David quickly fought back. His eyes darted to his retreating targets. He knew that he had to deal with these guys first, but he didn't like it. The further they got away with Shiva, the harder it would be to track them down.

"Guess that means I'll have to kill you fast!" Cain exclaimed as he open fired on his enemies.

* * *

Superboy groaned in pain as Walker massive foot continued to put pressure down of the side of his head to the point that the steel below him began to bend around his head. At the same time, the large rule book made of energy continued to crush him. There was really no real threat to him from this type of attack, but that wasn't the problem. Right now, he was still trapped. Walker had him trapped, so all he could do was watch as Madame Rogue killed Miss Martian.

Madame Rogue slammed her fist across M'gann's face for what seemed like the tenth time. The Martian's face was now bruised and swelled. Once again, the Martian tried to use her telepathy to attack the other women mentally, but she was stopped by another punch. This time, though, the punch hit her throat instead.

M'gann instantly clutched at her throat. It was only because of her extreme durability that her neck wasn't shattered. Still, she couldn't breathe, so her body desperately sought to find a new way to breath. Thus, modified gills popped out of her chest gasping for air.

"Nice efforts zhere, little girl, but you need to be more brutal if you want to beat me," Madame Rogue noted. She then lifted up her hand and shaped her hand in the form of an axe. Bringing the blade over the girl's head, Rogue prepared to end the girl quickly when she was stopped.

Beast Boy managed to pull himself together and fling himself at Rogue to save his adopted sister. In midair, he quickly transformed into the shape of a large green gorilla. Just as he was about to hit Rogue, though, the woman move. With the speed of a viper, Rogue stretched herself around Beast Boy's body. Her body became one elongated band that completely covered Beast Boy's legs, arms, and neck.

The villainess then controlled Beast Boy's arms to move down and grab M'gann's head. She then forced him to begin crushing the now screaming Martian's head. Seeing what his larger body was doing, Beast Boy tried to turn back into his normal form, but he couldn't gain enough focus to transform. Madame Rouge was squeezing his neck so tight that he couldn't even focus enough to think, let alone transform. He was stuck like that until he either passed out from lack of oxygen or he died from Rogue snapping his neck.

"Zhis is better, no?" Madame Rouge let out a chuckle, "Killing zhe woman zhat zaved your life? Very zragic. I always like to do zuch zhings on my jobs. Zhe looks of betrayal are priceless."

"RAW!" Superboy desperately tried to free himself to no avail, "LET THEM GO!"

"Yeah, screaming will help," Walker let out a snort.

Superboy clawed at the boot on his head, "Damn you! Danny should never had trusted you!"

"I am zorry about zhat," Madame Rogue admitted, "Danny waz a good client. Out of all zhe offers I got until today, his was zhe best. Paid well, but what good is money to the dead?"

"Traitorous bitch!" Superboy desperately looked around for some form of help. His eyes topped on a downed Wolf, who looked like he wasn't getting up any time soon.

"Szicks and ztones, boy," With that, Madame Rogue jerked to kill her two targets.

"NO!"

For once, Superboy's yell did not meet deaf ears. In the blink of the eye, both Madame Rogue and Walker were thrown away from the heroes. This caused both Miss Martian and Beast Boy to gasp out in relief. Superboy, on the other hand, immediately flung himself to their sides and pulled them into hugs.

" _Hello, I don't believe we've met before, but we don't have the time for proper introductions,"_ Poindexter's image appeared in front of the downed heroes, " _Just know that I'm Poindexter, I'm on your side, and we need to work together if you want to survive."_

"You…You saved them?" Superboy questioned.

" _Yes, but we don't have ti—Oh shoot!"_ A clear wall appeared in front of the heroes and stopped a blast of dark energy from crashing into them, " _Quickly! You need to move. I'll help guard you from Walker the best I can, but with the power of surprise out of my reach, I can't attack him directly with my Writers ability."_

Superboy looked to M'gann and Beast Boy, "Can you move?"

"Yeah…" Miss Martian nodded as her form shifted back to normal.

"I could use a minute," Beast Boy admitted as he rubbed his neck.

" _No time!"_ A single ball of energy popped out nowhere and smashed into Madame Rogue to stop her charge forward. Just like before, the villainess was flung away, " _I'll help the best I can and give you instructions. Together, we can save Etrigan and get you out alive."_

"Alright," Superboy nodded, "Not like we have a lot of choices."

On other side of the window, Poindexter nodded. He was about to go onto give instructions to the Kryptonian clone when someone else spoke up.

"Hey, what about Vision?" Mal turned to Poindexter and gave him a confused look, "You still haven't given her advice."

Poindexter just frowned and shook his head, "No point. That story's outcome is already decided no matter what. Death in imminent."

* * *

Vision had not been afraid of death for a long time. Ever since she turned into a ghost, leaving the physical plane for the spiritual one didn't cause her panic. She experienced death once before after all. The second time wasn't a big deal.

That was the mindset Vision had for her entire afterlife. No matter what happened, Vision wasn't afraid if she faded from this world. Her time now was only overtime in her mind. It was only fair that it could come to an end at any moment.

Right now, though, Vision was reminded why people were ever afraid of dying. When the last attack shattered her ribs, her mouth opened in a combination of pain in shock. The water instantly reacted as if it were alive and jumped down her throat, filling her lungs with suffocating liquid.

As this happened, the assault to the outside of her body continued unhampered. The sharks constructed of water nipped at her sides, instantly drawing out her ectoplasmic laced blood. The rest of water began to squeeze and crush her from all angles. Despite the torturous pain, though, that wasn't what made Vision remember the true terror that existed when looking at destruction's face.

Above her floated a figure cloaked in black. A dark weapon stood raised, ready to strike her down. Dark energy rolled off her attacker like smoke as he gave a sickening cruel grin. Just like…

 _Viola trembled before the monster. She covered herself in her daddy's large purple coat to the point that only her eyes were visible. Her daddy said that purple was the color of royalty and that he was king of many kingdoms. The coat was meant to protect her, to show that she was royalty herself, but this monster didn't seem to care, "Ahh…W-What are you?"_

" _ **Death** ," Nekron grinned down at her._

 _Viola felt her entire body freeze in fear, "No…Daddy will protect me…"_

" _ **Daddy?**_ _ **Hahahahaha! Little fool, the only one that you can ever rely on to protect you is you**_ _," Nekron raised his scythe and then slashed down, "_ _ **And**_ _ **you're too weak to do that**_ _."_

" **Still awake I see,** " Ocean Master's grin was laced with madness, " **You are a tough one. I cannot believe your lungs have not collapsed yet. Maybe adding a few holes will help.** "

Ocean Master brought his black trident down towards Vision's chest. In a desperate attempt to stop it, she lifted her arms and allowed to be impaled by the tree points of the weapon. Her arms managed to stop the weapon from piercing her chest, but her already numbed arms instantly went dead after the impalement.

" **Very good. I can see why you are so respected, but you cannot fight me off forever,** " Ocean Master manipulated the water around the open wounds on Vision's arms, opening them more and allowing the trident to continue its journey unhindered, " **You are too weak to do that.** "

* * *

Phantom had rarely seen such raw, unconventional power as the ability Klarion now threw around with ease. The best example he could compare it too were the times he fought against Freakshow and the Reality Gauntlet. Now, though, the power didn't come through a weapon. No, Klarion's power was far more internal and instinctual.

With a wave of his hands, the Lord of Chaos created a ring of fire around the base. This fire didn't seem natural, though. It reached out to them like it was trying to grab them. If that wasn't bad enough, Klarion formed a bit 'O' with his hands and then blew into it to form giant colored bubbles. When the bubbles hit something, they popped, revealing that they were filled acid that instantly melted the steal floor when touched.

" **Dance, bugs! Dance!** " Klarion cheered as he slammed his hands onto the ground causing energy to spread everywhere and take control of the unfeeling steal. The metal became distorted and shifted into large fangs and claws that went to try and snap at them.

Phantom immediately grabbed Jinx and pulled her up into the air to avoid getting caught by the now animated metal. As he used his airborne ability to dodge all of Klarion's strange attacks, Jinx used her magic to safely dispatch the acid bubbles. This proved nearly impossible as when one bubble was popped and the acid was safely banished, two more took its place. Nevertheless, the two of them desperately continued their struggle for survival.

That struggle came to an abrupt end, though, when Klarion decided to intervene directly. In a swirl of energy similar to Jinx's teleportation, the Lord of Chaos appeared right behind them. Grabbing their joined wrists, he quickly jerked them apart. He took great joy from their panicked expression. His glee only increased as he surged this black energy into them and caused them to scream in agony.

Creating a black gain of energy, Klarion wrapped it around Phantom's arm and then swung the chain. With a massive grin on his face, Klarion swung Phantom through several of the acid bubbles. Then, Phantom was smashed into the walls of flames a few times. Then, to finish off the halfa, Klarion slammed Phantom into the steel below, allowing the animated metal to latch onto him in a giant pile and began to tear the ghost apart.

" **One down! And now for the traitor!** " Klarion switched his grip to grab Jinx with both of his hands. With a mad grin of his face, Klarion began to choke the sorceress while pumping his darkened energy into her once more.

Jinx gasped and trembled in tortures as the energy spread through her neck and out through her body, filtering into her veins and causing her veins to build with enough pressure to almost cause them to burst. Through the pain, she managed to keep control over one of her arms. She pointed it down to the ground below, right where Phantom was trapped.

" **He can't save you, traitor! Do you know how many people he's failed? Hell, his list is probably bigger than my kill list. Kekekekeke…** " Klarion began to giggle in glee.

"No…Wrong…" Jinx gasped as she extended her arm out as much as possible towards the ground below. Pink energy flared from her fingers to the ground below.

" **Wrong?! You know I'm not! Hell, I've known him longer than you! I remember him back after that burger joint blew up! He was so funny, trying to act tough even know he knew how weak he was! He knew in one look that he would never be able to fight me equ—"**

Klarion's rant was cut short when his arms were suddenly cut off at the elbows. Eyes widening in shock, Klarion watched as Jinx fell from his grasp and his arms faded into nothingness. His eyes then bounced from the frost that covered his stumps to the sword of ice that was now slowly melting away.

"Jinx, are you okay?" Klarion's head snapped down with an audible crack as he looked to see that Phantom had actually managed to catch Jinx before she hit the ground.

"Danny…" Jinx's eyes dropped as she looked into his eyes, "How…"

Phantom nudged his head to show that the animated steel that was once attacking him was now destroyed with tiny strands of pink energy jumping off of the scrap, "Thanks for the assist. I couldn't focus with those things chomping at my neck. You gave me the time I needed to feel it."

" **Feel?** " Klarion's face scrunched up in confusion, " **Feel what?!** "

Phantom then looked up. His hair fell back to reveal what caused Jinx to feel so much shock. Powerful, glowing white eyes now existed where a neon green once stood. Klarion remembered those eyes. He had seen it up close and personal a little over three years ago. They were the eyes of ghost that had grown into a god.

Phantom smiled at Klarion. Strands of gold and white now filtered through his green energy, "I felt… **Life**."

* * *

It only took about a minute for Spirit to realize that their chances of actually get to Nyx and the battery was virtually impossible. Despite all their effort, none of them had even gotten close to either of their targets. While fighting against the constant force that Nyx's magic was putting out, they also had to deal with the dozens of shadow beasts attacking them.

What was worse was they couldn't let themselves touch the floor, as Cyborg quickly found out. He tried to walk his way over to the battery while the other distracted Nyx. He made to the end of the shadows that pooled and danced on the ground when he found out just how dangerous the ooze was. One step into the goo, and he was stuck. The shadows latched onto him and immediately began to slowly creep up his leg.

He tried to use his weapons to dislodge the shadow ooze from his leg, but it didn't work. Not even his energy canon could dispatch the energy. After a few seconds of trying to get his leg free, Cyborg finally decided that he only had one choice. A quick button presses to his forearm controller allowed Cyborg to disconnect the armor from the knee down and pull a thinner metal covered exoskeleton foot from the armored boot.

Seeing that wouldn't work, Cyborg did his last resort of using his jetpack to get around, but that proved just as futile as the others attempts. His efforts were even more fruitless, however, considering that using his jetpack used a large portion of his energy reserves. A quick glance to his energy gauge told him that staying airborne for much longer would leave very little energy for his weaponry.

" **Ahhh….Ahhh…AAAAAHHHHH! RAW!"** Nyx screamed out as her body began to be torn apart. Her body slowly began to dissolve as tiny drops of ectoplasm dropped off the bottom of her feet.

"Nyx!" Spirit shouted out as one of the cats smacked her back into the wall once more.

"What did Poindexter expect us to do with that info!?" Raven questioned as she formed a shield to try and protect herself, "There's no way to get close!"

"I don't know!" Youngblood grunted as he tried to fight against one of the beasts, "But we have to keep trying!"

"Yeah! Don't give up! We'll get to her!" Cyborg reached out to his friend, "We'll save you, Nyx! Just hold on!"

" **AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!** " Nyx's tears were now replaced by streams of ectoplasmic blood running down her face. Her back arced as she tried to do anything possible to relieve the pain. All she manage to do, though, was force sent out another wave massive wave of magic that once again slammed all of her friends back into the far wall.

This time, though, no matter what they did though, the group of four could not fight their way back towards Nyx. Exhaustion and the raw power they were fighting against proved to be too strong. They couldn't move forward anymore. It was over. They knew in that moment that Nyx was lost.

* * *

One of the biggest problems Dusk had with fighting Teekl was the cat's defense. Its fur seemed to grow harder than steel. His blade only caused sparks to fly when it met the animal, not blood. Cujo didn't seem to be having any more luck than Dusk. Straight up physical blows did make her stumble, but she did appear injured by the attacks in the slightest. Nothing seemed to work on the animal.

Everything had a weakness, though. Even the Kryptonians had their Achilles' heel. So, Dusk just had to find it. The fur was had enough to protect the cat from steel, but…was everything so protected?

Dodging a blow to his head, Dusk swung his spear around to Teekl's nose. His effort was rewarded when dark blood instantly feel from the gashed nose and the cat scrambled back while making a hissing noise. It glared at them as its wound knitted itself back to normal.

That was it. No fur meant no protection. He had to aim at a place that had no fur, which was sounded ridiculous considering that he was fighting something covered in fur. No animal was one hundred percent covered in fur, though.

"Cujo, roll her over!" Dusk ordered as he flew up above the cat causing it to look up after him. Cujo obeyed and went after Teekl's legs. Cujo rammed himself into Teekl's unprotected legs and caused the surprised cat to stumble around trying to regain her footing. She never got the chance, though. Dusk took advantage of Teekl's weakness and dropped down on her once more.

Using his superhuman strength, Dusk flipped the cat over to her back and stood on the beast's chest. A solid kick to the cat's nose cause the cat to hiss in pain. Her mouth opened up wide, revealing her sharp teeth and furless insides.

With a roar, Dusk brought his spear down with the complete intent to stab the cat through the head. He made a single mistake, though. It was something that he had learned a long time ago when the Shadows were first trying to get him to kill. They said it was a rule for all inexperienced assassins who still had yet to develop the hardness of heart needed to take a life. The rule was very simple.

Don't look into the target's eyes.

Dusk froze as he stared into Teekl's brown orbs. Fear and anger danced around her eyes. The eyes were always the window to a person's soul. Looking into Teekl's soul, he saw a living being with fears, desires, and hopes. Dusk felt shame fill his chest. He was going to rob her of her existence, if only temporarily. He had no right to do that. No one had the right to do that.

"RAW!" Teekl's eyes suddenly hardened from a fearful kitten into a hunting tiger. She bit down on the spear with her sharp fangs. The cat instantly destroyed his and then flipped him over so that he was now trapped by her. In that moment, Dusk realized that he had been had. Teekl knew how to play with people's emotions, and she knew how to manipulate someone who had mercy in his heart.

With Teekl's hot breath and spit washing over his face, Dusk knew that he was now at her mercy. Unlike him, however, Teekl was had anything relating to mercy in her heart.

* * *

If Mary was being completely honest to herself, she would admit that she always wanted to be a hero. She often daydreamed of getting superpowers and saving the day like Captain Marvel did. As such, her response to gaining her powers had been complete and utter glee. All that short lived when Mary quickly realized the consequences of having superpowers.

Her first act as a superhero was crippling a man. That was a thought she had every day. She had taken an eye from a victim that was being controlled against his will. It on that same day that she wished she never had powers. Despite her bravado and kind nature, Mary gained an instinctual fear of her powers.

She would kill a man just by poking him a bit too hard. It would be all too easy. She even tried it on a stone. Her finger had cut through the rock with ease. Imagining the hole in the stone could be a hole in someone's head made her vomit for an hour straight.

She was glad Freddy was there to hold back her hair…

Freddie…Mary wished she was more like him. He never let anything bother him. His powers, while a shock, seemed more like a minor inconvenience for him. After finding out just what his powers were, he made a plan to control them and pulled her along for the ride. Despite never wanting powers, he was far better equipped to handle them…well, at least the physical consequences of it. He never seemed interested in developing the aura of kindness that the other Marvels had.

It was that aura and train of thought that made Mary better with civilians. She could sympathize with them, comfort them, and make them feel batter. Empathy and compassion…that was her natural gifts, and probably the reason she got her powers in the first place. Sure, being related to Captain Marvel helped, but Mary didn't think Shazam would let the power transfer if she didn't meet his expectations.

Unfortunately, it was that empathy that made the entire Sorcerer Initiative so much more painful. Mary could deal with her own pain. She had the powers of the gods after all. It was everything that made is so much worse. Beside her, two of her closest friends were screaming in pain. Not only that, the wizard Shazam and Doctor Fate were having their magic ripped from them as well.

Then, there was the sight in front of her. Four more of her friends were being beaten and killed by Nyx, a girl who had her free-will ripped away from her…just like the Box Ghost. This time, however, it was even worse. Nyx was being forced to kill her friends while she was being ripped apart molecule by molecule as well.

…Not to mention the hundreds of people going the exact same thing as them right now…She had to stop it, and there was only one way to do that…

"SHAZAM!"

Lightning roared through the base. In an instant, Mary felt all of her power being ripped away from her. Her form shifted from the amazing hero known as Lieutenant Marvel into the weak, barley in her teens Mary Bromfield. Now significantly smaller and lacking any magical power, Mary slid out of her restraints and to the floor.

"Mary!? What did you do!?" Sergeant Marvel's eyes widened as he watched Mary heave and gasp on the metal floor.

"I…did what I had to…Not like I had a lot of power left anyway…" Mary fought the vomit that threatened to crawl up her throat and pushed herself up. Her legs felt like jello right now, but she didn't have time to rest, "They need my help…They all need my help…"

With that, Mary quickly moved to an opening on the side of the battery that Cyborg had made in his struggle. With trembling fingers, Mary reached in and began to pull wires out from the tear in the metal. She gasped in pain as electricity passed through her arms, but she still continued to pull the wires out as quickly as possible.

After a few seconds, though, a few of the smaller shadow cats took notice of her actions. They quickly jumped at her. In her weakness, Mary could only barely roll out of the way. She tried to keep moving, but the cats had quickly caught up to her and smashed her body to the floor, causing the girl to cry out in both pain and surprise. Just as they were about to kill her, they were stopped by a familiar shout.

"SHAZAM!"

Just like Mary, Freddy collapsed forward from the loss of his powers. He managed to angle it drop, however, in order to fall onto one of the shadow cat's backs. Using all the strength he had left, Freddie clutched at the cat's fur and pulled it towards the other cat, causing the beast he was riding to ram into its sibling and freeing Mary.

"Freddie!" Mary cried out in shock as she saw Freddy give up his powers for her.

"I only put up with this hero crap for you! No point in having them now!" Freddie shouted out as he desperately clung to the shadow beast, "We're a team right!?"

"R-Right!" Mary nodded and quickly moved to help him.

"No! Stop the battery!" Freddy ordered, "I'll distract them! And Billy, don't you give up your powers! The world needs at least one Marvel!"

Captain Marvel opened one clenched eye and let out a pained groan, "B-but…"

"No buts!" Freddy explained. He turned his head to look at them and revealed that tears were now running down his face, "This time, we'll actually some good instead of messing things up! It may not make up for what happened to that box guy, but at least we can do some good losing our powers instead of getting them!"

Mary's eyes lit up like a flame, "Yeah!" She lunged herself towards the opening once more. Grabbing as many cords as she could, Mary pulled with as much strength as her weakened body had left, "This time, we'll be real heroes!"

Then, with a roar and a flash of electricity, the cords ripped causing Mary to fall flat on her back. The damage had been done, though. The man battery quickly died down and the remaining three captives stopped their shouts of pain.

"Oof!" Freddy groaned as he the cat finally flung him off just as it began to disappear. He landed on his stomach facing towards Mary. Looking at each other, the two young teens smiled. They had just turned the tide of this battle.

* * *

 **Next update: "Best Friend" on February 1, 2016**

 **The Sorcerer Initiative arc shall soon meet its climax. Expect more than a few surprises. Oh, and before anyone asks, yes, Mary and Freddy did lose their powers forever when the machines drained them. This is my explanation for why the creators of the YJ show say that they were on the Team but never had a memorial in the Grotto like the other heroes. Truth be told, I do wish I could have developed them more, but I was going for a feel that they tried to be heroes but it never worked out for them.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	15. Best Friend

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Walter Winchell

* * *

Chapter 15: "Best Friend"

(Sunday-March 2, 2014)

Nocturne scowled as he dismissed the shade of Technus and glared down at the central base below him, "They managed to cut the power."

"But they did have to sacrifice two of the Marvel heroes completely," Hotep Ra noted, "That will please Lord Nekron."

Aragon sneered, "He won't be pleased, however, when he finds out that nobody died."

"Not necessarily," Hotep Ra placed up a calming hand, "The batteries in the four surrounding bases have too much backed up energy and are sure to explode. That will out hundreds of people."

"True…" Nocturne stroked his chin, "And none of them are really necessary for the next step with Trigon…"

"Exactly. We have succeeded in our mission. It's time to leave and let the rest of the cards lie where they may," Hotep Ra nodded at his comrades, "Walker should be done right about now anyway. Let's go."

"What about this?" Nocturne held out the Mirror of Memories.

"We can just give it to Lord Nekron," Aragon noted with a shrug, "He can do with it as he pleases."

"Agreed. He—"

Nocturne let out a hiss as the mirror suddenly began to burn his hand. He immediately let go of the ancient object out of instinct to stop the pain. To the surprise of all three of the Black Lanterns, the mirror did not fall. It floated in mid-air and began to emit a low green glow.

" _Hehehehe…I knew he'd be back…"_

"What?" Aragon raised an eyebrow at the mirror, "What is this sorcery?"

" _Nekron was a fool to have you use me…_ " A low whisper echoed off the mirror, " _Now, I know everything I need to. You will not destroy the joy from this world…_ "

"Stop it!" Hotep Ra roared as he lunged for the mirror. He was too late, though. In a blaze of green energy, the mirror flew off to the distance, well out of their grasp.

* * *

Nightwing had long since gotten over his desire for superpowers. It was something he secretly struggled with when he was younger. After all, all of his original teammates except for Artemis had powers, and that made it hard to keep up with them. Eventually, though, he got over such feelings. Not everyone had to be a powerhouse to contribute to the mission. Nevertheless, there were moments of relapses.

Like right now where he was surrounded on all sides by giant shadow cats while trying to defend a bunch of Amazons that were having their energy stolen. Yeah, it would nice to have powers in moments like this.

Flipping around the legs of the giant cats, Nightwing tried to use very gadget in his arsenal to try and take the cats down. Shuriken, explosives, and even his electric weaponry failed to do anything other than draw their attention to him. This was both good and bad. It was good because it drew attention away from the Amazons, but it was bad because the giant cats were now trying to kill him.

"Someone please tell me that you found a weakness!?" Nightwing questioned as he dodged the giant animal's attacks.

"Nope!" Bumblebee shouted as she tried to zap the animals down, "My equipment's isn't working."

"Aim for the mouths!" Batgirl exclaimed as she threw explosive baterangs at the beast's mouths.

"We already know that!" Robin stood defensively in front of the Amazons as he tried to fight off some of the smaller beasts, "But we're lacking the fire power to get this done!"

That wasn't exactly true. The Amazons did have enough power to fight against the giant beasts. Unfortunately, they were too busy having their lives sucked from them to do anything. In that moment, Nightwing truly thought it was the end. He couldn't think of a way out of this other than an outright miracle.

Luckily, a miracle was what he got.

* * *

Kid Flash felt fatigue run through him just like he ran around the legs of the monsters. He desperately tried to keep their attention on him while Artemis and Red Arrow tried to take them down. Their arrows didn't do a lot to deter the beasts though. Not like La'gaan. It seemed that his magically enhanced body seemed to be highly effective against the shadow beasts.

Even he was only one person, though, and couldn't take on a small army by himself. With him quickly being overwhelmed, Kid knew that they couldn't hold out for long. As soon as he thought that, though, everything stopped.

At a speed that even Kid Flash couldn't follow, the giants cats disappeared. One moment they were there. The next moment, they were not there, gone into nonexistence. He wasn't the only one shocked by this. Artemis and Red Arrow paused in mid arrow and blinked at the space of nothingness in front of them. La'gaan's reaction beat them all considering how he fell from his space on what used to be a demon feline's back and onto the floor.

"Arg…What happened? Is this a trick?" La'gaan let out a groan as he pealed himself off the ground.

Red Arrow looked behind him to see that the Atlantian's were no longer screaming. Not only that, the energy strings connecting to the battery, "No, I think they managed to cut the power at the source."

"That's great," Artemis looked ready to smile but stopped when she looked up to the large battery in the room. It was glowing a bright read and was sparking, "But…"

"The battery is still overheating," Kid Flash finished as he frowned at the battery.

* * *

"What does that mean?" Damon questioned as a now perfectly functioning Red X examined the main console once again.

"It means that there is still too much energy in the battery. It was never meant to filter so much at once, liking trying to fit a grape through a straw instead of grape juice," Red X explained.

"And that pretty much ruins the straw," Rocket noted as she looked over the downed Homo Magi, "Of course, straws don't blow up."

"So that means we can finally focus on getting out of here?" Metallo let out a groan that seemed fitting considering that he was literally picking up his arm off the floor.

Red X turned back to examined the wall of black energy. The machine held out a gun and fired at the dark energy. The bullets bounced off the wall harmlessly, "I thought so. I did some tests on the energy, well…the best I could in the situation. None of my weaponry is prepared to cut through it. Neither are any of your weapons."

"So, we're trapped in here with a ticking time bomb," Damon frowned deeply, "What do we do?"

"There really isn't anything we can do. The size of the explosion would shatter any shields we make," Red X stated without an ounce of audible emotion, "Any attempts to stop the explosion or guard ourselves would prove fruitless."

"So what do we do?"

"Hope for another miracle."

* * *

(Play: This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars)

" **No…** " Klarion looked down at Phantom and saw a figure that he had hoped never to see again. The white energy bleeding into Phantom's normal green spread out behind him. Klarion saw giant wings white as snow spread out from a skeletal figure that could only be compared to that of an angel, " **Not you! NONONONONONONONONONONO! Why are you in him?! What did you do?!** "

"What is he talking about?" Jinx whispered as Phantom placed her down on her feet.

Phantom was silent. He just placed a hand on her shoulder. The white halo around him spread to her and covered her in a similar protective glow.

" **NO! I won't let you ruin the chaos like you did before! I had my dream once! Pure chaos! Total anarchy! Then you messed it by spreading Life!** " Klarion screamed out insanely.

Jinx was too enamored by the halo surrounding her. She felt warmth and power like she never knew cover her in a blanket of protection. This is what ascended ectoplasm was like, but she didn't understand something, "How did you do this? You can give your power to other people."

Klarion attacked before Phantom could answer. With a roar of rage, he thrusted his arms forward and sent a concentrated beam of energy at the duo. Jinx went to react but paused when she saw that Phantom didn't look worried at all. To her shock, the energy blast seemed to shrink significantly as it flew towards. She was then amazed as the energy covering them spread out and protected them from the blast that was insignificant compared to Klarion's previous efforts.

" **What?!** " Klarion stared at his hands in horror, " **The energy stopped!** "

Phantom lifted a single hand towards the Lord of Chaos. A similar beam of energy burst out from the halfa's hand. Klarion tried to create a shield of his own to stop the burst, but it was instantly shattered. Klarion was quickly consumed by the blast and disappeared into specks of dust.

Jinx looked to her lover, "Danny, what's going on?"

Danny was whispering something that Jinx could barely hear, " **…Darkest night…Life's fight…Beware the Phantom…** "

"Danny!" Jinx' shout pulled Phantom out of his gaze.

" **W-What?"** Phantom blinked at her. Then, he looked at the energy covering both of them, " **What's going on? Ascended ectoplasm, but…Death isn't near…** "

"So you have no idea what's going on?" Jinx frowned at the ghost.

" **No…** " Phantom's head turned as he felt Klarion begin to reform across the room, " **But I don't think we're going to have time to figure it out.** "

"But you just kicked his ass," Jinx argued.

" **Maybe. But that was a fluke. He's already gotten his power back under control** ," Phantom noted as he looked at his glowing fist, " **This time, though. I don't think we'll have any trouble holding him off.** "

* * *

Spirit slid from her spot on the wall and crumbled to the floor in a heap. Every part of her body hurt. She was sure that if she was a normal human, she would be dead many times over. The same could be said for her friends. Luckily, they all had endurance that by far surpassed that of a normal human. That still didn't stop their groans of pain as they pushed themselves up for what seemed like the hundredth time today.

When they were all finally up, they managed to see the great change. All the giant shadow beasts had disappeared. The giant battery in the room was no longer humming with life. Not only that, Nyx had stopped her screaming was just hanging in mid-air as her shadows continued to flow off of her.

"What…What happened?" Raven questioned.

"Hey!" Freddy yelled from the top of the battery, "We shut down the power!"

"You did?" Cyborg looked at a loss for words.

"Yeah!" Marry peaked up over the edge, "Nyx shouldn't be getting pumped full of energy anymore!"

"But she's still spazzing out," Youngblood noted.

It was true, Nyx's form was still trembling unnaturally. Tears still streamed down her face as she gritted her teeth from the pain. Her shadows were still whipping around wildly in the air, while some of it continued to pore down into the acid like shadows below her. Not only that, the strings on her back were glowing and staying strong.

"She's no longer getting energy pumped in and out of her," Raven noted, "But the strings are still holding the overabundance of magic in her. Like an over inflated balloon that's stretched past its limit. We need to drain out the air, err…magic, or she'll pop."

"So cut the strings and let the energy drain out of her?" Spirit questioned.

"Yes."

" **AAAAHHH!"** Nyx let out another scream as she flared around in agony once more. Out of sheer instinct, she pushed her energy out of her body, and the storm around her continued once more. At least this time, though, the magic pulse was weaker and there were no giants cats in the way.

"We'll try to get these guys free to help you!" Mary called out down to them.

"We'd help ourselves, but we're kind of powerless at the moment!" Freddy exclaimed as he and Mary went to get the other magic users free.

"What are the chances they'll get those guys free in time?" Youngblood questioned.

"Very low without their powers," Cyborg noted, "And even if they do get free, they'll probably be too exhausted to help."

"But they still gave us one last chance," Spirit's eyes were as hard as steel, "And I won't let that go to waste! One more time! We're coming, Nyx!"

* * *

Dusk desperately clutched at Teekl's neck, pushing her away as the demon cat tried to force her teeth down to his neck. The cat's enhanced strength quickly beat out Dusk's own physical power. He could feel her teeth against the skin of his neck, ready to tear in a moment's notice. He desperately tried to think of a way to stop the cat, but he couldn't think of any way that wouldn't kill the cat.

..And he…He couldn't bring himself to do that. Even as he heard the Fright Knight and Black Bat continue to scream at him, he refused to create a blade in his hands to try to kill the cat. His reason and desire for survival argued that there was nothing wrong with killing those that wanted him dead, but his soul ached too much at the thought of robbing anything of its right to exist.

Many different people had often asked what he would do in a similar situation. The truth was he never knew. That was the reason he had avoided Ocean Master on this mission. Seeing Aquaman's dead son…it was the one time Dusk ever felt the need to kill, and if it came to a situation where Dusk had the chance to kill Ocean Master to save the toddler, he might have.

This, though…It wasn't him. Maybe he was just too weak. Dusk didn't know. He just knew that he wouldn't kill to save himself. That was his answer to all the questions. This was who he was and no matter what anyone said, he couldn't change that.

Looking to the side, he saw Fright Knight and Black Bat lash out. It seems their captors had been too enthralled in the situation and let their guard slip for a fracking of a second. Black Bat flipped Ravager off of her and desperately lunged for a knife to through at the cat. Fright Knight, on the other hand, kicked Deathstroke's gun away, floated in the air so he bring his tied wrists underneath his feet to have them at least able to move a little, and then went for his sword.

They would be too late. Dusk already knew this because Ravager and Deathstroke were already attacking them again. There was no way to get past them long enough to save him. He was dead…

"RAW!" Cujo roared as he bit into Teekl's neck. With a roar of her own, Teekl fought back. She desperately scratched at the ghost dog. They fought for a few seconds before finally rolling off of Dusk.

Dusk didn't know what happened after that. He had been temporarily blinded during their scuffle. Something had dripped into his eyes, and he didn't know what. Dusk desperately rubbed at the ooze that blocked his vision. After a few rubs, he rapidly blinked to regain his sight enough to look at what dripped on him.

It was blood.

Green blood covered his arms, and it wasn't his own.

Terror now thumping in his chest, Dusk whirled to Cujo and Teekl's fight. He immediately wished he hadn't. Without someone to help him, Cujo lost badly. Various cuts covered his body. Teekl was biting into his shoulder and flinging him around causing blood to fling around all over the area from the stone walls to Dusk himself. After a few more spins, the cat slammed her enemy on the ground and got Cujo in the same spot that Dusk was in seconds earlier.

The only difference was that Dusk couldn't make it in time. As he tried to right himself, Dusk could only watch as Teekl's mouth wrapped around Cujo's throat. Then, with a giant jerk of her head, she tore her mouth away and a large chunk of Cujo's skin with it. Cujo's mouth opened widely for a large screech of pain that would haunt most men's nightmares. Dusk didn't hear it though.

Silence. That was all Dusk heard despite the vast amount of noise around him. The battles, the shouts of pain, the miniature war…they all meant nothing to him anymore. Right here, right now, all the ghoul cared about was what was happening in front of his eyes.

Blood…

There was so much blood…

Could a body even hold that much blood? Dusk didn't think so. Yet, there it was, and it was everywhere. It stained his clothes. It covered the ground. It was even on…that thing...that demon.

This what not what he planned. Dusk never intended for things to go like this. He was trying to preserve life, not be the cause of its end. It was too late now. The blood had been spilt. The monster was ready to go for the kill, and Dusk was helpless to stop it.

Staring at the demon, Dusk felt something odd. He felt anger. He felt outrage. He felt hatred.

This…was hatred. What Dusk was feeling was the desire to see another being's existence. He wanted the monster to leave and never return. Not only that, he wanted it to suffer…Yes, he was going to make this thing suffer.

"You…" Dusk pushed himself to his knees. "I…want to…kill you."

That was a horrifying thought. Dusk was a pacifist. He went out of his way to prevent violence and death. Now, though, all he wanted to do was to cause pain and suffering. The halfa should be disgusted, but, instead, he was eager. He wanted this thing dead.

"I'm going to kill you…I'm going to kill you…" Dusk merely whispered at first. It was like he was dipping his toe in the water, but now he was going in for the cannonball. With all the venom he could muster, the halfa yelled, " **I'm going to kill you!** "

* * *

"Why are you still here?" Gizmo growled over his shoulder at the Royal Flush Gang, "You already handled the robots and the weird cat things are gone, so get out of here."

"He has a point," King noted, "We should be retreating Ace."

"We know that you want to get revenge on the Light, but all the members here are pretty much dead already," Jack spoke up.

"I know. It's not my decision to stay…" Ace gave a sideways glance to Lydia.

"Come on, Lydia! It's not enough with how many earfuls we get from you, now you're going to make us risk our skins for something stupid?" Queen rolled her eyes at the ghost.

"I can't," Lydia shook her head, "I can't just leave when I know I can do something to help save lives. I have enough regrets as it is."

"She has a point, it would be totally lame of us to just skip out," Ten shrugged.

"Oh, you refer to her as she, but I'm called a dude," Queen grumbled to herself.

Ten held his hands up in surrender, "Hey! We're all dudes. It's just the context of the sentence."

"Would you morons shut up!?" Gizmo glared at them before he looked up to Undergrowth, "I'm going to release you in a second. Feel free to go nuts on the island, but don't expect to get far. This island will blow in a few minutes."

"What are my chances of getting to the other bases in time to save the other captives?" Undergrowth questioned down at the hacker.

"Oh, you could get there in time. Good luck getting through the barriers around the place," Gizmo noted.

"Barriers?" Lydia's eyes widened.

"Yep. There's one around all three of the other perimeter bases," Gizmo explained as he rapidly typed onto his keyboard, "There used to be around this base too, but it dropped. I think whoever did it didn't want to tempt me to sacrifice myself for the greater good. Best to take down three bases worth of people instead of us."

"So…Those people are going to die no matter what?" Ace blinked at the boy.

"Yep. We'll be good, though. Just as soon as I shut down the battery," Gizmo grinned. With a few final key strokes he would be ready to shut down the entire base. Just as he was about to hit the final button, Lydia reached out and grabbed his hand, "What the hell are you doing?"

"If you shut this base down, there will be no way to help the others, right?" Lydia questioned.

"Yes, now let go of me!" Gizmo demanded.

"No, you have to save them," Lydia glared at him.

"I already told you, to do that, I would have to reroute the power here," Gizmo sneered at her, "That will cause a big boom, and all of except Undergrowth will die."

"I can turn us intangible," Lydia argued.

"Magic nullifies your intangibility, and guess what type of energy the battery is filled with," Gizmo tried to yank his arm free, "The big green guy can regenerate from any type of damage, but not all of us are so lucky. There's no surviving for us if I reroute the power."

"That's a good enough argument for me!" King quickly began to backpedal.

"Yeah! Come on, team! A tactical retreat seems like the best option!" Jack agreed and quickly followed after his old partner from the GIW.

Ten and Queen were right behind them, "Come on, Ace."

Ace continued to stare at the computer. Her expression was unreadable, and her eyes were unflinching, "Go. We'll catch up."

The remaining members of the group shared a look, "But…"

"Go. Get far enough away from the blast. We'll meet you there so don't come back," Ace stated, "That's an order."

There was another shared look, "Okay…Just hurry…"

Ace nodded as they left, but she still didn't turn to watch them go, "Is it possible for you to show us what to do?"

Gizmo snorted, "How long to show you how to run my equipment and work through highly protected firewalls? About five years. Don't tell me you're going to start nagging me too."

"No. I have no right to lecture anyone," Ace closed her eyes gained a twinge of regret on her face, "I just sympathize with victims of the Light's plans."

Gizmo frowned. He gave Ace a hard look, "Yeah…I bet." The hacker then looked down at where Lydia was holding his wrist, "I sympathize with them too. No one has a choice where they're set in life, but to have someone come in and control your life…tell you who you are and what you're gonna be…It sucks."

Lydia raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not a hero. I never was despite what they wanted…" Gizmo whispered to himself, "I want to be selfish. I want to have fun. I want to live."

"Then live," Ace opened her eyes and looked at him, "That's fine with me. I won't criticize you for running. That's in human nature."

Lydia gained a saddened look. She released Gizmo's wrist and looked away. It was wrong to try and force Gizmo to be what she wanted him to be. No one had the right to demand he sacrifice his life for other people.

"Human nature…" Gizmo scoffed and eyed his keyboard, "It's human nature that made me be a shut-in hacker. It's human nature that made so many people victims of the Light. It's human nature that made your sister betray you. Human nature sucks balls. I think there should be something better than that crap."

With that, Gizmo began to type on his keyboard once more, "Sorry, Undergrowth! You'll have to wait a bit! You'll get free, right after I be a complete moron and save a bunch of ungrateful asswipes!"

Ace's eyes snapped open and towards the hacker, "You'll save them?"

"Well, I can't just let them die and go back to playing video games all day," Gizmo shrugged, "Every time someone died in the game, I'd feel guilty. Besides, I think I've been selfish enough for most of my life. They better build a goddamn statue for this, though, or I will be soooo pissed…"

"Why…why did you change your mind?" Lydia questioned.

"Pretty girls my age were always my weakness," Gizmo gave her a nervous grin, "Just…go, Andromeda, Lydia. Only I need to stay here. No one else needs to die for this."

* * *

David Cain took deep, heavy breaths as he pushed himself to keep running. He was covered in blood. Some of it was from his enemies. Some of it was his own. He was sure the amounts, but guessing from the gashes that covered his arms, he could assume the ooze running down to his hands was his own.

Fatigue and blood made him dizzy. Those assassins proved to be better than he thought. Maybe he was just too mad and in a hurry so he got sloppy. It was probably both actually, but there was no time to think about it. He could barely see straight, but he forced himself to keep moving.

Luckily, his targets didn't bother to cover their tracks. They wanted to get away from this island before anything could go wrong. Cain couldn't blame them. The entire place seemed ready to blow. He could only hope that the other squads didn't mess up.

Hope, however, wasn't something he could rely on with Shiva. The Shadows were not known for mercy, especially for traitors. If he didn't get to her in time…His prediction would come true.

" _Please, just come with me," Cain pleaded, "The Shadows are self-righteous pricks. You might think they'll provide protection, but eventually you'll realize that both you and Cass will want more than assholes telling you what to do every day in the name of bettering the world."_

 _Shiva held a baby Cassandra close to her chest, "Perhaps, but I can't think that far ahead right now. I have to worry about the present. I have to provide with Cassandra and keep her safe from both of our enemies."_

" _We can keep her safe! Just…It will be harder…A lot harder…" Cain gave her a pleading look, "Please, I don't want to see you get killed because you worked for these bastards."_

" _I'm sorry, David, but you'll have to just go without us," Shiva turned away from him, "I know you can't join the Shadows. I understand that, so I won't ask you to stay. So go. I'll take care of Cassandra. You won't have to worry about us."_

"Damn it! I would worry about you no matter what," Cain hissed as he forced himself to run faster, despite the sharp pain in his legs, "Why the hell didn't you just come with me!?"

* * *

Vision felt the change in the air. It was a subtle change, but she felt it. The constant flow of magic had stopped. She didn't know what had happened, but something had changed. The change in the air was the first thing she felt, but the result was what she cared about the most. Ocean Master flinched.

It wasn't a big flinch, but Vision saw it. For a single moment, he stopped his attack. The pressure tearing away the muscle in her arm disappeared. That was all she needed to escape. Pushing the villain away with her foot, Vision gained enough distance to free her arms. No longer trapped, she ducked under the trident and rammed her forehead into the opening on Ocean Master's helmet. This caused the Atlantian to real in pain and gave Vision a few precious seconds to get away.

Using her superior leg strength, Vision pushed off of Ocean Master's body to give her a boost towards the surface. Combining that with her own flight, Vision quickly burst out of the water and into the safety of the air. Not one to fall for a trap twice, Vision made sure to fly all the way to the ceiling to avoid getting grabbed by the water once more.

Looking to her torn and blood soaked arm, Vision knew by the look and lack of feeling from the limbs that they were useless for the rest of the fight. That would have made this harder, if she didn't have a backup plan. Here newest strategy wasn't really battle tested, but if there was ever a time for field testing, it was now.

"Time to see if my plan to stop Greed will pay off in other ways…" Vision noted as she sent a surge of energy through her robes. Her clothes instantly flared with her ectoplasm, dividing into long strands and wrapping around her body. Soon, her body completely covered from the neck down in purple wrap that hugged her like a second skin. The tighter clothing showed curves that she usually reserved for only her fiancé's eyes, but everything was secure enough to avoid incident that would lead to embarrassment.

Ocean Master had swiftly appeared at the surface once more. Rubbing his bleeding lip, he sneered up at the woman, " **A change of clothes? How is dressing like that going to help you**?"

"Personally, I enjoy how I dress. Personal preference, but…" Vision smiled down at him. A strand of her cloth jumped off the rest of the wraps and tied itself around her hair to pull the golden locks into a pony tail, "I can see the benefits of changing up my style every now and then. Let me show."

Controlling the cloth around her arms to compensate for the lack of feeling in the limbs, Vision waved her hands to form eight large balls of ectoplasm to hover behind her. She then flew down towards the Atlantian, the balls of ectoplasm following right after her.

" **Fool**!" Ocean Master screamed as he pointed his trident up at the woman. Four giant sharks made of water followed his command and shot up Vision from four different sides. To Ocean Master's surprise, the woman did nothing to dodge his attacks. She didn't change her course at all, and the balls of energy lagged behind her too far to protect her.

To the Atltantian's further surprise, Vision let the sharks slam into her. The ghost's form was completely covered in the water laced with magic. An explosion of water soon followed, and Ocean Master was met with a small downpour of water. Through the water, though, he was surprised for a third time when Vision appeared in front of him and actually punched him across the face.

The surprise was even furthered when his helmet shattered.

He never got the chance to try to make sense of the situation, though. Vision quickly grabbed him and flung him into the air. Clenching his fist, Ocean Master ordered the water right below Vision to attack. Hundreds of hands made of water quickly formed and grabbed at Vision. They latched onto the woman's body and tried to drag her back to the depths below.

That never happened, though. For some reason, the water exploded and shattered from purple explosions that jumped from the woman's clothes. Ocean Master was so shocked by this, he couldn't prepare as Vision flew up to meet him in the air and ram a fist into his stomach. Just like with his helmet, the armor shattered from Vision's blow and caused the Atlantian to cough in a combination of pain and lack of air.

Deciding to not allow a follow up attack, Ocean Master thrusted his trident at the woman. Just like when she was beneath the water, Vision brought up an arm to protect herself. This time, though, the trident stopped around as soon as it met Vision's clothed arm. Even worse was what followed. Vision grabbed the end of the trident and then shattered it with a show of raw power that Ocean Master knew that she didn't previously have.

It was around then that Ocean Master realized that he might have underestimated Vision's change in wardrobe. Well, it was more the fact that Vision followed up by shattering his arm at the elbow and kneeing him so hard in the stomach that he began to cough up blood. Truth be told, he was too distracted by the pain to decide when he came to the realization.

The secret behind Vision's newly found fighting style and ability was simple. She had developed a way to lace her cloth with her ectoplasm. Originally, her intent was to protect herself from Greed. She had complete and utter control over her ectoplasm. No one could take her from that, even Trigon's forces. So, lacing her clothes with her ectoplasm at a microscopic level would leave give her complete control over her clothes. An added bonus was the way she could control her own body like a puppet if Greed ever tried to control her body directly.

There were other benefits to the change as well. Vision always lacked the physical strength that other S-rank ghosts, most ghosts actually, had. As such, she preferred to fight at a distance, using tricks and distractions, and by using her control over her ectoplasm to her advantage. The reinforced strength of her cloth, however, gave her a boost of power that gave her an edge in close range fighting that she never had before this development.

Vision let out a grin. Her comment about a change in style referred far more to her clothing.

" **Damn you**!" Ocean Master's voice scratched as he screeched at the woman. Using his free hand, he commanded all the water below him to jump up to attack the woman. He was expecting a large pool to heed his command, but instead he got a few puddles that did nothing to damage Vision's reinforced cloth, " **What?!** "

He then realized that the balls of energy that had been following Vision had long since disappeared. A quick glance around the perimeter showed him what happened. Vision had commanded the balls of ectoplasm to create dozens of holes around the edges of the base, draining the pool and leaving him without his greatest weapon.

Vision grabbed his arm and held him in place, "I never stop thinking ahead, Ocean Master. You should have kept an eye on your surroundings. I know I did." With that said, Vision's cloth reached up and began to completely wrap around her face, covering everything but her mouth.

A glowing to the side caused Ocean Master to look to see that the balls of energy had combined into one large orb about the size of a truck…a truck that was heading at them.

"By the way, my own attacks can't hurt me like this," With that, the cloth wrapped over Vision's mouth, leaving her completely covered in her enhanced cloth. Ocean Master desperately tried to get away, but his efforts were in vain. Vision didn't allow him to move as the giant sphere of ectoplasm smashed into them and covered the base in a massive explosion.

* * *

Superboy had been in a lot of crazy fights in his relatively short existence. Those fights ranged from large behemoths to people that controlled reality itself. This instance took the cake though. He was trying to rescue a thousand year old demon being held by a Black Lantern ex-jailer and a French, rubber woman assassin all the while being protected by a dimension controlling ghost that was safely sitting half way around the world. If Superboy actually said that sentence out loud, he was sure that he would burst out laughing.

This was no laughing matter, though. As soon as Superboy jumped to grab Etrigan, Walker moved to get in his way. Poindexter created a wall between them to stop the jailer, but it only stopped the ghost for a second. With a roar, Walker pushed through the wall and caused the energy to break apart like bricks. He did this just in time to grab Superboy's legs right before he managed to get to Etrigan. The ghost then flung the clone away so he could handle the other heroes in the room.

Just as Superboy left Walker's hand, the steel below suddenly jumped up and completely wrapped itself around his entire body. M'gann held her hand out towards the ghost. Her eyes glowed a bright green as she used her telekinesis to control the steel so that it was crushing the ex-jailer. Her open palm slowly began to close in her attempt to hold Walker.

A sucker punch from Madame Rogue sent the Martian tumbling to the ground and allowed the metal to fall to the ground away from Walker. Rogue was about to follow up on her attack to make sure Miss Martian didn't get up, when she was interrupted by Beast Boy once more. In the form of a rhino, he smashed into the assassin, sending her flying away. As she landed, Poindexter created a cage around the assassin to keep her from moving.

Walker didn't let the cage stay, though. He blasted the cage holding the woman away with his ring hand. With his fake hand, Walker grabbed out to Beast Boy. The energy hand blasted off of his arm and grew to the size of the rhino. It grabbed onto the young hero and held him in place. Beast Boy then tried to change his shape to escape, but that didn't matter. From a mouse to an elephant, the hand changed its size and continued to hold the boy in place.

"RAW!" Superboy jumped onto Walker's back and tried to drag the ghost down. Walker just reached back with his free hand, grabbed Superboy, and threw him away again.

After few skips, Superboy landed on his back and let out a groan. With his shirt torn, the light bruises around his torso was open for the world to see. It seems that he found something besides Kryptonite and magic that could hurt him. He'd have to warn Superman about the Black Lantern rings.

Pushing himself back up, Superboy surveyed the situation. Luckily, the steam of energy seemed to stop, so Etrigan had stopped yelling in pain. That meant they were no longer on a time limit, and Poindexter's assistance was helping them, but they still hadn't managed to get Etrigan free.

"Poindexter! This isn't working!" Superboy shouted.

" _I know. I'm not as strong as Master Scribe was, and I'm being pressed trying to push through the interference,"_ Poindexter noted, " _But don't worry. I was just helping until the real help arrived."_

"Real help? You said that before. What real help are you talking about?"

Just as Superboy said that, a small blast of ectoplasm blazed through the wall behind Superboy. The green shooting star sailed by Superboy and flew to the center of the room. It then froze in mid-air and spread ectoplasm all across the area.

" _Hehehehehe! Time for some fun!"_ Light laughter jumped out of the shining object as green smoke spread across the room and began to take the shape of what appeared to be a circus ring.

" _I was talking about this. The real power of the Mirror of Memories."_

* * *

Phantom rushed towards Klarion. His fist swung forward and rammed into Klarion's head before the Lord of Chaos could react to it. His glowing white fist completely obliterated the magic user's head. Even without a head, though, the body continued to move. Giant claws of magic burst from Klarion's fingers. He then swung the claws wildly at the halfa. None of the attacks did any damage, though. Phantom merely raised his arms and blocked the claws. Sparks of energy flared each time Klarion's magical claws met Phantom's green and white ectoplasm.

In a burst of red, Klarion's head reformed. His jaw quickly unhinged itself and extended. Massive fangs burst from his mouth as the magic user tried to literally bite the ghost's head off. Before Klarion could do that, though, Jinx popped up behind Klarion. She shoved a fist of combined energy through her enemy's chest. Klarion arched in pain, and Jinx used this to her advantage.

Grabbing onto the Lord of Chaos's head, she flipped him over so that she was straddling his back. Jinx then surged her bad luck magic into Klarion's chest. The combination of pink and white energy spread out all around Klarion's body and eventually began to burst out at various points across his body, creating several black openings that let black smoke escape from the male magic user.

As Jinx flipped off of him, Klarion tried to fix his body. Phantom didn't allow him to do that, though. Placing a hand on Klarion's head, Phantom flash froze the Lord of Chaos. Now only able to move his eyes, Klarion looked around frantically and then shattered the ice holding him. His body then extended. His limbs and torso all grew longer so that he looked like a deformed stick figure. Dark tentacles jumped out of his back as Klarion hissed at them.

Jinx responded by completely destroying Klarion in a giant blast of energy.

Klarion's distorted form quickly reformed, " **Ha! That won't—"**

Phantom responded by completely destroying Klarion in a giant blast of energy.

Klarion reformed again, " **Quit interrupting—** "

This time, both Phantom and Jinx destroyed Klarion in a blaze of their combined energy.

" **Stop it!** " Klarion let out a roar as his body reformed in its natural state. He was seething so badly that actual steam was floating off of his form, " **I'll ki** ll you…What?"

Klarion's form began to flicker a bit. It reminded his enemies of television channel struggling to keep its signal.

"Looks Teekl is done for," Jinx smirked at the Lord of Chaos. She walked up to the other magical user and kicked him back. He was sent rolling backwards and then landed face down on the floor. As he tried to push himself up, Phantom strode up in front of Jinx and signaled for her to stay back.

"Gah…No…" Klarion's face went purple as he began to scream out like a child, "No! I refuse to lose like this!"

" **You don't have a choice in the matter, Witch Boy,** " Phantom took a deep breath and then opened his mouth for his strongest attack, the Ghostly Wail.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**

* * *

Nyx's shadows twirled around her like a concentrated hurricane. Spirit's squad threw almost everything they had at the spinning shadows, but they had yet to create a gap for them to enter. Of course, it would help if they weren't completely exhausted right now, but they had fought through fatigue in many of their past fights. What made matters really worse was that Nyx seemed to be out of time. Cracks appeared around her body, allowing even more magic to escape.

Raven seemed to have enough of not getting any results. Her anger flared into her powers. She flooded all her remaining energy into one attack. With a shout of her signature spell, she created a large raven made of magic to ram itself into the shadow tornado. At first, it struggled against the shield, but after a few moments, it forced its way pass the mixture of magic and ectoplasm and spread its wings to create and opening.

Youngblood decided to follow Raven's example for an all-out attack. Pointing both his hook and his peg leg towards the opening, he transformed the prosthetics into weapons and then combined them. He pointed the massive cannon at the girl and opened fire. A giant ectoplasmic cannon ball shot through the opening. Nyx's energy acted on its own, though, and created a small sphere around the girl to protect her from the damage.

In a giant explosion, the tornado around Nyx was suddenly dispersed. As the ectoplasm rained down, the sphere containing Nyx began to crack from the force of the blast. Cyborg quickly took advantage of this moment of weakness. Aiming his sonic cannon up, he sent one last wave of energy towards Nyx that he was sure would completely drain his weaponry's energy supply. It was worth it, though, because when the wave of blue energy made contact with the sphere, it instantly shattered, leaving Nyx open for the final blow.

"Thanks, Cy!" Spirit shouted as she rushed into her friend. Armed with her Spectral Claws, she moved in to swing her arms around Nyx's front and cut the cords behind her. Unfortunately, this didn't work. What was worse, was that she didn't even know that it wasn't going to work. Nyx no longer had any conscious intent in this fight, so Spirit couldn't use her Premonition to predict her next move. It was only her quick reflexes that saved her from getting completely caught.

Four massive paws made of shadow jumped out from Nyx. They all raced towards their four targets. Raven, Youngblood, and Cyborg were all caught and smashed against the walls one final time. Spirit, however, managed to avoid most of it. Right before the paw smashed into her, she ducked down. Although not caught in the initial blow, the leg swung down to try to catch Spirit and a secondary blow.

With a large shout, Spirit brought her arms up to block the blow. She pushed against the paw as it swung downward. Despite being pushed downward, Spirit did not let up. The halfa girl continued to shove her claws forward until they finally managed to cut through the paw.

Spirit then grinned. She now had a free path to Nyx. Just as she was about to rush up and finish the job, she realized that she had been pushed down all the way to the ground. The acidic shadow responded to her presence. It reached up and tried to grab at her. Spirit tried to dodge, but she only managed to move her left leg out of the way.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Spirit screamed in torment as the acidic shadow waste that had fallen off of Nyx instantly burned through her shoe and began to eat away at the skin of her foot. The pain only intensified as the shadow slowly began to crawl its way up her leg. Gritting her teeth in pain, Spirit fought through the pain and tried to pull her right leg free. To her dismay, the acidic shadow refused to give. She was trapped.

Fear surging through her body, she desperately looked around for help. All the members of her squad were now trapped and were being crushed. Mary and Freddy had no powers and lacked any fighting abilities that would help in this situation without getting them killed. Every other magic user in the area was incapacitated. That meant that she was completely on her own with this.

With a silent scream, Nyx's eyes rolled back into her eyes. Ooze dripped steadily from every hole that existed on her face. Her body was now cracked all over and looked ready to shatter. Magic pulsed off of her in one final wave. If Spirit didn't do something right now, it would be the end of everyone.

Tears running down her face, Spirit looked down at her trapped leg once more. The shadows had managed to creep up her leg and was almost to her knee. Her entire lower leg felt like the nerves of her skin were being slowly pealed apart. There was no way to stop the shadows, and she couldn't move as long as she was being held down. With grim look of determination, Spirit activated her Spectral Claws and swung down at the shadows that were now almost to her knee.

It was a clean cut.

* * *

Hatred was a strange thing. Even though people often used the word to express feelings of dislike. That was a gross understatement. Hate was something entirely different other emotions. It is the desire for something to disappear, to stop existing. Often times, that means they would want that thing dead.

Truth be told, most people go their entire lives without experiencing true hatred. They might think they do, but they don't. Hatred was on a whole other plane. It was the point where madness seemed logical, where hope seemed laughable, and where long held beliefs are thrown away without a second thought.

Until today, Dusk had never been close to being at that point. Sure, his battle instincts got the better of him a few times, but it was never like this. In the span of less than a full twenty-four hours, he experienced two of the worst things that could be seen. The first was the murder of Aquaman's only son. The second thing was watching his dog get murdered.

What happened next could not be considered snapping. It was more like an explosion ripping a door off. With a roar befitting an unintelligent beast, Dusk formed his Burst Gauntlets once more. Not only that, actually. His energy surge continued around his entire body, outfitting with a green armor with various slits along the metal. Every part of his body was covered with the Burst Armor except for his hate filled neon green eyes.

In a blaze of ectoplasm, Dusk rocketed himself at Teekl. He rammed into the beast and shot out a large burst of energy that sent the demon cat flying into the far wall. Ignoring the downed Cujo, Dusk spread out ectoplasm from his boots and shot towards his foe once more, this time accompanied by a small boom.

The halfa smashed into the cat again so hard that the entire wall began to break and cry. Not letting the cat have a chance to recover, he then grabbed the large beast by its neck and began to repeatedly punch the cat in the head. Each blow was made all the more powerful by the large bursts of ectoplasm coming out of the Gauntlets.

Dusk repeated this action dozens of times in a blind rage. His vision was completely red. The blood in his veins was heated in an almost unbearable way, pushing him on instinctively to this assault. Through the haze, Dusk could heat whispers in his ear. He recognized the voice. It was his father, Ra's Al Ghul. His words were simple. Kill. Destroy. Revenge. Hate.

In any other circumstance, Dusk would be horrified by this turn. Instincts he never knew he had were egging him on to kill Teekl. This wasn't an outside source. It came from the inside, his very DNA, and he delighted in it.

Defiant against Dusk's assault, Teekl desperately scratched and bit at her attacker. All of her attacks scratched the metal of his armor but failed to do any real damage. Dusk didn't slow down his attacks at all. In fact, he sped up his punches to the point that the wall behind Teekl collapsed.

No longer able to trap his enemy, Dusk hugged the cat close. He then flipped over and sandwiched the demon to the ground with a large burst of energy. The halfa then brought the cat back up and tossed her into the air. After throwing it above his head, he then flew up and kneed the animal so hard that it rocketed up to the ceiling and crashed into it so hard that it stuck into the wall.

With another large burst and boom, Dusk rushed up and rammed his shoulder into the monster. He then dragged it out of the ceiling, grabbed it by the tail, and began to spin. Using his Burst Armor to enhance his speed, Dusk spun so fast that he was only a blur. After nearly a hundred spins, he then flew down towards the ground and began to rapidly smack the demon against the floor.

Eventually, he stopped throwing the cat around and mounted the beast's underside to begin choking it. He then moved to its jaw and began to rip it open to reveal its blood covered fangs. Hatred once more surged through him as he continued to tear the jaw open while using the burst function of his armor to pour ectoplasm into its eyes and opened mouth. Teekl began to scream, much to the halfa's pleasure.

"Damn!" Ravager noted as she traded blows with Black Bat, "When that boy snaps, he really snaps! I love it!"

Black Bat was silent, refusing to look at the beast that had once been a respectable warrior.

"Stop torturing it, Sir Dusk!" Fright Knight ordered as he and Deathstroke pushed at each other with their blades, "Just end it!"

Dusk just ignored the Fright Knight and trying to tear Teekl's jaw off.

"Damn it!" Fright Knight kicked Deathstroke away. He then raised Soul Shredder above his head and flung the blade with as much force as he could with his hands still bound together at the beast.

Unlike other weapons, Soul Shredder was a blade of unparalleled sharpness and strength. Empowered by both Pariah Dark and the Fright Knight, it was meant to cut through everything, even fears. As such, it was able to pass through most shield, especially natural conflicting energies like magic. With a sharp ringing noise, it passed through Teekl's neck, ending its cries.

Seeing the blade, Dusk moved on instinct. His blood and internal voice was demanding that he not let someone steal this from him. As such, he ripped the blade embedded in the cat's neck from its fleshy prison and then brought it above his head. With one last monstrous roar, he stabbed the blade down towards Teekl's horror struck and pain filled face. He then impaled the monster into its open mouth, through its brain, and down into the floor below.

Breathing heavily, Dusk watched as Teekl's body began to melt. It first became a black ink. Then, the ooze began to flow. The form which had once looked like a cat was now just a mess as black smoke rose from the corpse and the ink disappeared into nothingness. When nothing was left, Dusk dismissed his armor and sunk to his knees.

Staring at the sword, the halfa allowed himself to finally calm down. As the fog in his mind fade and his instincts stopped their whispers, realization and horror struck him.

Dusk had just committed his first kill.

* * *

Ace frowned at Gizmo, "I don't think it would be fair to just let you sacrifice yourself alone."

"Well, if there's one thing that's unfair, it's life," Gizmo laughed bitterly.

"That…that's true…" Ace looked down in despair.

"Hey, tattoo ghost, just get her out of here," Gizmo ordered, "If you hurry, you'll just make it out of range."

Lydia looked to the girl, "Ace?"

Ace continued to look at Gizmo, "You know, we're a lot alike. Both of us running from our pasts, doing nothing that caused a real impact, all while acting like we're more important than we are. Perhaps I should just stay here and let the explosion kill me."

"No real importance?" Gizmo snorted, "You kidding me? You could change the entire layout of the world's politics if stopped pretending to be something you're not."

"She would never allow that," Ace argued.

"Then fight against your sister directly instead of going in such a roundabout way," Gizmo suggested.

"No…I can't…" Ace looked down at her feet, "There's no point. I'd just die anyway no matter what. It might as well be here."

"What?" Gizmo blinked at her.

"I…I have brain cancer," Ace trembled as tiny tear fell from her eyes, "It developed because of the experiments the Light did on me to enhance my powers. I only have a few years left to live anyway. And they will be painful. Dying instantly from an explosion…That sounds a lot better than slowly losing control over my body and rotting away like an unwanted vegetable."

"So that's why you upped up your movements this last year…" Gizmo realized. He turned to Lydia, "Did you know that?"

"Yes. I saw the pain in her eyes the moment I met her. Physically and mentally," Lydia sighed, "I myself have nothing to live for. I thought perhaps I could do some good in her life, but…I failed."

"No, you didn't," Ace smiled at Lydia as she took the ghost's hand into hers, "You were good to me, a good friend, like the sister I always wanted."

"I'm glad," Lydia smiled at the younger girl, "Then I guess the two of us should stay then. Two people with no reason to live going out in a blaze of glory. It sounds almost poetic."

"Or really, really stupid," Gizmo suggested.

"Let's go with poetic," Ace slipped her free hand over one of Gizmo's typing fingers, "And romantic."

Gizmo scoffed, "Geeze, all I needed to get a girl to notice me was kill myself in a display of heroics I swore I would never do. The irony is so bitter that I may cry."

"WAAH! This is so sad!" Undergrowth bellowed above them.

"Unlike him who is actually crying," Gizmo grumbled under his breath.

"I should help you, but how? HOW!?" Undergrowth wailed.

"There's literally nothing you can do."

"Then I shall miss you when you are gone, meat bags! Parting is such sweet sorrow! WAAAAAAH!"

"Woooow! Dude, that is so harshing my mellow!" Ten's voice sounded out from behind them.

Ace's neck snapped back so fast that a loud pop could be heard, "What are you guys doing here?!"

"We couldn't leave without you, Ace," Queen stated, "I mean, we've spent three years with you. We can't just abandon you like that."

"Well, I tried," King smacked Jack over the back of the head, "OW! I'm just saying."

"Don't ruin the moment."

"Whelp. I guess all of us are going to die…" Gizmo smashed a finger against the enter key and leaned back in his chair, "And here I was hoping someone would get away to write a book about how awesome I was in my last moments. Oh well."

"Wait! Isn't there some way to get them out?" Ace looked to Lydia as the alarms began to blare loudly across the base. Every electrical outlet began to spark and shake.

"My tattoos couldn't move us all out fast enough," Lydia gained a pained look, "I'm sorry."

"But…But…" Ace felt tears run down her face as she looked back and forth among the few friends she had in this world.

"It's okay, Ace! The Royal Flush Gang sticks together!" Ten gave her a heads up.

"Besides, it's not like we have anywhere to go if you die. We'll all be hunted down," Smack! "OW!"

"Don't ruin the moment."

"No…No, it was one thing if it was just me and these two…You guys could live long fulfilling lives…" Ace's form began to tremble as her eyes glowed brightly.

"Ace?"

"No…No…NO!" Telekenetic energy burst out of Ace just as the base began to explode from the buildup of energy. Her powers and the magical backlash met in a giant blaze which consumed everyone in the building.

It was then that the entire building exploded. Everything, even the metal, was burned away by the magical energy and flames. In an instant, an entire portion of the island was consumed in fire and smoke leaving no trace of anything that had once before existed, even Undergrowth.

* * *

Cain heard the helicopter before he saw. Rushing up the hill, he saw his targets getting ready to take off. The helicopter wasn't off the ground yet, though, so he still had a chance. He just had to hurry.

Taking out his pistols, he tried to shoot out the blades of the vehicle. The clicks and lack of bullets that followed revealed that he was out of bullets. He must have lost count during the fight. Damn it, he wasn't focusing enough. He had to keep his head in the game.

With a roar of frustration, David flung his useless guns away and sprinted towards the helicopter. He gripped the door and ripped it open. His reward was a kick to the face. Cain did not let that stop him, though. He grabbed the follow up kick and shoved his attacker, Cheshire, away. He then tried to get into the helicopter but was stopped by Sportsmaster.

Exhausted, Cain could do nothing to stop the rapid punches to the face. Stars danced in front of his eyes and his stomach turned. By the time Cain pulled himself together, he was lying on his stomach outside the helicopter. Forcing himself to his hands and knees, Cain looked up to see Talia looking outside the helicopter.

"I find your determination admirable," Talia noted as she pointed a gun at his head as the helicopter rose from the earth, "If only you used that determination for the Shadows. You could have done great work."

"Work for you people?" David grabbed a knife he had hidden in his boot, "I'd rather die."

Just as Talia was about to shoot David, he flicked the knife at the woman, making her stop her shot to dodge the knife. With her distracted, Cain lunged himself forward and jumped up to desperately grab the edge of the helicopter. Truth be told, he really didn't have a plan. There was no way for him to get back Shiva at this point, but he wasn't using logic. He was just a wild man trying to get his wife back.

Unfortunately, he couldn't hold onto the helicopter. Maybe it was the blood on his hands. Maybe it was the fatigue catching hold on him. No matter what, though, the metal slipped through his fingers, and he fell painfully onto his back.

As quickly as his bruised body would allow him, Cain pushed himself back up to his feet one final time. He then limped after the helicopter futilely. Cain followed the airborne vehicle until he reached a cliff dropping down into the water. With no ground left to go over and no weapons to help him, David collapsed to his knees and watched as the helicopter flew off into the horizon. His focus on the helicopter was so great the he even ignored the giant explosion that sounded off from the distance.

"Shiva…" Cain punched the ground, "Shiva! I'll find you! I swear!"

* * *

 _Ocean Master groaned as he pushed himself up to his knees. He began to cough up blood once more into his unbroken arm. A quick look at his body showed him that he was in terrible shape. All of his armor had been destroyed in the blast. He was completely covered in burns, and his legs didn't seem to be in any shape worthy of walking._

 _Looking around him, Ocean Master saw that the explosion had knocked him out of the now burning base. He knelt in a smoking crater a few skips away from his former base. His eyes desperately looked around for his foe. A flash of purple from the rising smoke caught his attention. With a roar of rage, Ocean Master thrusted his good arm to the figure._

 _Water materialized in front of him, formed a large trident, and flew towards Vision. The water made it to the woman, but it passed through her just like it did with the smoke. Before he could question what happened, someone grabbed his extend arm and shattered it just like the other arm._

 _Screaming in agony, Ocean Master looked to see who had done the deed, only to see Vision lacking any of her face wrapping, "_ _ **But h**_ _ow?"_

 _Vision noticed the change in his voice. It appeared that the power up he had before was gone. She then inclined her head to the side to point at the image of her that floated away. The hologram disappeared and revealed a green bird had been projecting the image to distract Ocean Master, "An old classic. Never fails."_

 _Ocean Master desperately weighed his options. He was completely defenseless at this point. There was no way to fight against this woman, "Please, don't kill me."_

" _Begging?" Vision raised an eyebrow, "You'd resort to that so fast?"_

" _I just wanted what was rightfully mine! How would you feel if someone came in and stole your place in leading the ghosts!?" Ocean Master tried to relate his situation to hers._

" _I would be grateful," Vision stated with calm look upon her face, "Leading others is a responsibility I often grow tired of, but I do it because the people I love rely on me."_

" _Then you don't understand! I am destined to be king! It is my right! No one else deserves it, especially that half-breed!" Ocean Master screamed._

" _Funny, you sound like my father," Vision frowned at him, "Do you know what I did to him? Locked him away and hid the key."_

 _Ocean Master gained a bit of hope, "So you'll let me live?"_

" _That's the difference between him and you. I loved my father. For you, I only feel disgust," Vision's eyes stared hatefully at him._

" _Please! Mercy! Forgiveness! You ghosts are big on that that, right?!" Ocean Master pleaded._

" _Do I look like Danny Phantom to you?" Vision scoffed at him._

" _No! No! Please!" Ocean Master began to cry._

 _Vision placed a hand in front of his face. Energy danced around hers causing shadows to creep across face, "If you come back as a ghost, I'll kill you again."_

 _A blast of purple energy blasted off of Vision's hand. It completely consumed Ocean Master's unprotected head. The searing ectoplasm erased everything in its path. When the energy finally died down, Vision moved her smoking hand away to watch Ocean Master's headless corpse tumble back into an unmoving heap._

 _With that done, Vision allowed her clothes to return to normal. She had heard an even larger explosion in the distance not too long ago. People were still in trouble. She had to go help them._

 _At least, that's what Vision thought before she collapsed into the dirt. Fatigue caught up to her, and her arms seemed to regain enough feeling for them to throb painfully. Closing her eyes, Vision mumbled to herself, "I'll help them…after a short nap…"_

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Walker let out a grunt as he swiped at the clowns that were dancing around him. They all either danced around his arms or disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Zhey aren't illusions!" Madame Rogue shouted as a lion and his tamer attacked her. The bruises on her side proved that this wasn't just some normal trick.

" _Illusion is such a strange word. After all, we all believe what we see as long as we think it is real,"_ The chuckling voice from the mirror noted.

"What the hell is going on?!" Superboy shouted through all the chaos. He was surprised when green walls of ectoplasm appeared in front of him creating a clear path towards Entrigan.

" _No time! The mirror doesn't have enough reason to remain active for long! Get Entrigan and retreat now!"_ Poindexter exclaimed.

"Gah! Whatever!" Superboy shook his head clear and did as he was told. One final massive jump allowed him to finally get to Etrigan. The clone quickly tore the metal holding the demon and held the demon as he dropped to the ground, "Beast Boy, get M'gann and follow me!"

"On it!" Beast Boy quickly turned into an elephant and charged through the chaos to get towards his adopted sister. He then moved towards Superboy. To the clone's surprise, Beast Boy grabbed both Superboy and Etrigan with his trunk and continued to charge forward towards the wall of the base. With a loud roar from its trunk, he then busted through the wall and continued out away from the chaos.

" _Yes! We did it, Jester!"_ Poindexter smiled at the hand mirror.

" _Hehehehe…I really don't know what's going on, but I do know that an enemy of a Black Lantern is my friend,"_ The mirror flickered toward Poindexter's window, " _You remind a lot of the Ghost Writer. Who are you?"_

" _Come to my location and I'll inform you of what happened in your absence."_

" _Alright! Sounds fun!"_ The mirror flickered towards Walker, " _Sorry, buddy, but I'll have to play with you later. I'm almost out of energy. Ciao!"_

Suddenly, the entire room was covered in a bright light. Both Walker and Rogue were forced to cover their eyes. When the light finally died down and they managed to get their vision back to normal, everything strange in the base was gone. They were alone.

"What zhe hell was zhat?" Madame Rogue questioned.

"I don't know," Walker gave a deep frown, "But I doubt Master Nekron will like it."

"Zhould we go after zhe children?" Madame Rouge asked her follow up question.

"No…No, at this point it would draw too much attention," Walker shook his head, "The halfas might come running if we're out in the open, and if I see them, I won't be able to hold back. And I've seen what Master Nekron does to people who disobey his orders to leave the halfas alone. Best not to walk into temptation."

"But zhey will now know zhat zhe Black Lanterns were behind zhis," Madame Rogue noted.

"That would have happened no matter what," Walker noted, "Sure, they'll be more active and alert to our activities, but that's fine. Soon, they'll have other problems to deal with. They can't focus on us with Trigon coming into play."

"And zhat is when what you did to Entrigan will come into play?"

Walker gave her a wide grin, "Indeed."

* * *

 _ **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_

 _Klarion screamed as the physical manifestation of death's wail slammed into him. It slowly peeled away every fiber holding his body together. For the first time in a long time, Klarion felt pain as half of his face was ripped away and limbs were dissolved into putty. His already deathly thin frame became that of a skeleton as Phantom's attacked peeled his apart piece by piece._

 _Then, the Ghostly Wail stopped. Klarion would have sighed in relief if the pain still wasn't so great. He hissed out in hopes of releasing the pain, but that only made it worse, "You…bastard…"_

" _ **That…**_ _" Phantom walked forward until he was right in front of Klarion, "_ _ **Was for Nyx and Pandora. And this…**_ " _Phantom kicked Klarion so that he was lying painfully on his back,_ " _ **Is for almost killing Zatanna."**_

" _What for everyone else…" Jinx stepped up beside the ghost. She stomped a foot on Klarion's face and smirked, "As a representative of the Light, I officially give you your pink slip. You're fired."_

" _So everyone's a traitor?!" Klarion's form continued to flicker. With Teekl gone, he couldn't continue to exist in this plane of existence, "Damn you! Damn them! Damn everyone! When I get back, I'm going to destroy everything! It will be total chaos!"_

" _ **You already tried that and failed, Klarion**_ _," Phantom noted, "_ _ **A few hundred years won't make any difference. You're a failure. That will never change**_ _."_

" _No…Nonononono!" Klarion began to cry, "I don't wanna go! I don't wanna fail! There's so much more fun to be had!"_

" _Well, you're going to miss out, Witch Boy," Jinx noted as she sent a burst of energy out of her foot, obliterating Klarion's body one final time. This time, there was no coming back for him._

 _With that done, Jinx turned back to Phantom to say something. She never got the chance because Phantom's energy suddenly gave out and he collapsed forward in exhaustion. She caught him and stopped him from hitting the ground._

" _Ah…What a rush..." Phantom blinked, "I…I don't…What was that? What happened?"_

 _Jinx frowned, "I was hoping you could tell me."_

* * *

Spirit ignored the burns she received as she pushed through the magic surrounding Nyx. Nothing compared to the pain the shadows had caused her leg, and she wasn't going to let anything else stop her. Letting out shouts and warrior cries to give her strength, Spirit continued to push herself forward until she was face to face with Nyx.

Looking into Nyx's agonized featured one last time, Spirit swung her Spectral Claws around Nyx and cut through the strings reaching out of Nyx's back. The effect was immediately. All the backed up energy burst from her back. Spirit hugged Nyx close to keep her from getting hurt further. Once all the energy poured out of the ghost, the room instantly became quiet.

The paws holding the rest of Spirit's squad down disappeared. All of the acidic shadows disappeared into nothingness. The cracks covering Nyx's frame slowly began to close and heal as the Lasso of Truth loosened and fell lifelessly to the floor. Nyx went limp, but Spirit held her close to keep her from falling.

"Gah…D-Dani?" Nyx blinked open her normal red eyes as her chin rested against Spirit's shoulder. She raised a shaky hand to wipe all the blood and tears that soaked her face.

"Shh…I'm here, Nyx. You're safe," Spirit closed her eyes as she gently whispered in her friend's ear.

Nyx let out a small smile as her vision cleared, "You saved me…Idiot. I told you to kill me…"

"Hey, I managed to save you without anyone dying," Spirit argued calmly, "I call that a win."

"I guess, but…" Nyx's eyes went down, "Oh my God…"

The room went silent. Everyone in the room stared at the duo with shocked expressions and looks of horror. Nyx shared the same look as her eyes went to where everyone else was looking.

Spirit shushed the other girl again, "It's okay. Don't mention it."

"B-but D-Dani," Tears began to flow down Nyx's face once more. "Your leg…"

What once could be described as a full leg could now only be called a stump. Now cut right at the knee, Spirit's lower right leg was now gone. The injury had been burned closed instantly by Spirit's searing Spectral Claws. What was left of the missing limb had long since been dissolved by the acidic shadows. Any possible chance of getting the leg back had been destroyed the moment she had amputated her own leg.

"It's okay. I've got two of those," Spirit hugged Nyx tightly and let out a satisfied hum, "I've only got one of you."

Trembling, Nyx returned the hug. She dug her face into Spirit's shoulder and began to sob loudly, "D-Dani…T-thank you…"

Spirit grinned as her own tears began to fall, "Don't mention it."

* * *

"Whelp, that's it for us," Deathstroke sheathed his sword, "Mission accomplished. Time to leave."

"What about the traitor?" Ravage asked as she flipped away from Black Bat.

"No bounty on her head yet. No orders to bring her in. No point in putting any effort into her yet. At least until payment if confirmed," Deathstroke noted.

"Gah! Fine!" Ravager glared at Black Bat, "We'll finish this later, Cass."

Black Bat ignored her. Instead, she focused her eyes on the form of Dusk.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Ravager hissed. Shrugging off her father's grip on her shoulder, she addressed the other girl once more, "You'll pay for betraying us! Betraying me! I thought we were friends!"

"Friends?" Black Bat pulled off her mask and gave Ravager a sad look, "If that was true, then you know why I did what I did. Don't get mad at me just because you're too scared to rebel against your father."

Ravager froze at those words.

"Ravager! We're leaving! Now!" Deathstroke ordered.

Ravager flinched, "Yes, sir."

As they disappeared back into the shadows, Black Bat looked to the Fright Knight, "What do we do now?"

"Our mission is done as well. Let's collect our wounded and head back up," Fright Knight ordered as he began his approach to Dusk.

As for the halfa he was approaching, Dusk looked completely terrible. His skin was paler than Fright Knight had ever seen, even compared to right after he was freed from the Ghoul Project. The poor boy looked like he was about to vomit and cry, and he seemed to be doing everything he could to hold them back.

"Dusk…Joel…" Fright Knight placed a hand on the halfa's shoulders, "I know that you feel shocked and disgusted, but now's not the time for this. There is still work to be done. Cujo—"

"Cujo!" Dusk immediately jumped up and ran to the downed dog.

No longer able to hold his battle form, Cujo had shrunk down to his puppy form. This made all of his wounds look that much more terrible. Especially his neck, which without most of the outer flesh, was a green pulsing blob of blood.

"Oh, Cujo," Dusk whispered as he gently reached out to stroke the dog's head. It was a meager attempt to comfort the suffering canine.

Cujo just whimpered at him. His sharp red eyes looked up to Dusk pleading. For a second, Dusk wondered what the dog wanted. The halfa had seen hundreds of similar looks meant for food, drink, and attention. This look, though, was different. It was like…

Then, the answer hit Dusk. A silent message passed between dog and master, 'Take me to them. My two other masters. I want to see them one more time.'

"Yes!" Dusk fought down a sob as he picked up Cujo as carefully as he could, "Yes! I'll take you to them!"

The halfa then flew off at rapid speeds to find the other hybrids. As he did this, Fright Knight walked over to Soul Shredder. Pulling the blade out from the ground, he stared at it for a second and then to the direction where Dusk had left. With a nod, he sheathed the blade and turned to the still unconscious Constantine. It would be his job to carry of the exorcist back to the surface.

* * *

Poindexter let out a sigh as he watched all the basses slowly empty out through his windows. His work was done. He had limited the number of deaths but couldn't save anyone. That was a fact of life, one that made him incredibly sad.

"It's finally over," Harriet's shoulders slumped in relief as she looked across the windows.

"Thank God," Mal wiped the sweat from his brow, "I was worried there for a while. Things looked bleak. Who would have thought that a bunch of bad guys would save the day?"

"You'd be surprised," Poindexter dismissed the windows with a wave of his hand, "They might seem selfish, but they are just victims of circumstance that took extremes too far. But they redeemed themselves this day."

"At the cost of their lives," Harriet frowned.

"No. They will return. I am certain of that," Poindexter noted as he held up his hand. A blaze of green appeared before his palm and revealed the Mirror of Memories, "But only when the time is right."

"You mean…with that mirror?" Mal questioned.

"No," Poindexter shook his head as placed the mirror in his pocket, "Not like that. They still live. They're just lost, and one day they will find their way back, but only on the blackest night."

"What does that mean?" Harriet questioned.

"Nothing," Poindexter shrugged as he reached into his coat and pulled out a book, "I will be keeping this mirror. Colossus was a good choice to guard it, but now it needs to be with someone that can use it correctly. Tell that to Vision when she asks. Don't worry, though. I won't leave you without compensation."

Mal blinked as Poindexter handed him the book, "Compensation?"

"Yes. It's a fair trade I believe," Poindexter turned and began to walk away, "Besides, I think that book is best suited for you, Hornblower."

Mal couldn't help but blink again. He examined the book in his hands for a moment. It was completely bland. There were not pictures or patterns on the cover. The only thing on the front was the title of the book.

"Gabriel's Horn?"

* * *

Robin gently laid Troia on the ground. The exhausted Amazon had long since fallen into blissful unconsciousness. A quick glance around the open field showed that all the other Amazons were in similar situations. Luckily, they managed to guide them to the extraction zone. Now, it was just a waiting game.

"Excuse me," La'gaan stated as he tiptoed over some of the sleeping Amazons. Queen Mera hung from his arms until he found a soft piece of land to place the queen down.

"So your team made it too?" Robin glanced to see the other members of La'gaan's team lead the exhausted Atlantians. Unlike La'gaan, they didn't seem to take a lot of care where they went. Most of them dropped to the ground as soon as Artemis told them that this was their destination.

"Yes, barely," La'gaan followed Robin's eyes to see Red Arrow and Kid Flash helping the Atlantian members of Young Justice along, "We made it out by the skin of our gills."

"Err…Okay. I think I get what you mean," Robin shrugged, "Us too. The entire base almost blew up. We have no idea what stopped it."

La'gaan nodded and pointed to a large cloud of smoke drifting up from the horizon, "I do not think one base was so lucky."

"That was the Royal Flush Gang's location…" Rocket noted as she landed down next to the boys. She dropped the kinetic bubble she was using to carry a lot of the Homo Magi to the extraction zone and gently placed them down.

"So only their base blew up? That can't be a coincidence," Robin noted.

"Perhaps it is Karma. From what I heard from Aquaman's protégé's, they weren't good people," La'gaan noted.

"Still, they did help us," Robin frowned.

"Hey! Robin! Quick standing there and help us! We need to make sure no one is in critical condition!" Batgirl yelled to the Boy Wonder.

"You too, La'gaan!" Artemis looked over to the scaled Atlantian as she assisted Kaldur, "We need as many people on deck as possible, and those two aren't going to be a big help!"

Both Robin and La'gaan glanced at the people they were sworn to protect, "Well…I guess they'd probably want us to help."

"Agreed," La'gaan nodded as he held out a hand to Robin, "My name is La'gaan."

"Robin," Robing shook the hand, "Not my real name, but Batman forbid me from telling people outside the Team."

"Then I will just have to join your Team to find out," La'gaan smirked at the Boy Wonder.

"I think that just might be doable. I've only heard good things from Dusk," Robin stated as he began to go help the others.

La'gaan's face fell as he remembered his adventure with Dusk. He still had to tell Queen Mera what happened. That wasn't something he was looking forward to. It might break the poor woman, "Err, right…Where is the ghost called Dusk anyway?"

Artemis heard La'gaan's questioned. With a worried look, she looked over to her boyfriend, "He's got a point. A lot of the squads are still missing."

Kid Flash nodded, "I'll run over and see if they're okay."

"No need," Red Arrow pointed to an approaching group. A surprisingly beat up Superboy was carrying Vision while Beast Boy, in the form of an elephant, carried both Etrigan and Miss Martian on his back.

"Dude," Kid Flash raised an eyebrow at Superboy's bruised form, "Did you get run over by a bus lined with kryptonite?"

"Gah, I wish that was it," Superboy let out a grunt, "It's a really long story. Let's just say that Walker got an upgrade."

"And does that story involve Vision somehow?" Red Arrow questioned.

"I found her outside the base with, err…" Superboy gained a dark look, "A headless Ocean Master."

All eyes turned to the unconscious Vision. Kid Flash frowned, "How do we explain that to the League."

"We don't. Vision doesn't play by our rules. Everyone knows that," Red Arrow noted, "The rest of the League might complain, but considering what Ocean Master did…I doubt there will be any consequences. If the League went after Vision for this, then they'd have to deal with a lot of political backlash. From Atlantis specifically, but when the rest of the world finds out…"

"They'll want Vision to get a medal," Artemis agreed.

Superboy nodded. With his task of getting his team and Vision here safely, he decided to survey the situation, "Where's Danny and the others?"

"Not here yet—Oh, shit," Red Arrow's eyes widened as he looked past Artemis.

"What is it—Oh, shit!"

"Hey guys…" Spirit smiled to them as Cyborg carefully carried her in his arms, making sure not to bump her too badly.

"Dani…Your leg…" Kid Flash looked on in horror at the lump that was once Spirit's leg.

"Yeah, I lost it," Spirit laughed, "I'll just have to get a new one. You got any spares, Vic?"

"A few," Cyborg gave her a squeeze.

"And the others?" Superboy questioned.

Cyborg looked back behind him to see Raven and a now de-aged Youngblood helping Nyx into the clearing. Mary and Freddy were helping Shazam while Captain Marvel and Doctor Fate were supporting each other as they limped into the clearing. Spirit smiled once again, "Safe…They're safe…"

Superboy nodded, "They are…And so is Danny."

"Hey guys…You won't believe—" Phantom limped over to them. Jinx followed right behind him, "Woah! Dani! Damn! What the hell happened!?"

"Yeah, we just went over it. It's—Did you hear that?" Spirit's head snapped up.

Phantom initially thought that that she was trying to distract him. Just before he could say anything, though, he heard it too. He recognized the noise. It was the sound of an animal moaning in pain, dying. More than that, he recognized which animal that was making the noise.

"Cujo!" Phantom's eyes widened as he watched Dusk rush over to him. In his arms was a very bloody dog.

"Cujo!" Spirit pushed herself out of Cyborg's arms, "Let me go! That's my puppy!"

* * *

 _Dusk collapsed to his knees once he met up with Spirit and Phantom. Like him, they too had fallen to the ground. Phantom looked exhausted like him, while Spirit…Well, in any other circumstance, Dusk would have been completely focused on her missing leg. Right now, though, none of them could focus on that._

" _Cujo!" Spirit had tears running down her face, "Oh god, what happened?"_

" _Teekl…She…" Dusk tried to fight through his sobs._

 _Phantom placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's alright. You don't need to say it. Just let us see him."_

 _Dusk nodded. He extended his arms to show the dog. Spirit immediately flinched as she saw the cuts and the large chunk of flesh missing from Cujo's neck. Phantom, however, just looked on with a gaze of steel._

" _I see…" Phantom let out a tired sigh as tears began to well up in his eyes, "Damn."_

" _We have to do something!" Spirit exclaimed._

" _There's nothing we can do, Dani," Phantom shook his head, "It's his time."_

" _No…" Spirit's lips trembled in shock and despair._

" _I'm so sorry…" Dusk looked down in shame, "I should have stopped this…somehow..."_

 _Cujo whimpered in his arms. Half opened eyes peered at the youngest halfa, giving him comfort and assurance that there was no anger on his part. Cujo then looked over to his other two masters. He soaked in their image one last time and gave them a questioning look._

' _Was I a good dog?'_

 _Phantom allowed his tears to fall. He gently placed a hand on the dog's head, "The best. Nothing could have replaced you."_

 _Cujo let out a soft whine as he rubbed his head against Phantom's palm._

" _I love you, Cujo," Spirit whispered to the dog as she scooted close and kissed the dog on the nose, "You were such a good puppy."_

 _Cujo licked Spirit's nose in response._

" _Thank you, Cujo," Dusk continued to sob. His many tears fell from his face without anything to stop them and dropped down on the dog's face, "For everything. I don't know what I would have done without you around, boy."_

 _Cujo closed his eyes in contentment. Little balls of light began to rise from the dog's body. Just as that happened, though, his body began to dissolve. Before Cujo could become one of the few ghosts to ascend fully, his body finally gave out. Soon, he was merely a pile of green slime sliding from Dusk's arms, and just like that Cujo was gone._

 _The halfas continued to kneel together and cry. They held each other and mourned the loss of their loyal canine. Cujo had followed them through hell and back more than once. He had been with the Phantom Family longer than any other non-halfa ghost, and he never once strayed. Cujo was more than just a pet to them. He truly was man's best friend, and now he was gone._

* * *

 **Next chapter: "A Mother's Love" on February 15, 2016**

 **Sorry, but the dog always dies. ALWAYS.**

 **Next chapter will be a big one. Prepare to have your emotions torn open, your minds blown, and your jaws drop to the ground.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	16. A Mother's Love

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path"

Agatha Christie

* * *

Chapter 16: "A Mother's Love"

(Friday-March 7, 2014)

The four current Black Lanterns all knelt before Nekron's throne. They all had nervous looks on their faces as they waited for their master to speak. To the side, Madame Rogue watched with interest. This was her new group after all. She had to deal with them and the master at least until the plan was complete, and she would get what she wanted out of this, to stay alive.

" **Do not fret, my Black Lanterns,** " Nekron drawled as he looked down at his followers, " **I am not angry.** "

"Really?" Aragon looked up in surprise, "But Master, we lost the Mirror of Memories, and the heroes now know that we supported both le Fey's attack and the Sorcerer Initiative."

"Not to mention how we failed to kill as many people as you wanted," Nocturne took in a deep breath as he rubbed the scar running across his chest.

" **True, true, but that is neither your fault nor mine,** " Nekron noted as black smoke from his mouth, " **No one could have predicted Poindexter's interference or the Mirror of Memories' true nature. We may have lost a bit of energy from the Sorcerer Initiative, but we gained important knowledge. And that more than makes up for it.** "

"Indeed," Hotep Ra nodded, "And we did manage to get quite a bit of energy to. Not to mention how the Light is in complete disarray. They will be powerless to act during the Blackest Night."

" **Agreed,** " Nekron let out a light chuckle, " **It was never the heroes that I feared would interfere. It was the people with less that set morals that would have been the real problem.** "

"Excuse me," Madame Rogue spoke up, "Speaking of low morality, what of zhe Dark Dan? He did not even try to interfere. Are you not worried zhat he is planning somezhing?"

" **He definitely must be planning something** ," Nekron agreed, " **But it doesn't matter. He does not know my true goal. Otherwise, he would have already tried to obliterate the Phantom Family. Having them dead and as weaker minions would be a lot better for him than what I have planned. When my plan is finished, my power will be so great that even the 'new gods' will tremble in fear.** "

"Will it work, though, Master?" Walker questioned, "Phantom has proven that he's the only one able to completely bypass your energy. That's something that the Mirror and Scribe's apprentice failed to completely do together."

" **You are correct,** " Nekron nodded, " **Phantom is the only real threat. His ties to the Life Entity make him our natural enemy.** "

"Walker mentioned zhat to me," Madame Rogue took a few steps forward, "What iz zhe Life Entity?"

Nekron went on to explain, " **The Life Entity, or the Entity as the Guardians of the Universe call it, is the Source of all life in the universe. Every living creature started its evolutionary path thanks to the Entity. It lies in the center of the Earth. This is why Earth had created such a wide variety of creatures. This is why humans have the potential to become gods. This is why ghosts really exist. On any other planet, if the Reality Gauntlet had been used, the planet would have been poisoned and destroyed. The Life Entity prevented that and instead made the curse into something far different. The curse of a second life devoid of real choice.** "

"But…Earth is so behind technology wise…" Madame Rogue noted.

" **Indeed, because the Guardians of the Universe made it so. They are the reason the Earth has remained hidden for so long. Why it took millennia for a Green Lantern to come from Earth,** " Nekron stated.

Hotep Ra decided to explain further, "As you can guess, the Life Entity is a natural opposite of Master Nekron the Reaper. Its power can easily fight against it. Especially because it has long since blessed Phantom with the ability to deny Death. He is its real chosen. A natural White Lantern, if you will."

" **Yes, it's only because of his connection to both Death and the Entity that he has lasted so long, and why he can attain ascended ectoplasm when empowered by either life or death** ," Nekron stroked his chin, " **Because of that, he is very important to my plans. He is the living embodiment of the line between life and death. I will need extra power to deal with him**."

Aragon trembled as Nekron unleashed a wave of energy to show his power, "Ectoplasmic energy gave him back his natural power."

Nocturne looked into the dark surroundings to see hundreds of thousands of red eyes staring at them, "Magical energy allowed him to create an army."

Walker gained a wide grin, "And demonic energy will let him deal with Phantom using the Transferal."

" **And none of it could have happened without my knights. Don't worry, Black Lanterns, your rewards will come soon,** " Nekron smiled at them. He then moved his palm forward to show two new Black Lantern rings, " **And its time for four to be six.** "

"Six?" Hotep Ra's eyes widened, "Who will be the other one?"

" **Hahahahahaha! Why, the Black Hand of course!** "

* * *

Agent Z stood in an area that many would describe as hell incarnate. Fire raged everywhere. Demons danced in the background. Screams of the damned sounded out all around him. None of this bothered the past leader of the Guys in White, though. He had long since grown accustomed to such things while being under Trigon's command.

Six demonic red slited eyes glowed before Agent Z. Each eye was about as big as Z's body and seemed to scream a combination of power and evil, " **That whole fiasco the humans had was very amusing.** "

"It was," Agent Z nodded, "It was also very informative."

 **"Indeed,** " Trigon's booming voice sounded intrigued, " **We learned a lot about our greatest enemies**."

"Phantom summoned that accursed energy without anyone dying," Agent Z noted, "Are you worried about that?"

" **It is definitely a weapon that needs to be avoided,** " Trigon stated, " **We have yet to see the limit of this 'ascended ectoplasm.' As such, it's the only thing that we can't take into account fully. We will need to take it out quickly before the Fate Changer can use it."**

Agent Z snorted, "Don't tell me you actually believe that fate nonsense."

Trigon's eyes turned as he slowly shook his head, " **No, I'm not as foolish as my daughter to buy into the 'First Prophecy.' But I do know the true origin of the prophecy. The Endless worked together with a ghost to make it so**."

"A ghost?" Agent Z looked intrigued, "But you told me that the prophecy is older than the ghosts...Wait, you mean the time ghost? The one in the coma?"

Trigon nodded, " **Yes, the one known as Clockwork. He has interfered far too often for his own good. But those that meet with the Endless too often meet their own ends quite quickly. Like the ghost known as Scribe. But the Endless have done what they had to to set things up. They plan to stop not only me, but other threats as well.** "

"There will be no other threats after you," Agent Z noted.

Trigon let out a laugh, " **True. But we cannot underestimate those that the Endless favor. Hope, cheer, and endurance. The components of life. We will need to take special care with them. Not only that, we will need to keep an eye out for who 'love' is.** "

"It obviously isn't Plasmius," Agent Z agreed, "But if the ones in the Destiny's warning are all half-ghosts, then does that mean there's another half-ghost alive right now?"

" **No, their energy is too distinct for me not to notice. Perhaps later, but it is not a threat we can prepare for right now. As for the other half-ghosts...** " Trigon's eyes lit up with a dark glow, " **I will deal with Phantom personally. I will stop him from ever achieving the ascended ectoplasm. As for Dusk, I will leave him to you. You know him best, use his weaknesses against him**."

"Very well," Agent Z bowed his head, "And what about the girl?"

A massive red hand waved out above Agent Z. Crimson energy fell from the giant fist and washed down in front of Agent Z to great a glowing red portal, " **The girl is the most unruly of all the half-ghosts. She just needs to be disciplined, and I have a rather eager worshiper that is perfect for the job. Isn't that right, Brother Blood?** "

An aging man with smooth blue eyes smiled from the portal. His smile quickly grew wicked, though, as his eyes began to glow a deadly red, "Of course, my master. The Cult of Blood is at your disposal."

* * *

Shiva was silent as she hung from her chains in a dark dungeon. Her muscles ached and burned from the beatings she had received. The Shadows did not take traitors lightly, especially ones as dangerous as her. Six guards stood in the room, ready to cut her down if she tried anything. In the state she was in now, even if her arms were free, she would lose in an instant.

With a loud creak of a door, light flooded into the room. Shiva winced as the light burned her eyes. She was far too use to the dark, both physically and mentally. It burned her in ways that made her feel shame. That was okay, though. Her own shame meant nothing. Cassandra would never flinch from the light like her. Not anymore.

Cheshire stepped forward until she right in front of Shiva, "The Great One wants to see you."

"Does he?" Shiva gave a small smile that almost served to reopen her split lip.

"Yes…" Cheshire nodded to the other assassins. They quickly cut the chains holding Shiva up and caught the woman before she could hit the ground, "Please don't try anything, Lady Shiva. I'd hate to have to kill someone I respect so much."

Shiva raised an eyebrow at the younger woman, "And what do you think Ra's will do to me?"

"You served him well over the years. There is a chance of a pardon," Cheshire noted.

"Don't try to give me false hope," Shiva shook her head.

"It's not for you, sensei," Cheshire stated as she turned to lead them out of the room, "It's for me."

Shiva did nothing to stop the other assassins as they dragged her out of the room, "I already told you once before, false hope if for fools. You either make your own opportunities, or you die."

Cheshire continued her walk without looking back, "So you're just accepting death?"

"No. I already made my opportunities."

* * *

Dusk knelt before the throne of Atlantis. He bowed his head so low that his forehead brushed against the marble flooring, "Forgive me. It was my fault that your son was killed."

"No!" La'gaan stepped away from Aqualad's protégés at the side of the room and knelt before his rulers as well, "Do not blame Dusk! He is an outsider that did his best! I am a native, I should have gotten us there faster."

Aquaman stared down at the two kneeling young heroes from his throne. His expression was that of complete exhaustion and mourning. He weakly raised a hand, "No. Do not blame yourselves. It was my brother's fault. He was the one that committed the atrocious act. No one else is to blame, and Ocean Master has already received his punishment."

"He deserved everything Lady Vision did to him," Queen Mera hissed from her throne. Her eyes were completely focused on a hologram that hovered over a magical shell. It was a picture of her with her husband and late child.

"Agreed," Aquaman let out a tired sigh, "She has our utmost gratitude. And with that done we can focus on moving on…"

Mera was silent. She just continued her melancholy gaze towards the picture. It looked like she was close to tears, but the water made it extremely hard to tell.

"Still..." Dusk raised his head, "I feel responsible."

Aqualad stepped forward and helped both Dusk and La'gaan to their feet, "You both may feel guilt, but neither of you have done anything wrong."

"Yes!" Aquagirl swam over to them and gave them a shaky smile, "Do not worry. No one in Atlantian blames you."

"If anyone should feel guilt, it is us," Tempest noted as he shook his head, "We are his Majesty's chosen elite. We should have done something more than get captured."

"No!" Aquaman stood from his throne, "As I said, only my brother is to blame, and that has already been settled. I do not want anyone to dwell on this anymore. It is time to move on. The more we dwell on it…" Aquaman looked over to his nonresponsive wife, "The longer it will linger."

Aqualad sighed, "You are right, my king. We should focus on our protection and work. With so many soldiers out of commission, we will be strained in all directions."

"Perhaps…we need to limit our time on the surface?" Aquagirl suggested softly.

"That will not do," Tempest argued, "It will make us look weak. Our enemies will know that we are hurt more than we look."

Aquaman rubbed his temples, "What other choice do we have, though?"

"Err, would you be willing to accept outside help?" Dusk suddenly asked with short glance behind him.

"Outside help?"

"Yes," Frostbite floated into the throne room, "Hello, my friend. You have my deepest condolences."

"Frostbite," Aquaman swam up to the ghost, "What are you doing here?"

"Vision and I have discussed what happened," Frostbite noted, "We have come to the agreement that we want to help you. Thus…" Frostbite knelt before the king, "I, Frostbite, leader of the Far Frozen, offer the services and loyalty of my people to the king of Atlantis."

"What do you mean?" Aquaman blinked at ghost.

Frostbite looked up to the hero and king, "You are both a friend and an ally. It would be an honor to help you in your time of need. All of the yeti ghosts, myself included, shall all serve under you."

"What about the safety of the Ghost Zone?" Tempest questioned.

"We have seen many times that having all our best fighters in one place has proven ineffective," Frostbite noted, "And I will be able to return at a moment's notice with the Infi-Map."

"I could not possibly accept this offer," Aquaman argued.

"My king," Aquagirl swam forward, "Please reconsider. We are in need of help. Especially with Prince…your brother gone and the queen as she is."

Aquaman looked back at his wife who had yet to look away from the picture. She didn't respond at all to the conversation, "I suppose that I cannot afford to refuse. Plus, my people do trust you, Frostbite. Very well. But there is someone else you will need to listen to."

"Oh?" Frostbite raised an eyebrow.

Aquaman swan over to Aqualad and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I am appointing Kaldur my second in command. If I am ever unavailable for any reason, he is in charge."

"My king!" Kaldur's eyes went wide, "I do not deserve such an honor."

"Nonsense," Aquaman squeezed Kaldur's shoulders, "You have proven your worth many times. I trust no one more than you, Kaldur."

Kaldur saluted his king, "Thank you, my king. I will do my best to uphold your show of confidence."

Aquaman nodded and looked over to La'gaan, "And to help with the overall protection of the city, perhaps another protégé is in order."

"Your majesty?" La'gaan's eyes widened.

"You have proven your potential," Aquaman noted, "I would be honored to train you to be one of Atlantis's elite warriors."

"It would be a dream and an honor, my king," La'gaan looked shell shocked.

Watching this play out, Dusk silently made his way out of the room. That didn't really go as he thought it would. Part of him wanted to be yelled at. Part of him wanted someone—ANYONE—to be mad at him. It didn't matter the reason, he just wanted to be told that he messed up.

" _Hey, Dusk!"_ Robin's voice sounded through Dusk's Fenton Phones as the halfa floated to Atlantis's Zeta Tube, " _Can you meet me at Fawcett City? I'm trying to talk to Freddie about the Team, but he won't listen._ "

Well…There was an option…

* * *

"This might sting a little," Silas Stone noted as he glanced up to Dani.

"Meaning its going to hurt like hell?" Dani snorted.

"Pretty much," Silas nodded as he began the bolt of the machinery, "Ready, 1…2…3!"

"AH! Damn it!" Dani's head snapped back as she hissed through her teeth.

"Sorry, but I did warn you," Silas stood and rubbed his hands on his lab coat, "Try to move it."

Dani looked down at the new leg connected to her at the knee. The slick black armor with white stripes running down the sides slid all the way down to her artificial toes. With a little focus, Dani moved her toes around to test her leg. She then rotated the leg and made sure it was in place, "Looks like it works."

"We used the same armor we used with…Victor," Silas glanced over his shoulder to his son who was looking on with a steady gaze, "It should give you an artificial feeling of touch, although a bit weaker than the original leg. I had to connect it to your nerves to get it to work, so it won't come off easily. But that might be a good thing considering your line of work."

"Thanks, doc," Dani jumped off the table she was sitting on and tested out her new leg with some careful steps around Axion Labs, "I can't wait to test it out in a fight. My next enemy is going to be shocked when I smash this into his face."

"Do you feel any different?" Rachel questioned as she leaned against the table.

"Yeah, it's like my legs a little numb, but it's better than nothing," Dani did some experimental hops on the leg.

"You wouldn't need that if it wasn't for me," Nyx mumbled as she gave the mechanical leg a sad look.

"Don't say that! You didn't have a say in any of it," Dani frowned at her friend, "Don't blame yourself for what Klarion did, or for what I chose to do to save you."

"Tsk…Typical Girl Scout," Nyx looked away, "I should have done more to fight. I was controlled by that douche for months. It took way too long get any semblance of self-control back. And then I lost it again. Just in time for two heroes to sacrifice their powers for me and for you to lose a leg."

"Nyx…"

"And my mom…God, what I said to Mom…" Nyx clenched her fists, "It must have torn her apart."

"Is that why you haven't gone back to her yet?" Youngblood suddenly spoke up from the corner of the lab, "It's been five days, and you haven't gotten back to her yet. Do you think that she'll be upset? Because you know that moms…Pandora isn't like that."

"I know. I'm just…" Nyx twiddled her thumbs together, "Ashamed."

"Normally, I would argue that you shouldn't be, but…" Dani pulled out a picture of Cujo, "I can't tell anyone how they should feel."

"Dani…" Victor walked over Dani and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"But I do know a thing or two about working to feel better," Dani smiled at Victor and pocketed the picture once more, "I find that confronting it makes me feel better. And you and me, Nyx are a lot alike."

Nyx let out a sigh, "Will you come with me? I know, it's lame to ask you for support after you just helped me, but…"

"I get it," Dani smiled at them, "Let's go see Pandora. Then, I want to test this foot out. I bet Vic and I can play a mean game of footsy now."

Everyone stared at her for a moment, before bursting out laughing. Even Silas was chuckling as he watched his son and friends go. When they left, though, his smile dropped.

"You didn't even try to talk to him," Elinore Stone noted as she stepped out from behind a pillar where she had been hiding.

"He didn't want to talk to me, and I didn't want to start something in front of his friends," Silas noted, "I will soon…I have to, but he's not ready yet. So, I'll leave him to his friends for now. And to his girlfriend. Our son has got himself the real deal."

"The Stone men have great taste in women," Elinore agreed, "But not the best communications skills."

"True..." Silas coughed, "Not to change the subject, but we should probably go help Nicolai and Serling. Don't want to leave them to those project on their own. They'll never get anything done."

"Yes, and we will need the Dimensional Stabilizer ready sooner rather than later," Elinore agreed, "Not to mention that gas Fenton's been working on. That's really what's got my attention. It isn't like him to be so hush hush about such a big project."

"He has his reasons. Just like with everything. It will work out. After all, just look at that Richard kid. He has a bright future ahead of him, and he's motivated Danny to start that internship program we've been hearing about," Silas looked at the mess that he made while attaching Dani's new leg, "Gah, I don't want to clean that up…"

"Let me call William," Elinore shook her head at her husband, "He'll fix your mess just like always."

"Yes, I don't know what we would do around here with that man. I just hope he doesn't get sick of the puns. I mean, William Hand the custodian? Who thought of that?"

* * *

Phantom frowned as he stood in the top of a glowing green tower. He was surrounded on all sides by strange aliens. They had a blue skin that could be comparable to some ghosts along with bright red robes with the Green Lantern symbol on the front, "So what exactly do you want from us?"

"The truth," One of the Guardians of the Universe spoke up, "Please explain the Black Lantern's movements with your Sorcerer Initiative."

"I'm sure the Green Lanterns already reported it to you," Superboy crossed his arms.

Phantom looked to his companions. Almost all of the senior members of Young Justice were in attendance except for the injured Zatanna and the busy Aqualad. Few of them looked pleased at this meeting, but most of them were respectful to the people that led the Green Lanterns.

"We would like to hear it from you."

"Well, we went to stop the Brain. Walker was there talking to Madame Rogue. He showed us his ring. We fought. Lost. Got help from Poindexter and the Mirror. Then we grabbed Mister Blood and ran," Miss Martian didn't look pleased about recanting the events where she got beaten rather badly.

"Don't forget that the energy readings show that the other Black Lanterns used the Mirror of Memories," Superboy let out a sigh.

"So there is definitely a fourth Black Lantern? And assumedly, a fifth is coming?" Another Guardian spoke up.

"That we know of at least. There could be more," Kid Flash noted but winced when Artemis elbowed him in the ribs, "Ow! It's the truth!"

Artemis leaned forward to whisper into his ear, "Now is not the time to get them paranoid, babe."

"We were once assured that there were only two rings left in existence," A third Guardian spoke, "Then there was a third, and now the numbers keep multiplying."

"With all due respect," Nightwing raised his hands in a show of surrender, "There was no way anyone could know that so many rings were still left."

"The ghosts should know," A different Guardian gave Phantom a distasteful look, "It is one of their own that created this problem."

"Oh? Just like one of your own created the Yellow Lanterns?" Rocket crossed her arms and defended her friends.

The Guardians shared a look, "Indeed, the Sinestro Corps are an issue. As are the Red Lanterns. That is why these Black Lanterns concern us. We do not know if we have the manpower to combat another army."

"There isn't an army," Phantom glared back at them, "There's only five of them, and they're all my enemies. I'll lead the charge in taking them down, especially that traitor. You don't have to worry about anything because I know those people. As long as I'm alive and kicking, they won't be able to bring themselves to focus on anything off of Earth. They'd just be brought back by the compulsion to kill me."

"Yet they have aided you before. Not only that, they avoided you completely besides using those strange Corruption Chips," A Guardian gave Phantom a look of confusion, "Why? Was that not the perfect opportunity?"

"Vision theorized that they were focused on taking out as many people as possible before getting to me," Phantom explained, "Without magic users and half the members of the Light, they would have a lot less possible enemies to deal with."

"Is that why they did it?"

"Well, we can't be certain," Phantom shrugged, "But it makes the most sense. Maybe they're also working on making new rings. Before only Nekron could make them, but it's possible that they found a way."

"Then they are creating an army."

"…Maybe. But like I said, I'll deal with that. After I deal with some other issues," Phantom raised a hand to show a glowing orb of green energy, "Until then, leave me alone. I'll contact you again once the Black Lanterns are done with."

Throwing the ball up, Phantom send out a small blast of energy. The blast swept away the hologram around them and showed the normal surrounding of the Cave. Various members of the League were waiting for their meeting to be done. Three of them looked pissed, though.

"Don't disrespect the Guardians like that," Hal Jordan glared at Phantom as he lowered his ring to completely cut off the reception. His fellow Green Lanterns all nodded as they too lowered their rings.

"Sorry, but I am not the mood to deal with anyone's crap right now," Phantom rubbed his temples, "I can't move on their schedule. Before we face the BLs, we need to deal with Trigon."

"He probably is the next big threat," Nightwing nodded at his friend, "We'll need to start thinking of some counter measures."

"We can start by making this place a fortress," Kid Flash looked around, "I've always wanted to do some redecorating around here. Maybe hang up some nice energy cannons."

"That sounds nice. A few drone fit with some ecto-guns would help too. Oh! And we should set up a few defenses walls. Weapons stocks. Shield generators. And we'll definitely need some mines," Artemis rubbed her chin in thought.

Kid Flash gave her a wanting look, "Babe, I love when you talk dirty."

"Plus, we'll need a safe room for Raven. We'll need to get Zatanna to set up some teleportation jamming runes around the place," Superboy suggested.

"Or…" Dr. Fate interrupted their conversation, "Maybe we can start talking about sending Raven away."

"Taking her off of Earth would just leave her open for Agent Z and her brothers to grab her and teleport her back," M'gann noted.

"It would be better to just bunker down," Rocket agreed.

"No, I was talking about banishing her to another dimension," Dr. Fate suggested.

"You mean…permanently?" Superboy's eyes widened.

"Yes," Dr. Fate nodded.

"Let's…let's not talk about this right now," Phantom continued to rub his temples, "I need to deal with other shit, and I'm in a pissy mood right now. You know, because my dog just died."

That shut everyone up.

"Tell Zatanna, I'll stop by later," Phantom waved back at them and headed to the Zeta Tubes, "I'm going to go talk with a my psychiatrist!"

 **Recognized: Danny Phantom B04, Batman 02**

Phantom blinked as bright yellow light consumed him and teleported him out of the Cave. A quick glance to the side showed that Batman had moved into the Zeta Tube with him.

"Is there a reason you followed me?" Phantom questioned as he stepped out of the Zeta Tube and into an empty warehouse.

"I needed to speak with you," Batman followed him out of the Zeta Tube.

"Couldn't you just ask to speak with me later?" Phantom turned to the Dark Knight.

"This was important," Batman let out a sigh, "I wanted to talk to you about Jinx."

"Oh God, I should have known this was coming…"

"I won't tell you what to do with your love life," Batman stated, "But I do have to warn you, loving someone on the other side of the law is a difficult thing to do. It's happened to me more than once, and neither time worked out."

"Talia and Catwoman, right?" Phantom let out a smirk.

Batman scowled.

"Blame Nightwing. He likes the sound of his own voice."

Batman sighed, "Regardless, learn from my example. If Jinx isn't completely on your side, you'll never be happy. At some point, she'll have to choose between you or Savage and her life as an assassin."

"And what happens if she wants to continue being an assassin?"

"The answer is simple. If that does happen then…" Batman answered, "One day, you'll have to choose between love and being a hero."

* * *

"Come on, Fred!" Robin, in his civilian disguise, playfully punched Freddy in the arm, "You can't just up and quit on us. Just because your powers are gone, that doesn't mean you can't fight."

"No thanks," Freddy shook his head as he leaned against the wall, "I only became a hero because I had powers and people would nag me if I didn't use them right…meaning Mary…"

"Then simply go back to the wizard and demand thy powers back," Donna, also dressed in normal clothes, suggested.

"It doesn't work that way," Freddy let out a snort, "I'm not like you, Troia. I'm not entitled to my powers by birth."

"So you're just done?" Joel questioned as he walked up to his friends.

"Yep," Freddie nodded. He still didn't look at the others. His eyes were focused around the corner. Mary and Billy were talking to each other with their guardians. They seemed happy, overjoyed really. That was nothing new, though. The really big surprise was the small smile of satisfaction on Freddy's face.

"You could just work on communication with Mal," Robin mentioned.

"Really?" Freddy chuckled in amusement, "You want me sending messages?"

Donna's eyes rolled over to Robin, "He doest have a point, Jase. I can imagine him mocking our messages constantly."

"We can find you something," Joel suddenly jumped in much to the surprise of everyone, "You can't just leave."

"Yeah! We Freshman have to stick together!" Robin pumped his fists.

Freddy stared at Joel for a minute. At that point, Joel thought he would snap at them for their insistence, but Freddy just smiled and shook his head. Deep down, Joel thought that Freddy knew what he was trying to do, "No thanks. My part is over. I'll let you handle things from here."

"Art thou sure?" Donna gave him a concerned look.

"Yeah…I did more good in a couple of months than I thought I'd ever do," Freddy nodded, "I'm content, and I know Mary is too. For now on, we're going to stay out of the fight. But if you ever need some help, a place to crash, or an ear to listen, I'll be there."

"I see…" Joel nodded slowly.

"Well…I guess if we can still hang out, it'll be fine," Robin rubbed the back of his head, "But still, it will be weird not having you around anymore. And I had this huge plan set up too."

Freddy frowned at him, "I know that I'm going to regret this, but what plan?"

"This," Robing pulled a daisy out from his hidden utility belt and shoved it into Freddy's hand. Donna then stepped forward and pushed Freddy away towards Mary and Billy. They then grabbed Joel and began to pull him away.

Freddy stumbled but quickly regained his balance. Once back up right, he looked up to see Mary smiling at him. He then glanced at the flower in his hand and back to Mary, "Err…Robin…"

"Yeah, I saw," Mary plucked the flower from his hands, "You did say that you were my partner, right?"

"Err…When we were agents of Shazam…"

"Partners don't break up so easily," Mary leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, "Come on. I'll introduce you to my parents."

Freddy blinked at her for a moment before nodding, "Okay."

Down the street from the two ex-Marvels, Robin gave a smirk, "And mission accomplished."

"You were trying to set the two of them up?" Joel gave a confused look to his friend, "Since when?"

"Since I met them, man," Robin let out a laugh, "Did you really think I would just randomly try to set you up with Mary? That was just killing two birds with one stone. Get you to lighten up and get Freddy jealous. Unfortunately, that guy's smarter than he looks."

"So Jase asked me to help him take the more direct path," Donna smiled as she elbowed her boyfriend.

"I see…" Joel looked away, "Then did you really call me to help convince Fred to stay with the Team?"

"Well, that was worth a shot," Robin noted, "But if the three of the people from his generation couldn't get him to stay, then he's made up his mind."

"But there was something else," Donna added, "Cassandra asked us to tell you to meet with her. She has some news for you."

* * *

"Hello, Dani."

"Poindexter?" Spirit blinked at the black and white ghost that floated in the swirling mass of green energy known as the Ghost Zone, "Where have you been? Your library disappeared, and Vision's been looking for you."

"I know," Poindexter nodded, "She wants to know some things I can't answer, so I moved. It will be safer for me and Mirror of Memories until the time is right. Can I please speak with you alone?"

Spirit looked to her friends, specifically Nyx. The shadow ghost just shrugged, "Actually, I need a minute to psych myself up anyway."

With that, her friends floated off towards the edge of Pandora's floating island. The high maze and Greek sculptures hid everything else the island had to offer. When her friends were away, Spirit looked to Poindexter again, "What is it?"

"First, I wish to offer my condolences and apologies," Poindexter blinked rapidly like he was fighting off tears, "I did my best to save as many as possible from the bullies, but I failed your dog."

Spirit let out a sigh, "Joel, Nyx, you…People keep blaming themselves for things that aren't their fault."

"And your leg?" Poindexter looked to Spirit's fake legs. She had exchanged her normal boots for ones that extended up to her knees so that he could hide her injury, "I encouraged you to do what you had to."

"It was my decision in the end, and I don't regret it," Spirit gave him a hard look.

Poindexter's eyes glazed over, "Yes, I suppose in the end it all comes down to choice."

Spirit blinked, "Poindexter? Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure. The burden of knowledge is a heavy one," Poindexter rubbed his eyes to regain his focus, "I can understand what Master Scribe and Clockwork have gone through."

"Clockwork is still around. Don't act like he's dead," Spirit chastised him.

"Of course," Poindexter nodded slowly.

"Look, I don't know what you're going through right now, but I'll help if I can," Spirit looked over to her friends, "Just let me help Nyx first."

"That's not your only friend that needs help with parents."

Spirit's eyes drifted to Raven, "Yeah."

"Not only her. Cyborg holds bitterness in his heart, and Youngblood…Well, sometimes mothers leave heavy burdens on their children," Poindexter noted.

Spirit nodded, "I don't think Vic is ready to deal with that yet, and Chuck…He doesn't really open up much about things. I think I'll need to wait to help them. You can't help people that aren't ready to be helped, after all."

"Your words are wise," Poindexter smiled, "And you have always been wise behind your years, even if you often think outside the norm. No wonder Master Scribe gave his books to you. Tell me, have you been writing yourself?"

"I'm more of artist," Sprit shrugged.

"Writing is an art form in itself," Poindexter argued, "And the wise need to write down their wisdom, otherwise no one will remember it."

"Um…I guess…"

"Here," Poindexter reached into his coat and handed her a large black book and a pen, "You'll need this. Start writing and never stop."

"Okay…" Spirit's eyes followed Poindexter as he floated past her and away.

"Tell your family that I'm fine and that they'll see me again," Poindexter waved as he floated away, "They don't need to worry. And tell Dusk to never stop creating. He'll need every tool he has later on."

"Can do, I guess," Spirit waved and stared at the strange book in her free hand.

"You'll do great things, Danielle Masters. I'm sure of it. After all, it isn't every day that Delirium takes such an interest in one single person."

"Wait, what?" Spirit's eyes snapped up. She was surprised to see that Poindexter disappeared. With a frown on her face, Spirit looked back at the blank book in her hands. A single word stood glaringly on the front.

Memoires.

* * *

Penelope Spectra sat on a bench in the middle of the park. She watched as a young boy and his father ran around the jungle gym rejoicing as snow gently fell from the sky. Despite her eagle eyes being on the kids, she did notice when someone slipped onto the bench right beside her.

"Hello, Spectra," Phantom noted as he followed her eyes to the children playing, "A little cold to be out here, don't you think?"

"My son gets excited by the snow. He says that the purity of the white makes him for get the troubles of the world," Spectra shook her head, "Colin is definitely his mother's child."

"He said that?" Phantom eyed the red haired child, "Interesting. You made sure to dress him warm, though. That's good."

"Of course," Spectra turned to him, "Is there a reason why you're here besides small talk about my family?"

"I wanted your opinion on something," Phantom pulled a large file out of his jacket and handed it to Spectra.

Spectra opened the file. Her eyes swept through the pages while a deep frown covered her face, "This…is different. I don't think this could work. Especially with the people you want to get involved."

"That's why I brought it to you. I tend to look for the best in people, and you're more of a realist," Phantom clenched his fists, "I can't have any recruits turn on me. Not again. I want your opinion on who to bring in."

"Well, my first suggestion would to forget all of this," Spectra stated and closed the file, "But if you're determined to do this…and determined to pay me for this, then I'll do my best."

"Thanks," Phantom stood from the bench and began to head into the wooded part of the forest, "And before I forget. Thanks for helping Spirit. She's gotten a lot better."

"Of course she did. She's a strong one," Spectra smiled as she turned her attention back to her son and husband.

With one last glance back to the psychologist, Phantom continued into the forest. Once he was in the center of the woods, he stopped and waited. He was a little early, so it might be a while…

"Danny."

Or not.

Phantom turned and smiled at Jinx. He was a bit surprised when she shyly approached him. She hadn't did that since Valentine's Day. Usually, she rushed at the chance to get to him. Something was altering her behavior, and he could only think of one person that could do that.

"Phantom," Savage noted as he too stepped out of the shadows.

"Savage," Phantom's eyebrows arched down as he met Savage's stare, "What do I owe the pleasure."

"I wanted to congratulate you," Savage stated even though he looked extremely displeased, "You have effectively crippled the Light."

"I know. It's the only thing about all this that makes me smile," Phantom didn't look pleased, though, "And all it cost me was my dog. As you can imagine, that pisses me off to no end. Maybe I should take it out the rest of your little group. Finish what I started."

"You don't have the time for that," Savage smirked at Phantom, "You still have to deal with Trigon and his Pride. Taking your eyes off that would lead to disaster."

"And by the time I'm done with Trigon, the Light will be steady enough to keep functioning," Phantom nodded, "I'm well aware of that."

"That's why we are going to let you deal with that," Savage mentioned, "I know that you'll succeed. It's you after all. Still, I do want to give you some advice. I was friends with Klarion for almost my entire life. That's 50,000 years, and I abandoned him because he became a threat. He let his chaotic side get the better of him, even if there might have been an outside interference. If I could do that to someone I've known longer than the ghosts have even existed, then you can do it to someone that you've known for only a few years."

"I'm not killing Raven," Phantom glared at him.

"I think you just might," Savage argued, "After all, you've become so much more pragmatic and hardened since your early days of playing hero. You know that no matter what you choose, someone will die. That's the way it's always been on this planet. For change, for the greater good, someone has to die. The only thing about this instance is that you have the choice to decide who it will be. A girl that is destined to die? One of your little team members? Or my daughter? And I tell you this, ghost, I support this relationship because of Jennifer's choice and because of the genetic potential. If you get my daughter killed, I will kill everyone you ever cared about."

"Noted," Phantom clenched his fists.

"Good," Savage turned and began to walk away, "Until the next fight, Phantom. Hopefully by then, you'll see the Light and we won't have to be enemies again."

Phantom waited until Savage was gone before speaking again, "Asshole."

With her father gone, Jinx now threw her arms around Phantom and pulled him into a kiss. After a few seconds, she pulled away and smiled at her lover, "I've been waiting to do that."

Phantom smiled at her, "It's only been five days, Jen."

"Five days is a lot of time in our line of work," Jinx mentioned as she leaned in and began to gently kiss his neck.

"Yeah," Phantom nodded as he gently rubbed her back.

Jinx pulled away and frowned, "Please don't tell me you're going to dwell on what Dad said. He's just being protective. It's what dad's do."

"I know, and it's the one thing about him I respect," Phantom admitted, "But that's not what's bothering me."

"Then what is?"

Phantom let out a sigh, "Come home with me."

"Oh! Skipping right to the main event, huh?" Jinx's eyes twinkled as she pushed her body up against his, "I like that…"

"No, no," Phantom took a deep breath and pushed her back a bit so that he could think with his brain, "Not that it isn't tempting, because I know you won't be in the mood after what I wanted to talk to you about."

Jinx did not look pleased by this, "Alright. What is it?"

"I think I should tell you when we get there."

* * *

Joel stepped onto the rooftop that gave him a pretty good view of Gotham City. Robin and Donna were adamant about bringing him to see Cassandra. The both stood right behind him. As for the person that called the meeting, she stood at the edge of the roof overlooking her new home.

"Hello, Joel," Cassandra turned to him, "How are you doing?"

"About as well as to be expected considering what happened."

"That bad, huh?"

Joel ignored that remark, "And what about you? How are you handling everything?"

"If you are referring to the move to this city, it's been fine. I'm still restricted by Batman, but that's to be expected," Cassandra pursed her lips, "As for my mother, I'm worried as hell, but it's not like I can do anything. I have no leads and no way to travel. So, I suppose I'll just have to rely on Batman, Fenton, and my father to track her down."

"I see," Joel nodded, "So why did you want to see me?"

"I needed to know…How did it feel to kill Teekl? To hold your dog as he died?" Cassandra questioned.

Joel frowned, "Why would you ask me that?"

"Because I'm trying to make you mad, just like you've been trying to get people mad at you," Cassandra noted, "Don't think I haven't been paying attention. You're trying to get people to reprimand you, to yell at you, to tell you how badly you messed up when you really need is to just get mad yourself."

Joel's eyes hardened, "No, I don't."

"Joel, you did nothing wrong," Cassandra gave him a sympathetic look, "There was no way to save Aquaman's child. Showing compassion to a fearful animal was not wrong. And anyone would go into a rage after seeing their dog get torn apart. All this means is that you're fallible. You're human."

"I know that, but I know that I did everything I could at the time. You're right about that," Joel took a shuddered breath, "But you're wrong about needing to get angry. That's the real problem. I need someone to get mad at me because my own anger is the problem."

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't me that killed Teekl," Joel looked at his hands in horror, "I don't even remember doing it until the very end. I mean, I had Soul Shredder in my hands and didn't even consider teleporting Teekl away. It was something inside me controlling me. An instinct in my blood. Something I inherited from my father. The killer instinct, the rage filled assassin."

"I see…"

"And I need people to yell at me…to tell me how wrong it was that I killed something…to get mad at me for letting out the worst part of me…" Joel gave her a look of a lost lamb, "To scream at me and tell me that I should never be like my father again."

"And do you really think that will help you?"

"I…I don't know. I just know that I keep seeing their faces…their dying bodies," Joel admitted, "People should be sick at me for that, and for being like my father, but they're not. Every just keeps looking at me with pity and it just makes me feel worse."

Cassandra was silent.

"People died, and I was responsible for three of them. How am I supposed to live with myself?" Joel questioned. He looked to everyone on the rook, "Not only that, how am I supposed to live with the fact that I've broken the belief that I've lived by my entire life because the blood of my father…the blood of the demon got the better of me."

"I don't know, man," Robin rubbed the back of his head, "Just one day at a time?"

"With the help of thy friends," Donna said comfortingly.

"None of that makes me feel better," Joel looked ready to cry, "It doesn't help me deal with the fact that there's a killer inside of me."

"That is true. The blood of Ra's Al Ghul does run through your veins," Cassandra admitted, "You can never get rid of it. You do have a killer in you."

"Cassandra!" Donna snapped at the other girl.

Cassandra held up a hand, "But that's not the only thing you have in you. Only half of your DNA comes from your father. What about your mother?"

"My…mother?"

"Yes," Cassandra reached into her pocket and pulled out a flash drive, "During the last days in the Shadows, I did some last second snooping. I found something very interesting. Tell me, Joel, would you like to know who your mother really was?"

* * *

Nyx stood on trembling knees in the middle of Pandora's garden. She looked on as her massively tall mother worked on trimming the hedges that lined their home. They used to do that together. It seemed like such a long time ago now.

To her complete shame, Nyx felt like running. Fear of how the next few minutes could go were ripping her insides apart. She had hurt so many people while under Klarion's control. Her mother's principles of order had been completely forsake for Klarion's chaos. Yes, it wasn't really her choice, but some part of Nyx always reveled in the chaos, and that made her sick.

It was only because of her friends that stood dozens of steps back that she was even here. Nyx felt that she didn't even deserve to be around her patient, loving mother. She never fully appreciated what her mother had done for her. Nyx was always too focused on her own wants to realize what her mother meant to her.

Gathering her courage, Nyx finally spoke. Her voice was far more quiet and scratchy than it had ever been before in her life, "M-Mom?"

Pandora froze. The sheers in her hands slipped through her fingers and bounced off the ground.

"Please…Don't get mad…Please, don't yell," Nyx fought the tears in her eyes, "I am so sorry. For everything. I have no excuses. Klarion used me like the monster he always wanted to create. I gave into chaos."

Pandora's head slumped down as her back remained pointed at her daughter.

"What I said to you at Themyscira was unforgivable. What I've done is unforgivable," Nyx lowered her head, "So I'll understand if you don't want to talk to me. But I had to come here—"

Pandora silenced Nyx by turning around, dropping to her knees, and wrapping all of her arms around her. Hot tears ran down Pandora's face as she cradled Nyx like when she was a baby, "Oh, my baby! My precious, precious child, you don't have to ask for forgiveness, because there's nothing to forgive!"

Nyx's own tears began to fall down her shocked face.

"What hurt the most when you said those words, when you did all those things, was knowing that you never had a choice in the matter. I knew how much it hurt you," Pandora began to sob, "But now you're free! You're free and you chose to come home! I haven't been this happy since the day I first held you in my arms!"

"B-But, I didn't come back at first," Nyx trembled and shook in despair, "I let you suffer because I was too weak to face you."

"My pain, my suffering means nothing as long as you're safe and happy," Pandora began to rock Nyx back and forth, "I would have waited until the end of time to see you again if you weren't ready to come home. But now you're here. That's all that matters now. Welcome home, Nyx. I missed you every single second that you were gone. I love you, baby girl."

Nyx dug her face into her mother's chest. Her arms wrapped desperately around her mother and held onto her like a lifeline, "Mommy! I love you too!"

Not wanting to ruin the scene, most of Nyx's friends turned and began to walk way. Raven fought back every single surge of emotion in her as she suddenly wanted to go home and hug her mother. Cyborg had a pensive look as he thought about what just happened. And Youngblood was openly sobbing. He cried into his arms and whispered things that no one could understand but the bird on his shoulder. Polly just lightly pecked Youngblood's head and whispered back about how this is what mothers really are.

As for Dani, she just stood and watched the scene with a smile on her face. Mother and daughter had been reunited. This scene, this moment, was worth losing one hundred legs.

Looking down at the book she still carried in her arm, Dani opened to the cover. She then pulled out her picture of Cujo and placed in the slot on the front cover. The halfa girl then brought out her pen and began to write about this loving moment of reunion between parent and child.

* * *

"Forgive me," Fright Knight stated as she stood by Vlad and Vision in the memorial room. It was a large, relatively empty room in mansion. The only thing in the rooms were stones with names carved into them. On one side were names of fallen allies. The other side had names of fallen enemies, "I should have done more to save Cujo."

"We all should have done more," Vision noted as she knelt in front of the newest stone on the ally side.

Recently, a lot of changes had change on who got a memorial. After all, Agent Z had returned, and it wasn't certain that the Royal Flush Gang, Lydia, Gizmo, and Undergrowth were actually dead. Add in the fact that Secret didn't die in combat, and they had to make a lot of changes, even adding a name from a ghost that passed a long time ago.

 _Desiree: Her wish was granted_

 _Klemper: A true friend_

 _Skulker: The Ghost Zone's greatest Hunter_

 _Scribe The Ghost Writer: Author, reader, and ally_

 _Solomon Grundy: Born on a Monday_

 _Red Huntress/Valerie Gray: Loyal fighter and loved one_

 _Wulf: He lived and died free_

 _Secret: A pure, beautiful soul_

 _Cujo: A good dog_

As for the enemies…

 _Vortex: The perfect storm_

 _Freakshow: Ringmaster of reality_

 _Spectre: Spirit of vengeance_

 _The Brain: Brilliant inventor_

 _Klarion: Lord of chaos_

 _Ocean Master: At—_

Vision's eyes swept over to the villains side of the room. While she understood and respected Danny's wish to remember his enemies, she refused to give that monster Ocean Master any sort of title. She would make sure he was never forget so that people would always spit on his name.

Vlad gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm guessing that we'll be postponing the wedding once again."

"I'm sorry," Vision felt her eyes began to water.

"This time, I think everyone will agree," Fright Knight spoke up, "Just like after le Fey's attack. The mood isn't right."

"It isn't, but I want it to happen by the end of the year," Vision noted, "So, it will be set after we deal with Trigon. No matter what," Her hands moved to her stomach. She wanted to get married. She wanted to start a family. She wanted to start working on having a baby.

"Hey, guys," Danny spoke up as he stepped into the memorial room.

"Lord Phantom," Fright Knight turned to the halfa and bowed.

"Hehe…" Jinx chuckled as she followed Danny into the room, "That's neat. Does he do that every time you approach him?"

"He's been doing it more since Cujo died," Danny sighed and gestured for the Fright Knight to stand up, "Come on, Fright Knight. Stop it."

"My apologies, my liege," Fright Knight immediately stood, "I feel that I have been doing a poor job as your knight lately."

"You've been doing the best you can," Danny gave him a smile.

"Daniel, may I ask why you brought your…friend in here?" Vision asked politely, "I understand that she visits your room from time to time, but I would prefer not to have someone with mixed loyalties to move around my home. Especially in such a sacred room."

"Sacred room?" Jinx looked around, "Oh, so this is the memorial room you mentioned. Cool. I don't see why this would ruin my mood, though."

"That's not it. I didn't know they would be in here," Danny looked to Vlad, "Vlad, you once said that you tried to move on from my mom before Vision, right?"

Vlad looked to Vision. He had been completely open to her about every point in his life, so there was no point in denying anything, "Yes. I did have flings and such things. But besides Vision and your mother, only one woman ever really took hold of my heart, and she left me a long time ago without a word. After…"

"After you told her about being half-ghost," Danny finished, "She left, but not because she was disgusted by what you were."

"Why then?"

"Because she was afraid of what you would do when she died," Danny sighed, "Vlad, what was her name?"

"It…It was June. June Moon."

Danny made sure to gently grab Jinx to keep her from falling.

Vlad blinked, "What is it?"

"No…" Jinx's eyes began to tear up, "This can't be."

"It is," Danny sighed and looked to Vlad again, "Vlad, June was a magic user. A powerful one at that. She could sense issues that happened when she realized that she was pregnant. She knew that she was going to die in child birth, so she ran away because she knew it would break you. She ran to the one person that could help her. To an ancestor that would take care of her baby when she was gone."

"I don't…What?"

"June was Jinx's mother," Danny explained, "That means that you're her father...her real father, Vlad."

* * *

Ember stared down at the paper in her hands as she sat in the back of her tour bus. She had been debating for months about what to do with the vague memory of her father. A lot of ghosts couldn't handle the memory of what they once had. It drove them to madness more often than not, so for a long while Ember just sat on the memory.

Things had changed, though. She was living her obsession after all. People were chanting her name every day. Maybe she was strong enough to handle it. That was why she surfed the Internet and used what she remember to track down the name of her hometown. Still, she was reluctant to go there.

She wasn't sure that learning about her past would make her happy. So far, she hadn't let anything get in the way of her dream. Ember didn't even let the Sorcerer Initiative get in the way. Of course, Danny didn't even bother to ask her for help. She had no idea what the reason would be. Maybe Trever asked him not to. Maybe Danny felt guilty and didn't want to face her. Or maybe it was because she had never been all that reliable in fighting for justice or the greater good when it really didn't involve her.

Hell that might be the reason he didn't ask a lot of the ghosts for help.

…Damn, she was distracting herself again…

"Stay focused, Ember," She chastised herself, "You have to make a decision." Holding the paper in her right hand, Ember lit her left hand aflame. If she wanted to, she could burn the paper. It would only take a second, and she would be done with this.

If she burned the paper, she could just move on with her life. Ember would continue to work to complete her obsession. Soon, she would reach the level of stardom that would leave her satisfied and be able to move on content with her work. If she did that, though, she would be choosing the path of blissful ignorance. She didn't know if her pride would ever let that go.

On the other hand, going back home would reveal the truth to her. That, however, would place a heavy burden on her. She would have knowledge that drove most ghosts to insanity. No matter what, she would change. For better or worse, she would be different. Ghosts were stagnant beings that didn't deal with change well, and that might cost her obsession…or drastically change to something impossible.

Ember took a deep breath. Ignorance or truth. Set satisfaction or possible suffering. Joyful stagnation or difficult change. Those were her choices.

Closing her flame covered fist, she extinguished the flames. She made her choice. It was time to go home.

* * *

 _Shiva grunted as she was shoved to her knees. She was kneeling in large thrown room. Ra's sat on the throne with Ubu right by his side. Several of the greatest assassins in the world stood at the side of the room. A quick glance around allowed her to see Deathstroke and Ravager on one side of the room while Sportsmaster stood on the other side._

 _Bowing, Cheshire and the other assassins that escorted her moved to the side walls as well, leaving Shiva alone in the middle of the room with everyone's eyes on her._

 _"Well…" Ra's eyed her from his throne, "What do you have to say for yourself?"_

 _Shiva looked up to meet his gaze, "I really don't think there's anything else for me to say."_

 _Ra's frowned. He stood and made his way to Shiva, "Really? No excuses? No pleas for your life?"_

 _"No," Shiva shook her head, "That wouldn't do any good."_

 _"True," Ra's nodded as he began to walk around Shiva, "You always had my upmost respect, Shiva. Your loyalty to me may have only been based on your child's safety, but that's a loyalty I could rely on in any circumstance. At least until you got a better offer from Phantom."_

 _"You knew about me and Cassandra for a while," Shiva noted, "Your thugs said that as they beat me. Why leave us be?"_

 _"The same reason I do everything," Ra's stopped in front of Shiva once more and crouched in front of her, "To gain my heir. If letting you play the double agent for a while let that happen, then so be it. And it worked, Joel has made his first kill. It may be for Klarion's cat, but at this point, I'd accept any movement in the right direction at all."_

 _Shiva let out a chuckle, "That doesn't mean anything. You had to manipulate the worst possible circumstances for him to falter even a little bit. I've seen it before. Men with faith, with real resolve to something bigger than himself, always grow stronger when they stumble."_

 _Ra's frowned and stood up, "We will see. I have time, though. Either he will become the heir I'm looking for, or I go with my younger heir."_

 _"Younger heir?" Shiva questioned, "You haven't' been with a woman since his mother."_

 _"An heir doesn't need to be his child," Talia's voice sounded out as she stepped out from behind the throne, "It can be his grandchild."_

 _"No…" Shiva whispered as she saw the child in Talia's arms._

 _"His name is Damian," Talia gave her son a look of pure adoration, "It took a lot of effort to get my beloved to help me make him, but it was worth it."_

 _"But if you have him, why still focus on Joel?" Shiva questioned._

 _Talia pursed her lips, "A wise woman once told me, 'You'll understand if you ever become a mother. No matter what, you want to give your child the best life possible.' That is what I want. Being Father's heir is a heavy burden. If I can help him avoid that, I will."_

 _"But no matter what, I will have my heir. My time as head of the Shadows will come to an end," Ra's noted, "As such, you have outlived your usefulness."_

 _"Very well," Shiva looked on impassively._

 _"But…" Ra's paused, "You did save my life many times. The latest being keeping le Fey's attacker away from me all those months ago. I owe you a debt, one that I need to repay. Name your wish, and I will grant it."_

 _Shiva's eyes lit up, "Any wish?"_

 _"Any wish that is within my power to grant," Ra's nodded._

 _"I see, then I want…" Shiva met Ra's eyes, "I want for you to leave Cassandra be. Do not hunt her down. Do not attempt to kill her. Let her live her life how she sees fit."_

 _"I see…So you don't want to use the request for yourself?" Ra's questioned._

 _"No. You consider Cassandra a traitor as well. My wish is for you to forgive her. Her life is all that matters to me besides David, and he isn't on your hit list."_

 _"I see…My respect for you grows," Ra's noted as he unsheathed his sword, "But that doesn't mean that I can let you live. You had your last request. I shall fulfill it. Know that in death, you have saved your daughter."_

 _"Thank you," Shiva closed her eyes and took one deep breath. She heard as Ra's sword rose and several different people across the room took a deep breath. Despite knowing that the blow was coming, she didn't flinch or tense up. She was ready for the peace of death. As Ra's sword swung down, Shiva had one last thought._

 _'Cassandra…David…I love you.'_

 _Then, there was only darkness._

* * *

 **End Part 2 of 4**

 **Next chapter: "Flashback" on February 29, 2016**

 **You have no idea how long I've been waiting to reveal Jinx and Vlad's relation. Way back in chapter 6 of Obsession, I had Vlad reveal that he had tried to move on and have other relations than Maddie. Then, immediately after, Danny met Jinx. Yeah, I've been planning this all along. A quick congratulations to those that figured it out based on the clues I left from Vlad's part in the special chapter "Ghost Tales" from Absolution. Yeah, there's a lot of small secret things in that chapter that very few people noticed.**

 **Speaking of small secret things that people never noticed...The death of Aquaman's son was foreshadowed in "Warnings" based off of Aquaman's dialogue...Klarion's and the Brain's demises were established back in Obsession because they were the only members of the Light to personally face off against Danny in a fight...Ocean Master's death was free reign for me because he was removed from the Light in cannon...Shiva's death was foreshadowed in Absolution when she said she would do anything to give Cassandra a better life...Dani losing a leg was foreshadowed in "Behind Absolution"...And Cujo's demise was set the moment I put him in my story because the dog always dies. ALWAYS.**

 **It's been an eventful few weeks in entertainment. Superbowl was fun/Go Broncos. Kung Fu Panda 3 was great. Deadpool was amazing. Walking Dead was shocking. Rick and Morty season 3 coming in March 2017? Gravity Falls comes to an end tonight. Daniel Bryan retiring was disheartening (Thank you, Daniel Bryan).**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	17. Flashback

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

Chapter 17: "Flashback"

(Tuesday-March 11, 2014)

Ember stood in front of a building, her old home. It had been rebuilt a while ago after it burnt down. They had rebuilt it over the ashes of her and her brother's life. Bitterness began to boil in her stomach as she looked up to the windows of the apartment building and saw people going about their normal lives. These people stole what she had...

No, she couldn't let herself think like that. That was how most ghosts lost their minds. These people were not to blame. She had to remain calm.

Glancing around the neighborhood, Ember felt nostalgia and memories dance through her mind. Trever's image popped up a lot, but there was another man. Her father, Ember noted. He was a rather tall man. She remembered he kept his head shaved. A mustache was there too. He also wore a suit…a white suit…

Ember rubbed her temples as her head suddenly ached. It was like her own mind was fighting against the memory. Maybe it was because the man seemed familiar from somewhere else. Like she saw him in her afterlife. But she only ever saw one group of people wear white suits like her dad used to wear.

"No…" Ember hissed as she clenched her teeth, "There's no way."

Turning away from her home, Ember launched herself into the sky. Her eyes scanned her home. Memories flooded back to her. Things became clearer. She remembered so much.

One small memory that drifted in from the depths of her mind was take your child to work day. She remembered being so excited that day. Dad carried on her shoulders into the buildings. Everyone respected her dad. He was such a good leader for his organization, the Guys in…

No. Nonononononononononononononono…

With a distressed look on her features, she turned and began to fly over familiar roads. She had to go to her father's old work place. Ember had to know the truth. She could only hope that the truth wasn't as devastating as she thought it was.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the place?" Robin questioned as they walked through a burnt down warehouse. The decayed wood and burnt steal crunched under his boot as he scanned the area, "This place has been burned down like as long as I can remember."

"Yes," Black Bat noted as she looked at the instructions in her hands, "This is the address I found in the Shadows' records. They used it as a starting point to track down Joel when he was a child."

"And then they just dumped him in that horrid Ghoul Project I've heard about," Troia frowned as she dug through the rubble.

"It was Ra's Al Ghul's strategy. He knew Joel would survive the experiments because of his willpower and the traces from the Lazarus Pit in his blood," Black Bat explained as she too looked around the rubble, "The plan was for Joel to eventually ask to come back and use the Lazarus Pit to stabilize himself."

"Yeah, that totally justifies it," Robin let out a snort, "Father of the year, right Dusk?"

Dusk shrugged, but didn't turn to look at his friends, "It eventually led to Amity Park, so it's not all bad."

"I guess so," Robin scratched his chin in thought, "We might not have ever met if it wasn't for that…"

"That's impossible to predict," Black Bat noted, "And assumptions will get us nowhere. Especially here. Start looking."

"Yeah, yeah, geeze, don't be so serious," Robin grumbled to himself.

"No need for further searching!" Troia let out a shout as she lifted a large chunk of debris to reveal a hatch, "I believe I have found it."

"Knew bringing some muscle was a good idea," Robin grinned as they all walked over to the entrance.

Troia went to open it, but she was stopped when Black Bat grabbed her wrist, "Don't. We have no idea if there are any traps."

"Really?" Troia eyed the hatch, "But look at all this destruction. Surely down there can't be any better. How could the traps still work?"

"Yes, the main reason the Shadows never went down there again was because they thought it might collapse, but I've heard reports on Joel's mother. She was incredibly skilled. Who knows what she did down there," Black Bat argued.

"Only one way to find out," Dusk stepped forward, "Back up, her traps won't hurt me."

When his friends gained some distance, Dusk yanked open the door. As soon as the door opened, a loud clicking noise went off, but nothing happened. Looking down into the hole, Dusk saw what appeared to be a trap designed to throw shuriken. The only reason it didn't work was because it no longer had any ammunition.

"The Shadows must have triggered her traps when they invaded," Dusk frowned into the darkness. He used his ectoplasm to light the area, but only saw scorched material and destruction, "No stairs. Collapsed spots. Everything is burnt. It looks like someone blew this place up."

"Was it the Shadows or your mom?" Robin questioned.

"One way to find out," Dusk held up a glowing ball of energy and descended into the basement. His friends quickly followed with the help of Troia. Once down into the basement, they made their way down the corridor. Both Robin and Black Bat skillfully avoiding touching anything that looked collapsible while Troia followed Dusk's flight pattern. They all still stayed close to the ghost though. If the place collapsed, only Dusk's intangibility would save them.

Eventually, after passing several collapsed rooms, they reached the end of the corridor to reveal wreckage blocking the final doorway. Dusk cautiously reached out to touch the wood and steal only to have the entire wall in front of them collapse. Dusk prepared to turn everyone intangible but stopped when he saw that only the one wall broke apart.

"Woah," Troia blinked as he looked past the wreckage, "Why is this room still standing?"

"It's reinforced. Like a bomb shelter," Robin noted as he tapped the walls to get a solid ring, "Even if the rest of the warehouse went down cause of a nuke, this room was going to stay standing."

"Yet there is a dead body…" Black Bat noted as she walked to the center of the room. A scorched skeleton lay face down of the floor on the floor.

"The fires started in here and continued outward…" Robin examined used bomb cases that stood at the sides of the entrance.

"I don't understand," Troia frowned down at the corpse, "Why have this room if thou was just going to blow it up?"

"To cover evidence," Dusk noted as he looked around the room, "If the thing you wanted to keep safe was gone, you might want to destroy everything in this room."

"But this body…" Troia eyed the obvious hole that existed on the side of the skull along with a charred gun that lay not too far from it, "This person did not die from the explosions or fire."

"Think about it," Black Bat gently traced the gun, "What would you prefer, dying in an instant, or a slow painful death?"

"But why not just run?" Robin questioned, "Was she corned or what?"

"Who knows what she was thinking. No one can run from the Shadows forever and without any allies, they would have found her and made her talk somehow," Black Bat reasoned, "There are forms of torture that can make anyone talk."

That statement cause and uncomfortable silence to fall upon the room. Everyone just stared at the burnt skeleton. The only noise that seemed to exist was the crunch of the debris as Dusk paced around looking for anything that survived. The near silence and pace suddenly halted when a large thunk sounded out below Dusk's feet.

Everyone turned to watch as the halfa once again test the floor with his shoe. After the sound repeated several times, Dusk knelt down to examine the metal part. Placing his palm on the metal place, he turn the steel intangible and removed it from the flooring.

"What is it?" Troia asked.

"Looks like a safe spot to keep some things protected from the fire. Like a safe," Dusk reached down into the safe spot and pulled out stuffed dog.

"A toy? I don't know any assassin that would keep a toy in a safe," Black Bat mentioned.

"She wasn't an assassin…" Dusk slowly pulled out more toys, ranging from binky all the way to a mobile with stars hanging down, "She was my mother."

Troia gained a rather emotional expression. It was hard to classify. Both joy and sadness danced across her face, "She couldn't bear to have all of thy memories erased."

"Yeah…" Dusk's eyes widened as he pulled out something different. It was a large book with a thick cover protecting the insides.

"What's that?" Black Bat questioned.

"Her journal…and my baby book…" Dusk's eyes desperately scanned the page as he flipped through the book, "This is it. She recorded everything that happened in here. That and…what she planned to do before hiding this away."

Robin gave his friend a concerned look, "What does it say?"

Dusk flipped back to the front page, "It says her name was Isabella…"

* * *

Dani twiddled her fingers nervously. She sat on the edge of the couch and looked around her living room. Everyone looked tense, and no one wanted to be the first to speak up. Not that she blamed them. It was a really weird situation.

Jinx scowled as she sat on a chair across from the man that helped give her life. He looked uncomfortable and not at all like the confident man Dani was used to seeing. Vision, on the other hand, was clearly analyzing the younger woman trying to figure her out.

"Danny's not coming if that's what you're waiting for," Jinx crossed her arms and continued to glare at Vlad, "He has to deal with something. Life and death stuff apparently. It better be, otherwise I'm going to tear his ear off."

"Yes," Vlad nervously adjusted his tie, "I just don't know where to start."

"Well, I don't either. I already have a dad," Jinx's eyes narrowed, "I don't need you in my life."

"Please don't be mad at him, Jennifer," Vision stated in a surprisingly gentle tone, "There was no way for him to know. I know Vlad. He would have raised you the best he could if he was given the chance. It was June that made the decision on how both of you—"

"Don't talk about my mother," Jinx snapped, "You don't know her! And I…I don't know her either I guess…"

"Um…" Dani glanced between her Dad and Jinx, "Can I say something?"

Jinx glanced at the other girl, "Fine."

"I have a weird situation parent-wise as well, Jinx…Jennifer. I'm sure Danny told you about it," Dani stated.

"Yeah, my 'father' made you using DNA from Danny and that Goth girl he used to know," Jinx nodded while biting her lips, "Because he wanted a child of his own."

"Even though Danny technically is my father, I don't think of him like that. Vlad's my Dad. Vision's my Mom. Danny's my brother," Dani explained, "That might not be right, you know, genetically, but I'm happy with it. They're my family, and I'm glad I have my relationships with them. You don't have to call Vlad dad or anything, but you can try for something. Or at the very least, hear out his version of the story."

Jinx sighed, "Okay then. Masters, start from the beginning. Tell me about my mother and how you met her."

Vlad nodded, "I can do that."

* * *

Danny let out a grown as placed his hand in his face and leaned back at his desk in Axion Labs. He should be home right now. He finally convinced Jennifer to talk with Vlad, and now he had to bail. Everyone probably was pissed at him, but he had a problem that needed dealt with right now. Or at least he had to find the best possible way to confront it.

Releasing his face, he looked back over his desk. It was covered with papers. Not the normal ones involving schematics and Axion Labs reports. No, these reports had to deal with something more complicated. David Cain had sent them with a single message on the front.

Shiva is dead.

Damn it. Goddamn it all!

Cassandra was going to be mad as hell. She was going to want to storm Ra's Al Ghul's fortress to take him out. They could try to stop her, but eventually she would slip away. Then, everything Shiva had worked for would be in vain. There was no way Cassandra would survive such an assault, even if she was a gifted fighter.

But perhaps that problem was already dealt with…

Looking through the other papers, Danny's frowned deepened. There was so much here ranging from deeps to houses across the planet, to accounts with so many zeroes it would make most people faint, and all the way to pictures. So many pictures.

"Damn it, Cain…" Danny placed his hands on his face once more, "Damn it!"

* * *

 _Isabella remained a passive face as she diligently wiped down the wooden floor. Candlelight danced across the stone walls. The windows that ran across the hallways revealed the darkened sky outside. The sun had set hours ago, yet she continued to clean. Fatigue was not a concern of her. She had been trained to go for days at a time without sleep. Besides, staying late working in the Great One's home was a far better alternative than going home to the shame filled eyes and disappointed sneers._

" _Ahem."_

 _Isabella stopped her work to look up. Her eyes instantly widened as she instantly brought her head down into a bow, "Forgive me, Great One, I did not see you there."_

" _Obviously," Ubu grunted as he stood loyally behind Ra's Al Ghul, "Move out of the Master's path, servant."_

 _Isabella gracefully stood up. Without breaking her bow, though, she carefully stepped to the side and out of Ra's path._

 _Ra's did not move, though. He merely turned and eyed the woman, "You may release your bow."_

 _Isabella stood upright immediately. Ra's eyes quickly took in her the soft curves that was her frame, which was highly complimented by the maid uniform that was meant to signal her place and fall from grace. The flawless skin of her legs and shouldered glowed in the candlelight. Her face was somewhat pouty but looked almost angelic as her hair was pulled up to reveal every beautiful feature of her face. What really struck Ra's the most, though, were her sharp blue eyes that seemed to make the very sky seem dull in comparison._

" _Is there something you require, Great One?" Isabella questioned respectfully._

" _You are a skilled fighter," Ra's noted, "I can see it with the very way you stand. Yet, here you are late at night cleaning the floors. Why?"_

" _It is my punishment," Isabella stated, "I refuse to obey. I refuse to kill."_

" _Refuse to kill?" Ra's blinked, "Well, that's something I haven't heard in a while. What clan do you come from?"_

" _The clan Taru," Isabella closed her eyes, "I was designated at birth to be the best. Your daughter's personal guard, but…I have too weak of will. I…I can't stand the sight of blood. The draining of life from a living body. It disgusts me, so I refuse to kill. I am a tool that is broken. A sword made into a mop and broom because it's too dull to use."_

" _No, not dull," Ra's noted, "Just…permanently sheathed. You have the skill. This much is obvious. You could have all the honor and glory you want, but you choose to be a pacifist. You chose dishonor over honor. You chose to clean instead of kill."_

" _Yes, Master," Isabella bowed once more, "Forgive my disobedience. I bring shame to both my family and to you."_

" _No, no," Ra's shook his head, "You held fast to your convictions. That's admirable. I haven't seen such a dedicated woman in a long…long time."_

" _Master?" Ubu eyed Ra's._

 _Ra's raised a hand to silence his right hand man, "Ubu, you are dismissed for the night."_

" _But…" Ubu sighed, "Yes, master."_

 _As Ubu walked away, Ra's eyed the woman in front of him, "I find it enlightening to hear opposing viewpoints. In fact, I think that assassins should value life. If they enjoy killing too much, then they become monsters."_

" _Yes, I agree with you, Great One," Isabella nodded sincerely._

 _Ra's looked around the hall, "I would say that this hallway is perfectly clean. You have done excellent work. Allow me to treat you to a late dinner. We can discuss the different viewpoints of our line of work," Ra's then held out his hand for Isabella to take._

 _Isabella eyed the hand for a moment before gently taking a hold of it, "How can I refuse?"_

* * *

 _It was supposed to be an easy job, a way to get a lot of cash quickly. After all, Masters hadn't had his fortune for long. He was just some guy that got lucky with the stock market and a few business investments after all. There was no way for the guy to actually know what it meant to be a billionaire or to have a target on his back._

 _Take this dumb party for example. This was the most generic charity party June had ever seen. Granted, the décor was nice. Masters didn't hold back for any expense for the food, music, and decorations. His ball room was really nice, and June assumed the rest of the mansion was the same._

 _With her long dark raven hair swinging with every step, June strode across the room. Her sharp blue eyes scanned the room. The big wigs in the room gave her appreciating looks but looked away to avoid being rude. That was how she blended in here. Usually, her natural beauty and the midnight black dress that hugged her curves would make her stand out. Here, though, anything less would be out of place. She looked the part to fit in, but deep down she would never be like these people._

 _One last hard look across the room allowed her to see the owner of this home. His back was turned to her, but his dark suit and white hair gave him away. Apparently, he had been in an accident that had prematurely turned his hair white and left him hospitalized for years. He had definitely dragged himself out of that crater, though. June could respect that._

 _It didn't mean that she wouldn't rob him blind, though._

 _June silently exited the room. She quickly strode down the hallways and stopped once she was sure she was out of sight. Entering a dark closet, she closed her eyes and began a low chant. Her magic quickly reacted to her commands. It pushed her senses across the entire manor._

 _Hmm…He definitely had a set taste. The entire place was covered with Packers memorabilia. That meant that he definitely didn't have a woman in his life. If he did, there would be a lot more variation. Besides that, though, he didn't seem to have a lot. A lot of papers and files were in what appeared to be an office. Those weren't any good for her. She lacked a head for business, and Masters would track down any transactions easily._

 _No jewelry…A few expensive suits, but she would be laughed at if she tried to sell those on the black market…Pictures…Damn, there wasn't anything really worth stealing. The man didn't even have an expensive car. Didn't he need to drive?_

" _Looks like it's a bust…Wait…" June grinned, "Oh, that will work, I suppose."_

 _Exiting the dark room, she quickly strode to her destination. The sound of her heels echoed across the empty halls. After few quick steps, she made her way to a rather empty room. Moonlight shined into the room from the far window and showed the display right at the end of the room. The display was a glass case covering a single football with the name Ray Nitschke signed across the front._

 _It wasn't diamonds or jewelry, but sports memorabilia like that sold fast, easy, and for a rather high price to the right people. At the very least, she would make a few thousand easy bucks tonight. Pretty good for such a cushy job._

 _With a smirk on her face, June reached out to grab the football but was surprised with a larger hand grabbed her hand and firmly held in in place._

" _I know that my Ray Nitschke football is quite a sight to see, but I would prefer you didn't touch my prized possession," Vlad Master noted as he walked up from behind June._

 _Knowing that she had underestimated the new billionaire, June gritted her teeth and prepared to blast the man in the face with a magic fireball. She paused, though, when she saw his face. His features were handsome, but that wasn't what caught June's attention. Behind his looks, June saw a lonely and tired soul that was at a loss at what to do with his life._

 _Vlad stared at her as well. Instead of the usual stares men gave her, however, this one was different. He wasn't staring at her body or even her face. He peered into her eyes and saw the woman that had long since been trying to make a name for herself instead of living of the name of the ancestor that had been trying to control her life for years._

 _Then, Vlad said something that shook June to her core, "Has anyone ever told you that you look beautiful in the moonlight?"_

 _That was the night that the woman known as Sorceress took the first step of falling in love._

* * *

 _David remembered when he first met Shiva. They had been on opposite sides of a contract. Neither one of them had been willing to compromise. Their fight had ultimately ended in a draw, with both parties being so injured that they could only crawl away. It wasn't all that later that they met up and fought again. And again. And again._

 _Then they shagged each other's brains out._

' _And that kids is how I met your mother.' Yeah, that was a story to tell the kiddies. Shiva might have killed him if he ever told that to Cassandra. Well, she would have at least, if Ra's Al Ghul didn't kill her and send her body to him express mail._

 _The bastard probably thought it was a courtesy. Maybe he won't do anything stupid if we show the body some respect. David knew that Ra's was a complete moron in that department. It never mattered why or how a loved one was killed. People got pissed off all the same. There was no honor for assassins. There was no forgiveness or cooling off from having a loved one ripped away from the land of the living. Yet, Ra's Al Ghul still pretended as such. That was what always pissed Cain off to no end._

" _Idiot should have sent assassins with the body to finish me off," David noted as he checked his pistols before holstering them at his sides. The weight of his shotgun at the back of his belt and his assault rifle across his shoulders and back comforted him as he prepared for what was to come, "Because like they say…"_

 _David pulled out a red button trigger. Without flinching, he pressed the button and set off the explosives he set around the perimeter of the fortress. Cain reached up and took a long drag of the cigarette that hung from his mouth as he watched the walls go up in flames. He had long since learned the distances one could be and not be hurt by the explosives. As the flames died down, Cain dropped his cigarette and stomped on it with his boot._

" _Payback's a bitch."_

* * *

 _Where shame once existed, there was now honor and glory. In one day, she went from being the dishonored maid to the Great One's most intimate lover. No one dared to even look at her the wrong way now for fear of the Great One's wrath. Her family now gushed and spoke of her with great pride. After all, only the best could ever hope to catch Ra's Al Ghul's eyes._

 _As for the man himself, Isabella really didn't have any complaints. He was gentle and kind to her. His experience shined through in many instances. Of course, she couldn't say that she loved the man, but she could have done far worse than a man that honestly cared for her._

 _Overall, her life had improved exponentially. She never had to work. She lived in luxury. She had people wait on her hand and foot. This wasn't just because she was the Great One's lover, though. No, it was far more important than that._

 _Slowly, Isabella reached down to gently stroke her extended stomach. The large bump had grown out immensely in eight months. Her smaller frame was now weighed down by the weight of the heir to Ra's throne. Her life now mattered more than anything to Ra's, because the one to finally take his place now grew in her womb. They both knew it. They could feel the strength of the child, Isabella would guess a boy from gut instinct._

" _Is something wrong?" Talia looked back at Isabella who had stopped her walk, more like waddling, to look down and stroke her stomach._

 _Isabella looked back up from her large stomach. She glanced at the woman and the single guard leading her. Usually, she had far more people guarding her at one time. Talia, however, wanted to speak to her with somewhat privacy. As such, it was just her and one of Talia's most trusted guards. He was a rather large man dressed in all black. She had no way of knowing what he really looked like under his mask._

" _Forgive me, I was just thinking about names," Isabella noted._

" _That is not for you to decide. Father shall name the child when he is born," Talia noted, "Now come. We need to talk about how you will take care of the child when it's born. We can't have you coddling the child after all, but he will need his mother…"_

 _Talia tried to turn away, but Isabella spoke up again and stopped her, "He's going to be named Joel."_

 _Talia raised an eyebrow at the women who had gained her father's attention, "Joel? Such a normal name for Ra's Al Ghul's heir? That's bold, I'll give you that. But it does mean 'Jehovah is God'…Is it your prediction that he will become a god among men? "_

" _I don't like to think of it like that," Isabella stroked her belly lovingly as she walked right up to Talia to the point that her pregnant belly was almost touching the other woman, "I like to think the name will give him strength of will and faith. He will be an uncompromising man. He will still to his beliefs, unlike me who is abandoning her creed."_

" _What are you talking—" Talia never got to finish that sentence. With speed that shouldn't exist on such a heavily pregnant woman, Isabella rushed forward with a sucker punch. Not having any warning, Talia easily fell from the blow. As the woman fell, Isabella grabbed the knife that hung from Talia's side and turned towards the body guard._

 _Using his shock to her advantage, she shoved the knife forward through the man's throat. She did this with closed eyes and clenched teeth. Bile crawled up her throat from the feel of his hot blood plashing across her face and the gurgling noise that jumped up from his throat._

 _Without even looking at the dying man, Isabella released the soon to be corpse and rushed to the compound's fence. She had been waiting weeks for this moment, for the chance to take her baby away from this place. Everyone always forgot her natural talent for the shadow arts. Isabella had long since learned the best escape route. With a skill that a pregnant woman shouldn't have, she shoved her newly acquired knife into the compound wall. She then used the handle of the blade as a foothold to get to the top of the fence. Once she managed to drag herself over it and safely land on the other side, she ran._

 _There was a dock down at the base of the compound. If she had to, she would kill to get a boat. Then, she would get away. She would take her baby away from this life of assassination and murder. He would remain pure. He would get a chance to choose who he wanted to be._

 _Isabella would make sure of it. Joel would never be Ra's heir. He would be a good boy, one that was pure and had no blood on his hands. Not like her. She had killed and broken her oath. That man's murder was on her hands, as was the wife she widowed and the children she orphaned. None of that mattered to her now, though. It didn't matter what she had to do, what sin she had to commit. She would keep Joel safe and out of Ra's hands for as long as possible._

 _No matter what…_

* * *

 _It had been close to a year since June started her relationship with Vlad. In that time, she learned what a complicated man he was. While intelligent and cunning, he was also emotionally vulnerable. He feared betrayal and loss more than anything to the point where he had a borderline obsession to those that did him wrong. If ever asked about it, he often brought up an old college friend that had caused his accident._

 _That was fine, though. June had problem letting go of things herself. While never giving him Vandal Savage's name, she did explain how she lived under the shadow of her 'father' and how she desired recognition and independence that didn't involve him. That was something Vlad instantly related with her._

 _In a way, they were perfectly flawed together. Their selfishness often danced around each other's. Egos clashed in mind games. Their ambition seemed to push them to become better. More often than not, things were a competition, and they thrived on it._

 _They spoke on many things. Art. Literature. Philosophy. There were a few one sided debates, though. Vlad often leaned more onto science and business, while June was more at home with magic and spirituality. It was the one difference that they could never discuss much. It was almost like a metal shield between them._

 _That was fine, though. Every couple had differences, and June was glad that he never pretended to be perfect. His flaws and strengths were all open for her to see, and she grew to love the man. She had even moved in a few months ago. Before meeting him, she would have scoffed at giving up such independence. Now, though, she enjoyed waking by his side._

 _For a time, at least, because everything must come to an end. Eventually, a bomb had to drop. Vlad, however, decided to drop his first._

 _Black rings appeared around him. Suddenly Vlad Master became Vlad Plasmius. He was a half-ghost. June didn't even know that was possible. Apparently, he gained his powers from the accident in college. That was how he really gained his fortune. He had abused his gifts to gain riches most people had often dreamed of but never received._

 _Truth be told, June didn't have a problem with any of it. He was a ghost, and she was a witch. He a cheat and a liar, and she was a thief and a villain. He could change the world by overshadowing the right politicians, and she could bring an era of darkness to the planet. So, she wasn't bothered at all by halfa thing._

 _Or, at least, she wouldn't have been if she wasn't pregnant._

 _She needed no test. June felt the second life force inside of her the day after it happened. The child would be powerful, that much she knew, but the energy was weird. Even before Vlad told her, she knew. Something was different about the child growing in her womb. It probably had to do with the fact that the parentage was so strange. A witch and a ghost having a baby. It sounded like the beginning of a horror story._

… _Maybe it was…_

 _June knew that Vlad would be delighted to have a child. The only problem was that June wasn't sure that she would survive the birthing process. There were times where she knew that the baby might kill her. Things broke around her for no reason. Mirrors. Cracks on the floor. Salt falling over. Black cats crossed her path._

 _Bad luck. That was not a good sign for someone going to give birth. The thought of abortion popped up more than once, but June couldn't bring herself to kill the child made from her and Vlad's love. As such, she would have to deal with the consequences of the birth, even if it meant dying._

 _If she died, then what would happen? Vlad would probably break mentally. He would be in no shape to raise a child. Who knows what would happen to him…her. June was hoping the baby would be a her. She always wanted a baby girl…_

" _I can't stay," June realized one day, "If I die, both of them will suffer. I need to leave. If I do survive, I can come back and explain myself. He'll understand. I know he will."_

 _So, she left. June left to the only person on the planet she would trust her child with if she died. She returned to her protector, her ancestor, Vandal Savage._

* * *

 _David took advantage of the chaos his explosions caused. He charged in head first into the compound. The smoke and flames hid his image as he threw every sort of grenade he had into the courtyard. Explosions, flashes, loud bangs, and just regular smoke filled the entire place before anyone could realize what was happening._

 _As David charged in, he blindly fired at anyone that got close to him. It didn't matter who. The only person he had left to care about was safely away from here. The rest of these jackasses were expendable. None of them matter to Cain._

 _As he ran, David tried to dodge every incoming attack and projectile that came to him. There was no way to get through all the chaos without getting hit by something. Several shuriken grazed him. A bullet had managed to lodge itself into his left arm. Luckily, all the adrenaline and pain killers he took before the assault made it so that he didn't feel anything._

 _By the time he made it inside, he was covered in large cuts and his own blood. Cain didn't let him stop, though. He continued down paths he had memorized by heart from the plans that Shiva had sent him long ago. As he moved, he pulled out his shotgun and mowed down anything that got in his way. A single blast from his gun sent bodies flying away him in a dead heap._

 _The damn assassins did manage to get a few more blows in through the conflict. His right leg was lagging for some reason, forcing him to do a combination of a limp and a run. David didn't let himself slow down, though, as he hurried through the hallways. Eventually he made his way to his destination. Before entering the room, he tossed his last grenade behind him to collapse the hallway and prevent his pursuers from following him._

 _Not wasting any time, he instantly went to the center of the storage room. He peeled off the middle panel to reveal a tunnel. David instantly felt grateful that Shiva's secret had never been found out. Without thought of worsening his own injuries, David plunged himself into the tunnel. He crawled and dragged himself through the dark, never once letting himself pause in fear that his body would shut down._

 _After a few minutes of crawling and a few drops, Cain was met with a bit of green light. With a grin on his face, Cain looked down through the cracks in the rock below to see a large green pool with famous ooze that was able to resurrect the dead. In front of the pool was Ra's Al Ghul himself. At the entrance of the room, many of Ra's most capable guards stood ready to fight._

 _Too bad they all forget the most basic rule of stealth. Always look up._

 _Throwing subtlety out the window, Cain dropped through the rock and to the cavern below him. The entrance instantly shocked the other people in room. This gave him just enough time to pull out his pistols and open fire. To the luck of the people at the front of the room, David only had one target for tonight. The first bullet that hit Ra's was definitely a kill shot. Still, as he fell, David emptied out two pistols worth of ammo into the demon's head before Cain finally landed on the ground._

 _The solid crack that sounded out when he landed signaled that he had broken something, but David couldn't bring himself to care. All he was focused on was the corpse of Ra's Al Ghul. The demon's head was swish cheese, but a quick look at the Lazarus Pit behind the corpse reminded Cain on how Ra's never exactly stayed dead._

 _Unfortunately, Cain's thoughts distracted him from the fact that he was not alone in the room. Some of the Shadow's best fighters were in that room. The likes of Deathstroke, Sportsmaster, and Cheshire were on him in a second. What followed was a blood path far worse than what had happened to Ra's Al Ghul._

* * *

 _Isabella was breathing heavily as she allowed her enemy's to slump to the floor. They had found her. Truth be told, she knew it would happen eventually. The Shadows would eventually hunt her and Joel down. She just hoped that she would get more time._

 _The sound of Joel's agonizing cries brought Isabella out of her stupor. Turning from the corpse, she saw her baby lying in his crib. In the scrimmage, he had gotten injured. It must be a relative new assassin that had managed to track her down, because if Ra's learned that the baby was hurt because of him, he wouldn't be long for this world even if he was alive right now._

" _I'm so sorry, Joel," Isabella reached down to comfort her baby. Soaked in her enemy's blood, she was sure that she was a frightening sight. Joel didn't seem to care, though. He was more focused on the cut that stood on his forehead, "Mommy didn't protect you very well."_

 _It had been a hard few months since she left the compound. After fleeing, she went to the one of the few cities that she could disappear without a trace. Gotham was good for that, after all. Using all of her skills in stealth and ninjustu, she stole, threatened, and beaten people to provide for Joel._

 _Isabella had managed to acquire one of Gotham's many abandoned warehouse and use the basement as a shelter. Dozens of traps had been placed to stop any intruders. It worked for the most part with the now corpse's allies, but he managed to sneak by somehow._

" _I wasn't as thorough as I thought," Isabella noted as she lifted the crying babe from his crib and began to exit the baby's room._

 _She had lost count of the people she cheated and lied to so she could keep Joel safe. It made her sick that she had taken care of some people's better natures. Skipping out on hospital bills after Joel's birth. Using both her beauty and Joel's cuteness to distract people from the truth. It all made it hard to sleep at night, but it was worth it because Joel was safe._

 _But that was no longer true. They had found her, and it was only a matter of time before more came. That meant that it was time. Joel was no longer safe with her. So, Isabella took Joel and moved across the city. She took Joel everywhere, making sure to leave specific traces at different bus stations, docks, and airports to make it seem like Joel could easily be out of the city. Isabella left so many false trails that she knew it would take years to figure what she really had planned._

 _Then, she enacted her plan. It was rather simple really. She staged a car crash, or more specifically thrusted herself into one. It wasn't all that hard. Gotham had car crashes every day, after all. She just drove up to one. Swerved a bit, and then carefully it a lamp post._

 _Quickly jumping into action, she moved into the back seat. Removing the protective covering she surrounded her bake with, Isabella took in the sight of her frightened child. Taking some broken glass from the back windshield, she carefully reopened Joel's wound to make it seem that it happened in the crash. Then, with only a few words of love and adoration to her baby, she ran. Isabella ran away from the car crash making sure to cover her scent as much as possible._

 _It broke her heart, but she couldn't be seen at the crash. No one could know that she was Joel's mother, not even him. He would grow up never knowing her. That was fine, though. All that mattered was that he grew up happy, away from Ra's as long as possible. At least, that's what Isabella told herself as she tried in front of Joel's now empty crib._

 _The sound of a crashing down sounded behind her. Gently clutching the side of the crib one last time, Isabella forced her sobs from jumping up her throat. Then, she turned to face Talia Al Ghul and the squadron of assassins behind her._

" _Where is Father's child?" Talia glared at the woman that had assaulted her only a few months prior._

" _Safe," Isabella gave the other woman a wet smile. Hot tears ran down her face, "Away from me, from you, from the demon you call a Father."_

 _Talia pulled out her dagger, "You will tell me where he is now. If you do so, I will grant you a quick death."_

" _Oh, you poor naïve woman," Isabella laughed at Talia as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a pistol, "You can never threaten a mother like that. I would rather have my intestines slowly ripped out of me than tell you anything."_

 _The assassins behind Talia all readied their guns. Talia just glared at Isabella as she shook her head in disbelief, "Why do all this? You know that we'll find him eventually. All you did was delay the inevitable."_

" _You'll understand if you ever become a mother," Isabella gave a look of utter love to the crib behind her, "No matter what, you want to give your child the best life possible. I want Joel to be able to choose who he will become on his own. Not because Ra's brainwashed him. Not because I pressured him. Because he chose who he wanted to be. And if simply delaying his capture will do that, then it's enough."_

" _It won't matter in the end. Father's blood runs through his veins. Eventually, the blood of the demon will overcome him," Talia noted._

" _Maybe. Maybe not. But at least I've given him a chance otherwise," Isabella gave one last smile as she moved her gun to the side of her head and pulled out what seemed to be a button with her other hand, "And that's enough for me."_

 _Talia's eyes widened, "What are you doing?"_

" _Giving Joel as much time as possible," Isabella then allowed both her hands to twitch. As her gun went off, her other thumb slammed into the button. Explosions filled the room and cause the assassins to retreat from the now burning building so that they too would not get consumed by the flames._

 _As she left, Talia looked over her shoulder one last time to see Isabella's corpse being consumed by the flames. The fire danced over the unmoving body, illuminating every part of the woman's features. For a brief second, Talia thought that she could actually see the dead woman smiling in death._

* * *

 _The sound of a baby's cries raked across her ears. Was it over? It didn't feel like it was over. Her insides felt like they were melting. Not to mention how badly things hurt down in her neither regions. June knew it would hurt, but this was like having her organs ripped out through her vagina and then have acid shoved up in its place._

" _It's done," Savage noted as the doctors prepped the baby, "How are you feeling."_

" _Like shit," Sweat rolled down June's exhausted face in waves, "How is she?"_

 _One of the doctors handed the child to Savage. Vandal looked at the innocent babe that lie in his arms. Like thousands of times before, he instantly fell in love, "She's perfectly healthy. Strange hair color, though. Pink."_

 _June let out a weak laugh. She noted that her vision was rather blurry, "She gets that from her daddy. Let me see her."_

 _Vandal went to hand her the child, but June shook her head. She couldn't raise her arms, "Just show me her face. I want to see her."_

 _Savage did as she commanded, but he snapped at the doctors, "What's wrong?! Why is she acting like this?"_

" _Sir…there were complications…The child…Her powers activated in the womb…She destroyed Lady June's insides. There's literally nothing I can do."_

" _The hell you can't! Call anyone with any sort of healing ability! Magic or otherwise! I don't care who, I'll use up all my favors if I have to."_

 _June ignored Savage's yells. She was too focused on her child. The babe was scrunching up her face and crying from all the yelling. Still, she looked so perfect to June. She even had a little bit of her dad in her face. That was good…That was good…_

" _Grandfather…" June addressed Savage, "I know what I want to call her. Jennifer. It fits her."_

" _June!" Savage looked at June's dulling eyes, "Hold on, I'm going to get you help! Just keep fighting!"_

" _Let her take your name, not mine," June stated, "Jennifer Moon…It won't fit her…Savage is the best name for my little fighter….Tell her…I loved her…"_

" _You can tell her yourself every day!"_

"…"

" _June?! JUNE!?"_

"…"

" _Goddamn it! Get someone, anyone right now!" Savage continued to yell at the doctor. He gently held the crying Jennifer in his arms as the now vacant eyes of June Moon stared at the newest life the grace the planet Earth._

* * *

 _David groaned as he slid down a wall to a seated position leaving a blood trail in his wake. Dozens of knives were sticking out from him. He could feel each bullet that was lodged within his body. Most of his blood was now on the outside of him instead of the inside. At this point, David couldn't really even look over himself to see how terrible he looked through the blood._

 _He just barely managed to get away. Many of the assassins had moved to help Ra's after their initial attack on Cain. That was where the real money was, after all. A few of the attackers tried to make sure he had died. In his haze of blood loss and injuries, Cain had no idea how he had gotten away._

" _What was the point of all this?"_

 _Or not._

 _Cain sighed as he reached into his jacket with his only still functioning arm and pulled out his last cigarette, "What do you mean?"_

 _Ravager stood before the defeated assassin, "Why do this? You know that Ra's would never be permitted to stay dead as long as he doesn't have a successor. Sure, you took out a few people along the way, but you've done absolutely nothing to hurt the Shadows in the long run."_

 _Cain held his cigarette in his mouth as he pulled out his lighter and lit up his last smoke, "Yep. I knew that from the start."_

" _Then why? Did you just let your emotions compromise the mission?" Ravager demanded an answer as Cain took a long drag of his guilty pleasure._

" _Kid, emotions was the mission. That man killed my wife," David took in the pleasure his cigarette gave him. Even now, he could never kick the damn habit, "You might not get it because you don't have anyone you care about—"_

" _You're wrong!" Ravager snapped, "I did care about people, but they left me! Both of them! Jericho and Cassandra thought they were too good for this life style!"_

" _Brat, everyone is too good for this life style," Cain let out a pained chuckle, "Very few ever make it to the top. Hell, even fewer ever wanted to make it to the top. We just started because we needed money, and then we could never stop. Not until we were dead. Don't blame people for wanting out. That means they're still sane."_

" _Even if almost everyone dies for the mission, at least they don't die on an impossible mission like you," Ravager argued._

" _Oh, I already accomplished what I wanted," David held his cigarette in his mouth as he reached into his coat one last time, "My whole plan was to show how stupid this is."_

" _What?"_

 _David pulled out what looked like a photo. Somehow, it managed to avoid getting completely covered in blood, even if it was dotted with red droplets, "What do you think Cass will want to do when she hears about Shiva? She'll want to do what I just did. Now, though, she'll see how stupid and pointless it is. She'll be smarter in her approach when seeking revenge."_

" _Wouldn't it be better to stop her wanting revenge all together," Ravager questioned as she knelt in front of Cain._

" _And who would convince her of that? Me? Batman? Phantom? She has too much of her mother in her. No one could convince her of anything with words. Actions, though, always caught Shiva's attention," David stared longingly into the photo in his hands, "And they'll catch Cassie's attention too. I just save her life."_

" _At the cost of your own," Ravage mentioned._

" _Your dad must be the crappiest father in the world," Cain noted, "It's the father's job to protect his kids, no matter what…"_

 _Ravager looked away uncomfortably._

" _Hey…Could I get…a last…request…" David took the photo and reached it out to Ravager, "Give that to Cassandra. I should have left it…with the rest…of my will…but I couldn't die…without having that…with me…"_

 _Ravage looked at the picture. A surprisingly groomed David Cain in a suit stood next to a stunning Lady Shiva in a beautiful white wedding dress. The two of them were smiling widely as each other as the held up their new wedding rings. Oddly enough, a smaller picture was glued to the lower corner of the wedding photo. It was a small picture of a newly birthed child wrapped in pink cloth._

" _It…was the…only picture…I ever had…of Cassandra…" Cain let his dying cigarette fall from his mouth, "I had to see it…one more time…"_

" _I'll give it to her," Ravager stared at the picture._

" _Thank…you…" David Cain stated as his body fell to the side. His body landed with a bloody squish as the final bit of life drained from his body. He wasn't really a religious man, but Cain hoped that he went wherever Shiva was. Heaven. Hell. Nothingness. None of it mattered as long as he would get to see her face one last time._

* * *

Dusk stared blankly down at the large book in his hands. His entire past had just been laid out in front of him. It was a lot to take in, especially considering he never even knew his mother's name before this. To think that she would so far for him…

"I'm a bit jealous," Robin suddenly blurted out as he stood over Isabella's burnt bones, "My mom would never have gone that far for me."

Everyone looked up to the Boy Wonder. Troia looked to her boyfriend with concern, "What dost thou mean?"

"She was a drug addict. She'd do anything to get her fix," Robin noted, "Even sleep around. And guess where that led to. Guess she realized I was coming a bit too late for the law's sake. And her illegal abortion failed…obviously. Dumped me the first chance she got."

Black Bat looked away uncomfortably, "I suppose some people aren't meant to be parents."

"Yet they do it anyway," Robin sighed, "I know where she is, but I'm afraid to confront her. It's…It's hard."

"Guess I should be happy then," Dusk carried the book over to the bones and gently laid it down by his mother's skull, "Isabella…Mom loved me enough to break her own beliefs. She sacrificed everything she had for me."

"Then why don't thou look happy?" Troia questioned.

"Because I'm sad," Dusk gently reached out to touch the hole that stood on the side of his mother's skull, "I caused her so much pain just by being conceived. It seems like I've been a burden all my life—"

Robin stopped Dusk's sentence by punching him across the face.

"Robin!" Troia's eyes widened in shock, "What art thou doing?"

Black Bat looked to intervene when Dusk raised a hand. He wiped his split lip and looked to Robin, "Sorry."

"Damn right your sorry," Robin growled, "You sure as hell have never been a burden. Don't blame yourself for other people's choices. Not Cujo. Not Secret. And especially your mom. She wanted to give you the right to choose who you want to be. Because of that, you're in our lives. You're the peaceful one in our group. Who knows how out of control we would be without you."

"Yeah…" Dusk looked back at his mother.

Troia decided to speak up, "Before, when thou said that we cannot escape the nature of our parents, thou might be right. There are definitely different aspects of your parents in thee. Ra's Al Ghul's charm. Isabella's pacific nature. But in the end, thou art thy own person. Thou are Joel Fenton, someone I'm sure thy mother would be proud of."

Dusk was silent in response.

"We all have our demons," Black Bat spoke up as well, "A lot of them seem to come from our parents. That's something we all have to deal with, but it's something we can overcome. You can overcome your Father's blood."

"…He's not my father. He's just the guy that helped conceive me. A sperm donor," Dusk suddenly stated, "I may be a bit like him, but I'll overcome that. Instead, I'll be the man my mother wanted me to be. The man she gave everything for. I'm her son, no one else's."

"Damn right!" Robin puffed out his chest, "And with that done, we'll deal with the other parent problems in our group. Next thing we have to do is help Black Bat save her mom from those bastard Shadows."

Black Bat blinked at the boy, "Really?"

"Yeah, we'll meet up with your dad and then kick some ninja ass," Robin grinned, "I'm sure he's already almost found her anyway. Soon, you'll have your parents back together…and maybe a new sibling as well."

"Maybe," Black Bat smiled at him.

"And when that's done, I'll head to Themyscira and tell Donna's mom that I'm dating her daughter!" Robin declared.

"Woah, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Troia shook her head, "I prefer thee still alive and intact, Robin. That won't happen if thou act like thyself around the leader of the Amazons. She'd be more than likely to castrate thee than welcome thee with open arms."

"Meh…Good point," Robin deflated a bit.

"It was a nice thought, though," Dusk let out a chuckle, "Hey, um, can I have a few minutes alone. I just…"

"It's fine," Black Bat walked over and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder, "We'll just head outside."

"Oh, do we have to…" Troia gained a disgusted look but followed nevertheless, "Gotham's air is so disgusting. I'd prefer to stay down here, and it smells like brimstone."

"Hey, are you mocking my town's smell?" Robin pouted as he followed the girls out of the room.

"Yes."

"Okay, just clarifying."

Dusk let out a chuckle as his friends out of the room. Then, when their voices faded from the burnt basement, he let his smile drop and looked back at his mother. He bowed his head in respect, "I just want to thank you. I can never repay you for giving me a chance. If it wasn't for you, I might have ended up just like Ra's."

Dusk took a shuddered breath, "Because of you, I have a family now. Good friends too. I love them all so much. They're good to me, just like you were. I promise I won't let your sacrifices be in vain. I won't let anyone's sacrifices be in vain. Never again. I swear to you that I'll keep the creed that you gave up to keep me safe. I will never let the blood of the demon get the better of me again."

Dusk then stood. He carefully grabbed his mother's journal. Then, he moved over to collect the other items that Isabella kept hidden and safe. The halfa quickly created a bag with his Matter Make ability and gently placed his baby stuff into it. He decided to keep his book out, though. Pausing for a brief second of thought, the halfa once again opened the journal to last page.

For a minute, he stared at the picture. His mother's smiling face looked back up at him. She looked exhausted, but the joy on her face was genuine as she held the baby version of Joel close to her face while holding the camera above her head with her free hand. Based on the gown and cloth they were dressed in, the picture looked like it had been take right after he had been born. What really made the image special was the small passage of words written beneath the photo.

 _The happiest day of my life. I love you, Joel._

Dusk desperately sucked in a breath as he fought against his now stinging eyes. With great care, he closed the journal one final time that day and hugged the book to his chest. Then, he turned back to his mother's corpse.

"I'll give you a proper burial. Right next to the rest of my family. Where you deserve to be."

* * *

"So…That's the full story…" Jinx leaned forward and placed her hands over her mouth.

"Yes," Vlad sighed, "She left without a word. I always thought she was disgusted by what I was. Now I know better, I suppose."

Vision placed a gentle hand of his, "In the end, everything was a misunderstanding."

"Not exactly," Jinx eyed Vlad, "Mom didn't trust you with me."

Vlad nodded slowly, "Yes, I was a different man all those years ago. I have no idea what I would have done if I saw June die. I would like to think that I would have raised you right, but there's no real way of knowing."

"Hey, you changed when me and Danny started to live with you," Dani smiled at her adopted father, "I think you would have stepped up to the challenge."

"Thank you for your confidence, Danielle, but I do believe that the very best I would have done was raise Jennifer to similar to how she is now," Vlad noted, "Even then…Savage would probably have done a better job."

"He did a great job," Jinx stood up and glared at him, "Despite what everyone might think of him, he's a loving caretaker. He raised me even when he didn't have to. I never once thought of him as anything less than my father. Sure, the training was hard, but I wanted it. I wanted to work with the Shadows to show him my worth, because I wanted to make him proud."

"And is that what you still want?" Dani questioned with a very serious look in her eyes, "Is that why you are with Danny?"

"NO! I love Danny," Jinx snapped out and then froze at the realization of what she just said.

"Good, because he cares about you," Dani glared at her, "I really don't care if your Dad's daughter, my adopted sister, or some demon spawn. All I care is that you're with Danny. Val proved her loyalty, and yours is all over the place. Forgetting your frenemy status, forgetting that you moved in on Danny while he was still mourning Val, forgetting everything you've done, I still don't like that you're with Danny because you're likely to choose your dad over him. If you do that, know that I will be your enemy for the rest of your life. Hell, I'll continue to hate whatever hell spawns you eventually push out if you betray Danny. Remember that."

"I will," Jinx glared back.

"Good," Dani nodded, "Then I'm happy with how this meeting has gone."

"I am too," Jinx looked at Vlad, "But I'm not out to have any new family members. Maybe as time goes by and Danny and I get closer, I'll give you a chance. Until then, though, I really don't care if you're technically my birth father. Mom didn't think you were worthy of being my dad, so neither do I."

"Very well," Vlad let out a sigh as he watched Jinx turn to head towards the exit, "It's not like I'm in any position to demand anything."

Jinx looked back at him for a second before leaving, "No, you're not."

With Jinx gone, Vision leaned in to comfort her fiancé, "Are you okay?"

"No…I'm a bit depressed," Vlad rubbed his head in frustration, "Everything is so complicated now. And it doesn't help that I always wanted another child."

Vision gave him a smile, "We can work on that."

"I know, but…" Vlad eyed the space Jinx once took up, "It won't change what could have been."

* * *

Phantom stood in the Cave. He had shared everything he had gotten from Cain with Batman and Nightwing. They too seemed troubled by the reports. There was no way of telling how Cassandra would react to it. While very serious and mission oriented, she was also extremely protective of her family. They would have to be careful on they presented the news to her.

 **Recognized: Black Bat B25**

All three of them turned to watch Black Bat walk in from the Zeta Tubes. She instantly noticed their gazes, "What?"

"We need to talk," Batman stated.

"Am I grounded?" Black Bat questioned, "Because that's the tone Mom always has before I end up getting sent to my room."

"No, Cass, you're not grounded," Nightwing sighed, "It's more complicated than that."

"You found my Mom? Does Dad know?" Black Bat asked eagerly.

"No…Yes…It's complicated…" Phantom walked up to the girl. He gently handed her the dozens of folders in which he placed Cain's accounts, deeds, and notes.

"What are these?" Black Bat frowned at the folders in her arms.

"They're from your father. He sent them after he found out where Shiva was," Phantom sighed, "He wanted you to read this first."

He placed a small slip of paper on top of the folders. The massage burned into Black Bat's eyes.

'Don't be like me. Don't be like Shiva. Be Cassandra. I love you.'

Black Bat used her free hand to pull her mask away from her face. Her eyes shined with tears, "They're dead, aren't they?"

Phantom closed his eyes as Black Bat silently began to cry, "Yes, they are."

* * *

" **Is everything prepared?** " Trigon looked down at his various followers. They all bowed down before him, except for one.

"Your sons are ready, Father," Greed smiled up to the giant demon, "We will are ready to bring Pride back into the fold. Soon, your sins will be made whole once again."

Brother Blood bowed so low his forehead brushed the ground. He didn't seem to care as his red and white robes gained a layer of grime and dirt over them, "Your worshipers are ready, my master. The heroes will not know what to do when faced with humans ready to die for you."

Agent Z was the only one not bowing, "Your lava beetles are prepared. We'll burn everything to the ground, Master Trigon. Don't you worry about that."

" **Good,** " Trigon nodded, " **All of you are dismissed except Z. Get your groups ready for what is to come. The end of days will arrive soon.** "

Now free to leave, Greed and Brother Blood stood and walked away into two different portals at the back of the platform that stood above the planes of hell. Agent Z, however, didn't move, "What is it you want, Master Trigon?"

" **I wanted to clarify something for you. I know that you think that I was lying when I said I would reuinte you with your children again,** " Trigon noted.

"It's fine. I've told you hundreds of times, all I care about is making sure Phantom dies," Agent Z shrugged.

" **That's thing, though, David. I was never lying. You will meet up with your children again** ," Trigon stated, " **I keep my promises, after all.** "

"Really?" Agent Z raised an eyebrow.

" **Yes. That's what I want to address. Are you prepared to meet them? They won't be like you remember. They'll probably despise what you've become,** " Trigon explained, " **Are you prepared for that? Are you certain that your loyalty won't waiver?** "

Z frowned, "I can't guarantee how I'll feel, but you know that I don't go back on my decisions. Once I commit, I never waiver. You've seen that when I tried to eradicate all the ghosts and when I betrayed Joel."

" **Yes. Very good. I just wanted to hear it from your mouth, because from what I understand about humans, you often let your blood family get in the way of progress.** "

* * *

Ember was trembling. She did not tremble. Rock stars and fire ghosts did not tremble. Ember did everything with complete confidence. That was her thing. No one could question her resolve.

Yet here was about to break down crying in front of her father's old workplace. It had been abandoned almost four years now. Everything was stripped from the building, even the giant logo on the front. Ember could still make out the letters, though.

GIW.

The Guys in White.

Her father was in the Guys in White. No, that wasn't completely right. He was the leader of the Guys in White. Ember's father…Torch's father…was Agent Z, one of Danny's greatest enemies. Disgust surged through her as she realized that her father was the man that had tried to kill everyone in the Ghost Zone, betrayed Joel, and was now apparently an agent of Trigon if she had her facts straight.

"Damn…It all makes sense now," Ember noted as she realized why both Torch and Danny kept so much from her. The truth was ugly.

Slowly, Ember reached out and traced the faded letters with her fingers. She might not have been responsible for her Dad's actions, but she still felt guilt. He was her family. That meant he was her responsibility. Just like it was Torch's responsibility.

"Okay then. I know what I have to do. Dad…I'm gonna have to deal with you."

* * *

 **Next update: "No Sacrifice" on March 14, 2016**

 **Unfortunately, I was unable to find a DC character that could fit what I wanted with Isabella's character. As such, I went for an OC. If you have any questions, just let me know.**

 **I was surprised by the amount of encouragement I got to start a Gravity Falls fic. My answer is...I'll think about it. I have a pretty full plate as it is, so I give absolutely no guarantee. If I ever did a GF fic, though, it would be a crossover with Rick and Morty.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	18. No Sacrifice

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"You can't achieve anything in life without a small amount of sacrifice."

Shakira

* * *

Chapter 18: "No Sacrifice"

(Thursday-April 10, 2014)

She knew something was wrong the moment she woke up. Happiness filled her chest in a way that she never remembered happening so naturally. She instantly knew that it wasn't her own joy. It was the delight of a sick monster preparing to destroy an entire world's worth of life.

Raven's eyes instantly snapped open. Snapping up to a sitting position, she pulled up at her pajama sleeves to show deep red glowing tattoos. A quick look at the mirror to the side of her bed showed that the mark of her father had branded itself across her forehead once more. Through all, the sickening joy continued to thump in her chest like a terrible infection.

Closing her eyes, Raven took a few deep breaths. She mumbled her unique chant and focused on controlling her emotions just like she did every day. The only problem was that it wasn't working at all. The joy never faded. In fact, it intensified. A dark chuckled echoed through her ears, taunting her and telling her that it was no use.

Today was it. The end of the world.

Fear and anguish mixed in with the terrible joy. She had wanted more time. She just got Chuck and Nyx back not too long ago. Now, she was the one that had to go away, one way or another. Part of her wanted to pretend nothing was wrong. She would try to give everyone a good day before their lives were ruined forever, but she would never get away with that. Even with how well Amity Park hid energy signals, people would tell just by looking at her.

Rising from the bed, Raven's pajamas changed to her usual vigilante attire in a swirl of magic. She then floated out of her room to the rest of the apartment. Before, her mother had struggled to support them, but Master had provided more than enough financial assistance so that Agatha didn't have to work herself to the bone to survive.

Once she made it to the kitchen, Raven floated down to her feet and lowered her hood. Her mother was at the oven preparing breakfast. God…she thought it was a normal day. Hell, everyone thought it was a normal day.

Raven's voice came out quiet and weak, "Mom…"

"Good morning, sweety," Agatha stated without turning around, "I'm making French Toast. We haven't had it in a while, and I know you'd need a pick-me-up with that test you have today."

"Mom."

"Vision asked us to come over to breakfast again, but I refused. We bother those nice people enough," Agatha let out a sigh, "They've been more supportive of us than I thought anyone would be. Even in Aza—"

"Mom!"

"What is it…" Agatha turned around. Her annoyed expression instantly dropped into that of horror, "No…It's today?"

"It is," Raven nodded, "I'm sorry, Mom."

Agatha took a shuttered breath. Tears began to stream from her eyes. She slowly stepped over to her daughter and pulled her into a hug, "Me too, Rae. Me too…"

Hugging her mother back, Raven used the reality that for once she could let herself feel without losing control of her magic. Letting out a sob, Raven returned the hug and began to cry into her mother's shoulder because she knew, without a doubt…

Today was the day she was going to die.

* * *

"We relocated your mother so she couldn't be used against us like before," Phantom stated as he stood in front a seated Raven, "We have an idea of what your brothers and Agent Z can do, so we prepared the best we could."

"And this bunker is supposed to help?" Raven's eyes slowly followed the lines of the steel walls around her. Each piece of metal was covered with different runes and symbols.

"Zatanna, Blood, and Constantine lined the mountain with those symbols," Phantom explained, "No teleporting except through the Zeta Tubes. To get to you, Trigon's forces will have to fight their way up the mountain and get past this door."

"It won't work," Raven stated, "My father will just laugh at this. There's no way to stop him."

"I don't believe that," Phantom noted, "I've faced a lot of enemies that were 'unbeatable,' yet I still managed to find a way."

"This is different," Raven shook her head, "You've seen it. What my father can do. He even stole from Death. How can you beat that?"

"You're talking to ghosts, Rae," Spirit decided to speak up from her position in the door frame, "We all kind of gave Death the finger."

"That's not the same and you know it," Raven sighed, "I just…Maybe it would be better to go with Doctor Fate's plan."

"We aren't banishing you from Earth," Spirit glared at her friend, "That's not an option. We're not going to sacrifice you when we don't have to."

"You're going to regret that," Raven looked down in despair.

"No we won't," Phantom reached forward and gently squeezed her shoulder, "Look, hold tight. I'll be back in a few minutes after I go over everything with the defense force."

"Yeah, we'll hold the line," Spirit grinned and turned to walk out of the room, "I'll see you when this is all over, Rae. And it will be over soon."

Phantom released Raven's shoulder and started his retreat as well, "What she said. Don't worry. We have your back, Raven."

With that, Phantom stepped out of the bunker and closed the door. Raven was now alone in her cage. The silence filled her with dread of what was to come.

"I know. You'll all fight to the death for me…" Raven reached down into her boot and pulled out a long kitchen knife, "I'm sorry. I can't let you do that for me."

* * *

Phantom eyes swept across the holographic images feeding in from the security cameras. The entire perimeter of Mount Justice was surrounded by members of Young Justice and the Justice League. They all stood or floated ready to fight. Everything was as prepared as they were going to make it. Nodding to himself, Phantom turned and began to walk out of the meeting room of the Cave. He would go prep Raven for the full plan and then go outside himself.

Harriet looked over to Phantom, "Shouldn't we have the ghosts here too? They would make defending this place easier."

"No," Phantom shook his head, "Vision and Plasmius are with Constantine and Entrigan working on the final details of the Banishment Box."

"And the others?" Mal questioned without looking away from his screen.

Phantom closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath, "I don't like leaving all my eggs in one basket. If we fail, we need the ghosts ready for the backup plan."

"That's smart," Batman noted as he entered the Cave's main hall, "You should always plan for the worst situation."

"Speaking of the worst situation," Phantom eyed Batman, "Any word on Doctor Fate?"

Batman shook his head, "No. He has failed to respond to any of my attempts to contact him."

"Damn," Phantom clenched his fists, "I knew he would do this. Even if the League agreed to my plan, Nabu's not one to leave things to chance. Doctor Fate might try to kill Raven, or at least banish her."

Batman let out a sigh, "Raven has proven her loyalty. We could not overlook that. No one gets to choose our parents or our childhoods. The League members know that more than anyone, but Nabu…He sees things only as order and chaos. He doesn't comprehend controlled chaos."

"I'll have to guard Raven myself then," Phantom noted, "I might be able to talk Doctor Fate down."

Batman nodded, "You two do have a history. Very well. I'll stay and lead the operation. Just be careful, and don't underestimate him."

"I won't," Phantom fidgeted uncomfortably, "And if I can't talk Doctor Fate down…If he attack Raven…I might have to stop him. Maybe in a long term manner."

Batman frowned, "The League has already voted to protect Raven. He knows the rules. We always go by the decisions of the majority vote. If he disregards that, then that means the League will have to distance itself from him."

"So…" Phantom's eyes narrowed, "If I'm forced to destroy the helmet?"

"No one will be happy about it, but if it has to be done, so be it."

* * *

Dusk's eyes darted around the area as he flew around Mount Justice. He saw the dozens of heroes of both the Justice League and Young Justice standing in small groups and preparing for the fight that was come. Almost all of their allies stood ready to fight. Only a select few were missing. Of course, not everyone looked please to be here. Red Arrow looked outright angry, but that might be because Mentor hadn't been able to get info on possible whereabouts of the Shadows and the original Speedy for well over a month.

Of course, Red Arrow wasn't the only one upset about that…

Landing down beside Black Bat, Dusk quickly spoke up, "It looks like everyone is together and in position."

"That's good," Black Bat was looking blankly off to the distance, "We wouldn't want that Envy person impersonating any of us."

" **Did you see any sign of enemy approach?** " Damon asked from beneath the Exorcist Amor.

"No, but I doubt we'll get any sort of warning. Their last attack was completely unexpected," Dusk noted.

Black Bat nodded curtly, "Then we would stay focused."

Dusk frowned at the girl, "Cass…"

"Stop it, Joel. I've told you one hundred times," Black Bat shot him a glare, "I don't want to talk about it."

"But you helped me when I needed it," Dusk gave her a sad look.

"You can help me by not giving me such pitiful looks," Black Bat snapped at him, "And it's not like there's any secret you can share that will make me feel better. My parents are dead, and Ra's Al Ghul is responsible. I can't let that go."

"You'll feel better—"

"I don't want to feel better," Black Bat interrupted him, "I want Ra's dead."

"Now that doesn't sound very heroic," Agent Z's voice called out.

All three of the fighters quickly went on alert as Agent Z appeared in a burst of fire only a few meters away from them. They immediately hit the alert buttons on their communication devices to warn the others that it was time to fight.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Agent Z remained in a relaxed stance as he watched his enemies' comms devices flash red, "They still have a few minutes until the attack begins."

" **Then we should put you down and get you out of the way,** " Damon snapped as he held up the Exorcist Armor's arm cannon.

"Very vicious," Agent Z let out a smile, "I'm surprised the heroes agreed to have you fight beside them, Damon. After all, a man that's lost his children really doesn't have anything else to lose. He tends to go—"

With an angry snarl, Damon opened fire on Agent Z. He sent several large blasts of ecto bullets at Agent Z. Calmly, Agent Z raised a hand and created a shield of fire to stop the attacks. After a few more blasts, Damon stopped his attacks.

"Nuts at times…" Agent Z finished his last sentence.

" **Don't you talk about something you know nothing about!"** Damon roared at Agent Z.

"Oh, but I do know about that," Agent Z stated, "Dusk knows. He probably never told anyone, but I lost my children to ghosts too. Why do you think I even started my agenda to destroy all the spooks anyway?"

"Because you're insane," Black Bat spoke up.

"Exactly," Agent Z nodded, "Like I said. Losing your children…It changes a man. People talk about maternal instinct all the time, but so few people ever really consider just how much a father loves his kids. A real dad would do anything for his children, don't you agree, Cassandra?"

Black Bat clenched her fists.

"Stop it, Z," Dusk glared at the former leader of the GIW, "I won't let you get under our skin."

"That's not what I'm trying to do," Agent Z suddenly sighed. He reached up to rub his temples, "I'm tired kid. I'm ready for all this to be over. To finally get my revenge on the ghosts…on Danny Phantom. But before I do that, I wanted to speak with you."

"Fine, but don't expect me to let my guard down. I know Trigon's sons are around here somewhere," Dusk noted. He had one hand behind his back, messing with his Tucker Phone. A quick few taps of the finger sent a message that Agent Z was right in front of him.

"I…I wanted to say I was sorry. To you and no one else. I did you wrong after you helped me like no one else did before," Agent Z stated.

"I've long since moved past that," Dusk shrugged.

"I know, but…" Agent Z paused for a second, "I've had years to think while waiting for Trigon's plans to come to the end. I've thought about many things. One of the biggest things I realized was that there was one thing I ever really regretted doing. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of things I regret not doing, but I stand by almost every decision I ever made. No matter how terrible or evil they were. I regret none of the people I killed, ghosts I eliminated, or orders I carried out except for one. Betraying your trust."

"And why exactly do you feel that way?" Dusk questioned.

Agent Z removed his sunglasses and revealed deep red eyes from Trigon's influence, "You remind me nothing of my son. He was brash, and you're patient. He was loud, and you're quiet. He was flashy, and you're subdued. Yet when I look at you, all I can think about is him. Because there was this one time in the Ghoul Project that you gave me this look. A look that Trever gave me once upon a time. It was a look of complete trust. Looking back, I see that you were a kid looking for someone, anyone, to look up to, and I completely trampled on the hope that I could be that person."

"I see…" Dusk gave a small nod, "Then for what it's worth, I'm willing to forgive you, but only if you stop this madness. Don't help Trigon, help us instead, and you'll be redeemed in my eyes at least."

"Now you know I can't do that," Agent Z placed his shades back on, "I told you once, Joel. Once I decide something, I follow through with it no matter what."

"I see…"

"Yeah," Agent Z raised a hand. With a quick snap of his finger, fire erupted around the base of Mount Justice. Red beetles seemingly made of fire and lava stepped out to begin their march up the mountain, "This is the end."

"It is. But I have to apologize as well. You see, I did tell someone about your children," Dusk noted as his companions raised their weapons, "Mentor may have figured it out first, but everything finally clicked in my head when I realized that Torch and Ember are related and that Torch has some sort of grudge against you."

"What are you talking about?"

"HE'S TALKING ABOUT THIS!" Torch shouted as he flew down behind Agent Z and swung his scythe down at his father's unprotected back.

* * *

Spirit's head shot up as the alarms went off, "We're out of time, Zatanna. Is everything ready?"

"Yeah," Zatanna nodded as she knelt and looked over the various writings that danced over the metal doors that allowed entrance to the cave, "I was just double checking. Everything looks in order. No one with demonic origins gets in our out without my say so."

"Then let's go, Sabrina," Nyx crossed her arms and glared at the sorceress, "There are a bunch of baddies I can't wait to kick the crap out of."

"Alright," Zatanna nodded and stood up, "No need to—argh!"

Cyborg quickly stepped forward and stopped Zatanna from falling down. Said magician was clutching at her stomach and gritting her teeth in pain, "Woah! Maybe you should stay inside. It looks like you still haven't healed completely."

"No," Zatanna hissed and quickly stood up on her own, "It's already been too long. I need to do this. I can't just give up."

Yougblood's eyes jumped rapidly up and down from Zatanna's face to the hands clenching angrily at her stomach. He then gained a saddened look, "I get that you're angry, but forcing yourself to fight now will only get yourself killed. There are other options when one door is closed, you know."

Everyone gave Youngblood a strange look. Zatanna, however, looked absolutely horrified that he was calling her out, even if it was in an indirect way.

"Um, Chuck…" Nyx blinked at Youngblood, "What are you talking about? Door?"

Youngblood looked away, "Nothing. I just…Maybe I should take Zatanna inside? I think I need to talk to her in private about a few things."

"Maybe that's for the best," Spirit admitted, "You've been acting weird too. Almost like maturity or something, but that's…"

"Okay, come on, Miss Zatanna," Youngblood walked up to the door, "Let's get out of way so we don't burden them down with our baggage. We can find a way to help from a distance."

"Miss?" Zatanna blinked.

"You getting out of the way?" Nyx frowned.

"Baggage?" Cyborg questioned.

Youngblood paused at the door. He took a deep breath, "It's something you know, Victor. You never know what you're missing until it's gone. And then, you're always angry about losing it. Even if you're better at hiding it."

Cyborg looked gob smacked as his jaw dropped a little and Youngblood's words stung his soul.

"You three go. Mis…Zatanna, please open the door," Youngblood stated as he absentmindedly reached up to stroke Polly's head.

"Um…Right," Zatanna went to open the door, but she was stopped.

"Wait!" Spirit held her arm out as she saw some people approaching the entrance, "It's too late! The enemy's coming!"

All five of the young people took a battle stance as they turned to the people approaching them. They were expecting one of Trigon's creatures or sons. Instead, though, they saw Aquaman, Lagoon Boy, and Bumblebee leading a bunch of strange people in white robes.

"Greetings!" The oldest person wearing the white robes spoke up, "My name is Brother Blood! Could I perhaps have a word with you lovely young people?"

* * *

Raven felt her heart beating faster than she had ever felt it go. It was almost painful to the point that her insides were burning. At the same time, a cold sweat had broken out all across her trembling skin. The conflicting feelings made her nauseous. This sickness plus her fear made her hesitate as she held the knife to her thumbing chest.

She had to do this. If she continued to live, then everyone would die. A few years ago, she had long since accepted her fate. She would either die or be the passage for Trigon into this dimension. It was just a fact that her life would either be meaningless or a curse to the planet.

Then, she got a vision. It wasn't something that happened often to her, but there were times where she saw glimpses of the future. In a haze, she saw the form of Danny Phantom in a blaze of white and gold. He stood victorious in a war between human and ghosts. He brought peace to a situation that should have ended in mutual destruction. In that moment, she knew that Phantom was the one who could change fate.

As soon as the sight was gone, Raven gained something she never had before.

Hope for the future.

That was why she came to Amity Park. That was why she befriended Dani. That was why she stuck so close to the Phantom Family. Things changed, though. What was once a quest for herself became something more. She became a hero. She gained irreplaceable friends and family. She had found a home that accepted her for what she was.

And most of all, she learned that the prophecy was just a big sham. It was made up by Destiny to bring attention to Phantom, to give him a chance to be what they wanted him to be. That wasn't something she could place all her faith. She couldn't risk everything she loved on some hope that Danny might find an answer.

Tears rolling down her eyes, Raven muttered her signature chant to calm herself. She then closed her eyes and raised the blade up. With a little whimper, Raven brought the blade down to her chest.

It never made contact.

Eyes snapping open, Raven's teary gaze met the angry face of Danny Phantom. One of his hands was reached and grabbing the blade of the knife. He held onto the blade tightly to stop it from moving forward even though the knife dug deeply into his palm and was now covered in his blood.

Phantom's other hand was holding his Tucker Phone up to his ear, "Jen, I'm going to have to call you back. Try to get here as soon as you can."

Raven watched as Phantom hung up the phone and yanked the blade away from her. In a blaze of blue, the knife was covered in ice. Then, in a burst of green, the knife shattered into pieces.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Phantom glared at her.

"I was thinking that I was going to save the world," Raven answered. She tried to keep her voice neutral, but the crack in her voice and the puffiness of her eyes gave away her true feelings.

Phantom's eyes shined in anger, "By killing yourself?"

"Yes, it's the only way," Raven took a shuddered breath, "I won't let any of you die for me. I won't let you sacrifice the world for me."

"We won't! We have a plan!" Phantom argued, "We're going to use a banishment spell Constantine and Entrigan made to banish everything relating to Trigon away. That's one of the reasons why you're in here. This room will keep you safe from everything."

"It won't work."

"It will!" Phantom grabbed he shoulder and stared into her eyes, "We talked it out. We can do this."

"The world is going to end." She said with tears in her eyes. "This world will burn and there is nothing you can do about it."

"Yes there is!" Phantom yelled. "There is always something that can be done."

"No…there is only two options now." The girl cried. She knew the truth. "Both of which involve death."

"Whose death? Yours? Everyone's?" Phantom questioned angrily. "Because I'm not willing to give up any of them."

"You don't have a choice…"

"There's always a choice."

"Why are being so stubborn!? My death will save the world! Are you actually willing to risk the world for one worthless girl!?"

"Yes…" Phantom hugged her tightly. "Because I would never sacrifice my sister."

Raven froze within Phantom's arms, "Sister?"

"Of course," Phantom gently rubbed her back, "Everyone on the Team…Everyone who fights by my side is my family. My brothers and sisters. I will protect all of you no matter what. I promise. There will be no sacrifice today."

"That was always your biggest problem, Danny. You were always willing to sacrifice yourself, but you were never willing to let others suffer for the greater good."

Phantom instantly released Raven. He held a protective arm in front of Raven and glared at the new entrant into the bunker room, "Doctor Fate."

* * *

"You again?" Agent Z grunted as he blocked Torch's attack by covering both of his arms in flames, "I already beat you once, kid. What's your issue anyway? I don't remember doing anything to you."

"If you don't remember, then Torch won't tell you!" In a burst of flames on behalf of both the flame users flying away from each other. Landing on the dirt of the mountain, Agent Z slid several feet before coming to a stop. He didn't have the chance to contemplate Torch's words because Damon was already on him.

Rushing towards the agent of Trigon, Damon activated the Exorcist armor's gattling gun and opened fire at his enemy. Creating a shield of flame, Z managed to stop the dozens of bullets flying at him. The distraction left him open for a different attack. With a swing of his scythe, Torch created an arc of flames that smashed into the agent. Still, the fire really did nothing to hurt Z who had long since became accustomed to the flames of hell.

Dusk and Black Bat tried to move forward to help, but the lava beetles quickly got in their way. Creating his Pendulum Nunchucku, Dusk tried to mow his way through the beetles. Similarly, Black Bat pulled two hidden knives from her utility belt and began to cut through the strange creatures in front of her.

After a few seconds of making minimal progress, Dusk felt frustration began the boil in his stomach. With each lava beetle he destroyed, two more appeared in front of him. Anger trickled through him with each passing second. The same thing could be said for the usually calm Black Bat. Her normally calm and calculated movements were becoming wilder with each attack.

"Hey! Don't get in Torch's way!" Torch pushed Damon away.

Damon, however, wasn't willing to take that, " **I'm trying to help you, idiot!** "

It was then that Torch and Damon completely took their attention away from Agent Z. They began to bicker and began to push each other rather violently. The pushing was nothing compared to the pillar of fire that Agent Z sent to them, though.

Dusk then realized something. A glance across the island showed the various members of the Team and the League were also fighting against the lava beetles but nothing else. He couldn't see all the way around the mountain, but he did get a good view of the battlefront. From what he could see, the Sons of Trigon were all still at the base of the mountain. They were just standing and watching. Maybe they were waiting for an opportunity to abuse an opening. Or maybe they were just going in waves…

Damn, it was hard to think. He was just getting so frustrated…Wait.

"Wrath!" Dusk shouted as he whirled around to see the muscular half-demon standing behind them.

"Oh?" Wrath raised an eyebrow, "Figured it out, did you? Nice job. Too bad the others are in such a dark place. They let their anger get the better of them."

A glance behind him showed that his allies were losing it. Black Bat was now just moving in a wild frenzy. Torch and Damon were actually fighting each other at this point. Everything was just chaos, and no one seemed to care that Wrath was manipulating them.

"Damn," Dusk hissed out. Doing his best to control his temper, he rushed towards the muscular demi-demon. With a swing of his arm, Dusk extended the chains of his weapon and wrapped the nunchucku all around Wrath. He then tried to send a surge of energy through the chain and tried to shock his enemy into unconsciousness.

Wrath, however, just laughed at that. Before he could even get shocked, he shattered the chains holding him and rushed forward. Dusk responded by forming his Reflection Shield. With surprising show of speed, Wrath sent several jabs at Dusk from different angles. The halfa blocked each blow with the shield and went to send a blast back at Wrath, but the massive man shockingly moved out of the way and smacked the surprised Dusk away.

As he was flying back, Dusk formed his Scribe Staff. As he was about to land in the crowd of lava beetles, he swung his staff around and destroyed the creatures. Able to land safely, he immediately faced towards the son of Trigon again. Forcing the anger that was bubbling inside of him down, he managed to stop himself from doing something stupid and get himself killed by blindly rushing forward to Wrath.

If only the others thought that way.

"AH!" A scream from Damon instantly drew Dusk's attention away from Wrath. Agent Z apparently took advantage of Torch's and Damon's fight to get an edge over the two. He knocked Torch back in a fiery blaze and grabbed Damon by the neck.

Flamed danced over Damon's entire body. The metal didn't seem to help him from the pain based on the shouts. Light shined out so brightly from the fire that Dusk was forced to look away. By the time the light and shouts died down, Dusk had to blink to get his vision back under control. When the blurs faded, he was shocked by what he saw.

There was nothing where Damon just stood. No melted steel, no ashes, and no sign that a man just existed were left. Damon was completely gone.

* * *

"Who the hell are you?" Nyx glared at the man who called himself Brother Blood.

Brother Blood gave her a smile that could be that of a grandfather's, "So rude. A young lady should treat their elders with more respect."

"I ain't no lady, and I only give respect to people who earned it," Nyx spit on the ground, "So tell me who you are before I use your shadow to strangle your balls."

"I don't think you heard me…" Brother Blood raised a hand. Lagoon Blood suddenly expanded into his puffer fish mode. He wrapped his massive hands around Bumblebee's neck and began to squeeze. This caused Bubblebee to gasp and desperately try to breath even though she wasn't fighting back, "Show me some respect, little girl."

"Fine! Fine!" Nyx gained desperate look as she saw the massive form of Lagoon Boy choking the life out of Bumblebee, "I'm sorry for my disrespect, Brother Blood!"

Brother Blood lowered his hand. Lagoon Boy immediately released Bumblebee allowing her to gasp out for air, "That's better. Now, let's get down to business. I'm here for the Gem."

"There's no way we're letting you through," Spirit's eyes glowed menacingly at the man.

Brother Blood's eyes began to glow a deep red, "You don't have a choice. Stand down."

"Like hell!" Cyborg readied his stomach canon, "Right guys!? Guys?"

Cyborg looked over his shoulder to see Spirit and Zatanna have glowing red eyes. They were in a complete trance. Zatanna turned around and tried to open the door behind her. Youngblood quickly stopped the women from moving.

"Strange," Brother Blood noted as his glowing eyes swept across the three people who fought against his control, "Why can't I control you three?"

"I don't do mind control anymore," Nyx noted. Her own immunity was something she had worked on ever since her friends freed her from Klarion. She couldn't exactly say why Cyborg and Youngblood weren't effected, though.

"Hmm…" Brother Blood frowned at them, "Immunity. Part machine. And a very strange mind. Interesting, but pointless. I suppose you three are throwaways then. Oh well, I have the other two. Little boy, let the magician go."

"No," Youngblood hissed.

"Alright," Brother Blood shrugged, "Miss Spirit, would you please put those beautiful claws of yours to you neck?"

Spirit did just that. With a blaze of green, her Spectral Claw jumped to life and pressed against her neck. The claws pressed against her skin, cutting into the flesh just enough to allow a trickle of blood to run down her neck.

As soon as he saw this, Youngblood release Zatanna without a second through. Neither Cyborg nor Nyx argued against this decision. They did, however, have gritted teeth and were giving Brother Blood a look of complete hate.

"Good, now let's go inside. I believe it's time to put an end to this farce."

* * *

"Step away from the girl, Danny," Doctor Fate ordered, "This has to be done."

"No, it doesn't," Phantom argued. He continued to stand protectively in front of Raven, "If you received out message, then you know about our plan. It will work, but only if we all stand together."

"You're wrong," Doctor Fate shook her head, "I have seen all of your plans. They never work out the way they should."

"Maybe because it's outliers like you that I can't plan for!" Phantom retorted.

"Or maybe because you're a flawed leader," Doctor Fate took a step forward, "You don't recognize that people need to be sacrificed sometimes for the greater good."

"I did that once," Phantom noted, "In a simulation. I instantly regretted everything I did. I lost everything. Then. Back with the Nasty Burger Incident. I won't let that happen again. I won't lose everything a third time."

"Then let me deal with Raven," Doctor Fate nodded, "One person for the rest of your family. Seems pretty fair to me."

"Not when I can save everyone."

"You can't save everyone," Doctor Fate stated, "Things are never that simple. You know that much. Remember, we were one for a while. I know you better than anyone else on this planet."

"Then you know that I won't just step away," Phantom remarked.

"Yes…" Doctor Fate raised a glowing hand, "Such a waste."

"Wait," Phantom raised a hand, "I have a proposition for you."

"Oh?" Doctor Fate paused in intrigue.

"If we fight, we both lose," Phantom noted, "We'll destroy this room and part of the Cave. The enemy will get in. They'll get Raven."

"Then I can only hope that she'll get caught up as a casualty," Doctor Fate noted.

"You don't like to leave things up to chance. You're Fate, after all," Phantom mentioned, "But, if we settle this another way, then there will only be one true winner."

"What is your proposition?" Doctor Fate questioned.

Phantom took a steady breath, "I put on your helmet. We have a battle of wills. You win, you get control of my body forever and get the full power we had before. If I win, Raven gets to walk away safely. The winner gets what he wants without a physical fight."

Doctor Fate let out a chuckle, "Really? You know that no one can overcome the will of Fate. You will just lose."

"Probably, but it's the only chance I got," Phantom admitted, "Like you said, I always try to sacrifice myself first, and you know I'll go through with it. I always keep my word."

Doctor Fate nodded, "Indeed. Very well. I look forward to the good we can do again when we are one once again."

Raven reached up and grabbed Phantom's shoulder, "Danny, don't. Just let her get to me. That way only the only person we have to lose today is me."

Phantom grinned at her from over his shoulder, "That prophecy thing may have been made up, but I'm willing to make it true to protect my family. So go ahead and call me the Fate Changer. Because I'll make the prophecy real if I have to."

Slowly, Doctor Fate reached up to remove her helmet. With a flash of gold, the helm was removed revealing the form of Dora the Dragon Ghost. Her face was twisted into that of concern, "Danny…This isn't a smart move. I took the burden of the helmet so that you could be free."

"And I'm going to make up for that now," Phantom smiled at her as he gently took the helmet from her, "Trust me. I got this."

"I do, but…"

"No," Phantom glared at both Dora and Raven, "This is my decision. If it looks like I'm about to lose, try to knock me out."

"You know that won't work," Raven stated, "Doctor Fate will be too strong. Why don't you just put the helmet down? That will solve the problem."

"I can't," Phantom noted as he lowered the helm over his head, "I gave him my word."

As soon as the metal covered his face, Phantom felt Nabu go on the mental attack. Thousands of golden spears stabbed against his mental plane. His will instantly staggered back from the blow and damage Nabu instantly established. Before he could recover, Nabu had his fingers in Phantom's mind, controlling him like a puppet master would.

Control over his limbs vanished. Feeling across his entire body disappeared. With a massive shove, all of his senses except sight were quickly overcome. In desperation, Phantom pushed back. Using every bit of will power he had, Phantom fought against the control of Doctor Fate. It was an uphill battle, though. He didn't even push Nabu back a little bit.

 **Your will is strong, Danny, but you can't win.**

Unable to divide his thoughts on understanding the mental words, Phantom continued to push.

 **I am a being that has existed from the Beginning. The very concept of ghosts is like a new born babe to me. Order is not something you can overcome.**

Phantom felt himself get pushed down and into the shadows of his own mind.

 **Forgive me, Danny. This must be done. I wish that you saw reason.**

Reason? What reason is there in killing an innocent girl because of who her father was? Outrage surged through him. With a mental roar, he pushed up, managing to barely make up the ground he lost from the last attack.

 **Impressive, but not enough.**

The golden spears stabbed forward once more. They cut him, sending pain up through his very soul. Despite the feeling of blades digging into his spine, Phantom did not halt his pushing. In fact, the pain continued to drive him forward in his fight. He slowly began to push Fate's hand back up.

 **What?**

No. He wouldn't lose like this. There had been so many fights he struggled through to get at this point. After everything he went through, he couldn't lose here. Not after everything was sacrificed for him.

 **NO!**

Fate began to push down with full force. In that instant, Phantom felt like the weight of an entire planet slammed down on his shoulders. He push forward was instantly halted, but he did not fall back. He refused to go back.

 **I refuse. I will not go back to the plain in between! I was watching for so long! You can't take this from me, Danny! Please, the world needs Fate!**

 _Then why did you put him in a position where he had to fight against you?_

Part of the weight lifted off from his shoulders.

 **Leave this be, Endless! You have no right to interfere!**

 _Of course I do. You're the one that decided to invade my domain. My avatar decided that this girl should live. Fate may something else, but fate can be changed._

 **Order trumps Death! With order, Death can be controlled and tamed!**

 _That may be the case sometimes, but not today._

With renewed energy, Phantom began to push up once more. The spears attacking him melted away giving him more room to move. Slowly but surely, Phantom regained control over his mind and body. First, his hearing became his own once more. Then taste. Smell. Finally touch came back.

 **Fate commands you to stop! Order shall save this world! I will gain this vessel and kill the girl!**

 _Zzz…Order…Zzz…Too much…Chaos is gone…Balance must return…For life…Zzz…_

All of the weight disappeared from Phantom's shoulders. Power rushed through him just like at the Sorcerer Initiative.

 **Entity? What are you doing?! Why are you awake!**

 _…Noise…Lanterns…Tired…He will deal with it…Go away…Zzz…_

Phantom quickly raised his arms and placed them at the top of the Helmet of Fate. His fingers dug into the metal and caused the golden steel to crack.

 **Please, Danny! Phantom! You can't do this! We're friends, right?!**

'Friends don't betray each other. Without Klarion, the world doesn't need Fate. Forgive me. Goodbye, old friend.'

With a giant roar, Phantom shattered the Helmet of Fate. The golden steel fell to the ground like shattered glass. As soon as the metal hit the floor, it disappeared in tiny bursts of light. Breathing heavily, Phantom looked across the room to see the shocked faces of Dora and Raven.

"See...Raven…" Phantom smiled at her, "I won."

With that, Phantom collapsed into an unconscious heap.

* * *

There was a moment of silence that spread through the battlefield. Dusk wasn't sure if it was real or not, though. The fighting didn't stop. Trigon's forces continued their march up the mountain, but all this was lost on Dusk. No, his focus was solely on the horror in front of him.

Damon was gone. If Dusk was being honest, then he would admit that he didn't know the man very well. They're interactions were minimal despite Valerie's relationship with Mentor. Still, Dusk did have sympathy for the man. The man had lost his daughter in her fight for justice. That was something that wasn't easy to go through, but the halfa had never seen Damon take his grief out on someone else before today.

Suddenly, something sparked in Dusk. The outrage of the unfairness of it all surged through him. Why must good people suffer so much? Why does the world take and take while never giving back? Just why?!

A familiar rage burst in his chest. Restraint fell away under the hate of losing yet another person in their never ending war and the influence Wrath had over the battlefield. All Dusk could see was red. There was suddenly a sword in his hands created instinctually from his Matter Make. He swung and cut. The lava beetles around him fell, but with each swing, Dusk's awareness and skill faded away into nothingness.

The next thing Dusk knew, he was being held to the ground by Wrath. The large demi-demon was chuckling, "Guess you have some hidden darkness in you too, eh?"

Dusk was about to respond when he saw Black Bat and Torch fighting against Agent Z in the corner of his eyes. They weren't' doing well. Torch's passion and Black Bat's grief made them all too susceptible to Wrath's reach. There was no control or grace in their battle. Agent Z battered their wild swings away with ease.

Seeing that his friends needed his help, Dusk prepared to turn intangible and faze into the ground below him. He stopped, however, when a voice sounded out around the entire battlefield. He wasn't the only one that stopped, though. The lava beetles immediately went inactive, and Dusk's allies froze in shock at the voice announcing from the Cave's intercom system.

" _Hello! My name is Brother Blood. You all probably have no idea who I am, so I'll just say that I am a loyal follower to Master Trigon. With that out of the way, I should probably tell you a special gift I have. Something of the mind control variety. Tell them, Miss Spirit."_

Spirit's voice quickly followed the strange man's voice. The normally passionate girl now sounded cold and unfeeling, " _Yes. Brother Blood has shown us the truth. We will follow his every order."_

" _Thank you so much, my dear. Now, I have complete control over the surveillance system. So I can see each and every one of you. Surrender to our forces now or I'll order your friends to kill each other. You have thirty seconds._ "

There was an eerie stillness over the once chaotic battlefield. Almost immediately, Dusk's allies quickly held up their arms in surrender. The lava beetles quickly subdued the heroes. Agent Z, however, wasn't so kind.

With a flame covered fist, he smacked Torch away and sent him flying up the side of the mountain. He then flung a massive fireball to the ghost and covered him in a giant sphere of flames. As for his other opponent, he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air.

In a scream of pain, Black Bat met the same fate of Damon. Consumed in bright flames, her form completely disappeared leaving nothing in its wake.

Dusk suddenly felt numb on the inside, "What…What are you doing?! You won! Why did you kill her!?"

"It's a personal thing," Agent Z noted as he took several steady steps forward, "But this...this is business."

Wrath released Dusk allowing Agent Z to grab Dusk and raise him up into the air just like the two people before him. Dusk just glared at the man, "Nothing personal, right? It's just who you are."

Agent Z frowned, "Yeah…"

And with that, Dusk was consumed by the flames.

* * *

"AH!" Martian Manhunter shouted in agony as Agent Z sent a small burst of fire at him. The flames smacked into the Manhunter's face. This caused the Martian to collapse in a heap as the flames of Trigon singed his skin and instantly sent his body into a shutdown mode.

This caused all the captives to fight against the lava beetles holding them down in the middle of the Cave with their arms locked behind their backs. The beetles gave no give, though, for the relatively normal members of the heroes. As for the powerhouses, they quickly stopped when the mind controlled allies began to choke themselves.

"Don't get your panties in a twist," Agent Z scoffed, "I didn't kill him. He's just one of the few people that could pose a threat to the situation. Speaking of that, where's the other Martian?"

"Her Bioship went crashing away during the battle," Greed mentioned, "I have Envy keeping a mental radar out for her."

"Good, good," Brother Blood let out a smile, "Then we are secured. Everyone is accounted for."

Robin suddenly snapped, "Except for the people you killed!"

Agent Z frowned at the glaring Boy Wonder, "I get that you're upset, but you better calm down before I'm forced to put you down too."

"Just trying you piece of—"

"Robin!" Batman glared at his partner.

Robin instantly shut up, but he didn't look happy.

"The green boy is missing," Greed mentioned, "We never saw him."

"He's probably hiding," Z shrugged, "He's not a priority or a threat. The only priority now is Trigon's pride and Phantom."

"They're accounted for," Lust stated as he led a reluctant Raven and Dora into meeting hall. Behind Lust, Wrath carried an unconscious Phantom over his shoulder.

"You knocked Phantom out?" Brother Blood questioned.

"Nope," Wrath shook his head, "He was like this when we found him. He's totally out of it."

"Well, that makes it easier for us…" Agent Z eyed Phantom. In any other circumstance, Z would take this opportunity to kill the weakened halfa. Trigon wanted to deal with Phantom himself, though, and Z didn't feel like having his soul burned into nothingness.

"Dora," Superman frowned at the ghost, "What happened to Doctor Fate?"

"He and Phantom had an argument," Dora explained, "Phantom won…"

"We can see that," Brother Blood let out a laugh, "Poor fool. He fought so hard to save the Gem, and now we won with ease. Isn't that right, Spirit?"

Spirit nodded numbly. Her eyes still glowed a bright red, "Yes, Brother Blood."

"Such a good girl," Brother Blood gave her a fond smile, "You know, I studied the ghost mind very hard to make sure I could control you. It was worth it, though. Just look at you…" Blood reached up to gently stroke Spirit's face.

"Don't touch her, you freak!" Cyborg snapped.

Brother Blood gained an angry scowl, "Freak? Look who's talking. You're more machine than man, boy."

"I'm more of a man than you could ever be," Cyborg let out a growl.

Brother Blood was about to respond, but he was stopped by Agent Z, "Blood, stop it. The kid's right. It is creepy as all hell. Let's just go. We got what we needed."

Blood let out a sight, "Fine. But I'm not letting my new recruits go. The young can still be molded into somebody worthy of living in Trigon's world. As for the relics, well…They can be used as an example. Aquaman, cut off your hand."

Aquaman immediately obeyed. Raising his trident, he brought the weapon over his left hand and stabbed down. The magical weapon instantly tore through the flesh of his wrist. His severed hand fell to the ground accompanied by a spray of blood and gasps of shock and rage from the captives. None were angrier than the Atlantians in the group, though.

"If any of you try to come after us, I'll have Lagoon Boy bite through his own tongue and Bumblebee electrocute herself to death," Brother Blood noted as he pushed the bleeding Aquaman to the ground in front of their captives.

Without another word, Agent Z raised his hands and commanded flames to dance around all of Trigon's forces plus the captives under their control. The fire blazed around them as they disappeared from the Cave. The only ones left were the defeated heroes and the lava beetles. With the enemy now gone, they quickly tried to fight back, pushing the beetles away and rushing towards Aquaman to stop the bleeding and try to save the king's life.

* * *

Raven's eyes danced all around the dark cavern. She was surrounded on all sides by her father's forces. They were descending down stone steps with the only light to guide them were the torches hanging from the walls, "Where are we?"

"On the west coast. A place called Jump City," Agent Z took steady steps behind her. He was ready to move in case she decided to try to flee. It was unlikely with so many of her friends under Brother Blood's control, but people did strange things to avoid the end.

"Huh," Raven would have laughed in any other situation, "So the gates of hell really are below California?"

Agent Z scoffed, "It appears so."

Once the large parade of people reached the bottom of the stairs, they all began to spread out in the large cavern. They filled the damp cave almost completely. The only space left open was a pathway wide enough for her walk down. At the end of the path was a large alter with a stone bed for her to lie on top. She was expecting something like that. What she wasn't expecting was at the foot of the alter.

"Why is Danny here?" Raven glared back at Agent Z.

"Trigon wants to deal with him personally. No funny business. No chance of him using the ascended ectoplasm," Agent Z stated.

"I won't be a part of plan to outright kill him," Raven snapped.

"Oh yes you will," Agent Z pointed to the members of the Team that knelt by Brother Blood. Spirit looked up. She stuck her tongue out and began to bite on it so that a tiny bit of blood began to trickle out.

"Damn it…" Raven took a deep breath and began her trek over to the alter. With each step, her mind raced with thoughts of a way out. Running wouldn't work. Fighting was a dumb idea. And her original idea…Her eyes drifted to the unconscious Phantom. No. It was too late for that. This was it. It was time for the end of days.

Lying down on the stone bed, Raven closed her eyes. Just like this morning, glowing red tattoos shined from her body. Her eyes split into four slitted eyes. Black smoke and red energy began to pour out of her mouth. The smoke, energy, and markings spread all across the room causing the cavern to tremble. Soon, the energy began to collect and pool at the top of the cave.

With a blast of red light, the ceiling of the cave exploded. The rocks flew away from the force of the red energy and smoke. Then a bright light shined above the open cave. When the light shined down, a large shadow covered all the kneeling people as Trigon looked down at his followers.

" **It is done! I am free!** " Trigon shouted out as he raised his hands up in victory.

"Hail Trigon!" The people below bowed before their demon god.

Trigon let out a small grin, " **Well done, my loyal believers. You shall all be rewarded for you efforts. Starting with you, David Zempell. Remove my daughter from the alter and put the Phantom there.** "

Wrath and Lust quickly obeyed. Lust carefully removed Pride, who was smoking and trembling in pain as her form began to glow a dull red. Wrath, however, was less careful and just tossed Phantom onto the alter.

" **This is the beginning of my reign, and it will begin with the death of Danny Phantom!** " Trigon raised his hand. Energy began to pool around his massive red fist. A wave of energy shot out of his hand and fell down to the alter. It completely consumed the stone and everything on it. When the energy and smoke finally died down, the only thing left was a deep hole that was so deep that no one could see the bottom of it.

"Hail Trigon!"

"Hail Trigon!"

"Hail Trigon!"

" **And now for the rest of this forsaken planet!** " Trigon raised his hands. Energy blasted off him and into the sky. In an instant, the once darkened sky was now a bloody red.

Calmly, Agent Z reached up and removed his sunglasses. He watches as storms formed all across the sky, the earth trembled, and red smoke spread across the land. Even though he was far way, Agent Z could hear the screams of the people as demons descended from the bloody sky and red smoke spread across the planet, infecting the people and turning them to into stone.

Back at the Cave, all the members of the League and the Team began to panic as the Cave began to shake. Red smoke flooded into their weakened stronghold. Several of the closer heroes held each other as they awaited their doom. They began to scream, but the sound of their shouts were quickly drowned out by the strum of a guitar and a flash of pink.

All the while, the rest of Trigon's forces continued to cheer for their evil master. Agent Z on the other hand was silent. He looked towards the crater that once held Phantom. It was over. The ghost was dead. He finally got his revenge.

Turning, Agent Z began to walk back up the stairs. With that done, he only had one thing left to do. It was time for him to confront the past.

* * *

"What's going on?!" Elinore Stone shouted and clutched a table to stop her from falling over.

Axion Labs was trembling. The reinforced building was shaking under the force of what was happening outside it. Of course, none of them were too fearful of the building collapsing. The lab was designed to withstand nuclear fallout. No, they're real worry was about what was going on outside.

"It seems that the original plan has failed!" Silas noted as worked on not falling over, "They weren't fast enough at building the Box!"

It was then that the shaking stopped. All the scientists immediately righted themselves. The lab was a bit of a mess. Papers were scattered every. Some of the equipment broke from the earthquake. Everything that was essential for the backup plan, though, was still perfectly fine.

Nicolai pulled out small monitor device and stared at it, "Still no word from the Ghost Zone. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing."

Serling looked over to a large cylinder device that sat at the end of the room. They had worked tirelessly for months trying to get the machine to work and stabilize the pathways from the Ghost Zone to the human world. Luckily, they had managed to find a way to keep weave together the tears in the dimensions and temporarily keep the two dimensions separated, "Should we wait to turn off the Dimensional Stabilizer then?"

"No," Silas shook his head and began to stride over to the glowing machine, "It would be best to turn it off now. You never know what may happen—"

"AH!"

Silas instantly turned around at the sound of his wife crying in pain and shock. With widened eyes, Silas watched as his wife's body began to turn into stone. It started at her feet and worked its way up. Within seconds, Elinore was a statue from the waist down. Not only that, the same thing began to happen to all the scientists. Rock began to dance up their bodies causing them to scream in panic.

Realizing what was happening, Silas gave his wife one last glimpse before trying to lunge at the machine. His attempt quickly failed, though, as his feet were now stone. He tumbled to the floor several feet away from the Dimensional Stabilizer. Stars danced in front of his eyes as landed nose first to the metal floor.

"Silas!" Elinore cried out as the rock raced up her neck, "Please! You have to get to the machine! Save the world! Save our son—"

Elinore was silenced when the rock completely made its way over her head leaving her in a statue state. Motivated by his wife's last works, Silas ignored his bleeding nose and began to drag himself forward. Each pull forward was made even more difficult as the stone made its way up to his waist.

Desperately, he tried to scramble forward. He couldn't fail. Not again. He already messed up so much in his life. He wanted the opportunity to fix things with his son. They were almost there. Silas knew that. It was a slow process to forgiveness, one that was made even harder with all the preparation that was needed for both the Sorcerer Initiate and Trigon's attack. Despite everything, though, Silas had hoped to finally get the chance to be the father Victor always needed but never got.

"No," Silas moaned out as his torso was completely covered in stone. The rock was now working its way up his neck and arms. Reaching out, he tried to press the button on the side of the machine. Despite his best effort, though, he was a hair's width too far away to reach the button. Tears began to roll down Silas's face as he realized that he had failed once again, "I'm sorry, Victor."

Then, there was only silence. Everyone in the room was now a stone statue of their former selves. Most of the scientists were frozen in a state of horror. Silas, however, was frozen with a face of regret and despair. His fingertips were pressed against the red button on the side of the Dimensional Stabilizer, but they would never be able to complete their mission.

After a few seconds of total stillness, there was sudden movement in the room. The echo of boots against the metal floor bounced across the room. Dressed in a custodian uniform, a rather simple looking man with plain feature and brown hair walked over to Silas and examined the machine.

"Such is the nature of man, Mr. Stone," William Hand noted to his boss, "They struggle and fight for their goals only to come up short before a greater power. Tis the horror and reality of life."

Looking at the black ring that covered his finger, Hand released a small smile, "Luckily for you, death is on your side today."

Walking over to other side of the machine, Hand began to push the machine to Silas so that the stone fingers would press the button of the machine. The effect was instant. The machine began to glow a bright green. Electrical sparks jumped off the cylinder and began to tear through the air, showing what looked like tears being held together with stitches. With a gentle pull, the stiches came undone and allowed the holes to the Ghost Zone to open once more.

Not wanting to be around when the ghost appeared, Hand turned and began to walk away, "Be grateful, Mr. Stone, that Master Nekron is allowing you one more chance with your son. Enjoy it, because once Trigon is dealt with, the real end of the world will come."

* * *

 **Next update: "Devil" on April 11, 2016**

 **Once again, I would like to apologize for the delay. I got my keyboard fixed, though, and everything's back on track.**

 **So...Batman v Superman...So much potential. So much disappointment. That was not a good film. As a person that puts plot above all else, I felt near disgust by it. No plot. Awful cutaways. A terrible Lex Luthor (son of the real one or not, I did call it). Loius Lane literally had no real purpose. The set ups for the other Leaguers were so corny and terrible. And the actual Batman v Superman part lasted 5 minutes in a 2 1/2 hour movie. As a fan with low expectations, I was disappointed. And now I'm afraid for the Suicide Squad movie...**

 **On the bright side, Marvel once again killed it with Daredevil. Thank you, Marvel, for giving me hope. And who knew that Shane from the Walking Dead would make such an AMAZING Punisher. Speaking of Walking Dead...Negan is almost here. Be prepared for blood and brain matter.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

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	19. Devil

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"The path to paradise begins in hell."

Dante Alighieri

* * *

Chapter 19: "Devil"

(Friday-April 11, 2014)

Dark Dan's eyes snapped open. He floated cross legged at the side of le Fey's little pocket dimension. With a wide grin on his face, he turned to relaxing le Fey, "It's time."

"I know," Morgaine nodded as she reclined on a large designer couch. The way she was lying on the seat of silk, one would be reminded of a muse posing for an artist, "I can feel the change in energy."

Dark Dan floated over to her, "It's time to move."

Morgaine pouted. Her eyes drifted over the various images that floated around her showing the destruction of Earth, "Oh, do we have to? The good stuff is about to happen."

Dark Dan glared at her, "That's why you agreed to record it."

"But I'm the type of person that likes to watch the newest episode as soon as it comes out," Morgaine had light whining tone to her voice. She slide out more across her couch. Her body was stretched out seductively as she gave him a sultry look, "I changed my mind. I'm going to stay here and watch my entertainment."

Dark Dan's hand snapped towards le Fey's neck. His fingers slipped through her skin as if she wasn't even there.

"Sorry, but no one touches me without my permission," Morgaine let out a giggle.

"Look here, witch," Dark Dan got up in her face, "We had a deal. You don't get to back out of it."

"I can if I want," Morgaine shrugged, "I'm a rather fickle woman. I love to change my mind in the spur of the moment. It's one of the hundreds of reasons that men through themselves at my feet begging for me to give them an ounce of attention."

Dark Dan let out an angry roar. His sharp teeth sneered at her as his forked tongue slid out to show his displeasure, "I will kill you."

"You can try, but many people have tried. None have succeeded," Morgaine smiled and sat up, "But I do love to see that anger in you. I bet you never had someone to deal with something you couldn't kill with ease."

"It…has been a long time…" Dark Dan admitted as he forced himself to calm down, "Forgive my loss of composure. The withdrawals are getting to me."

"I bet. It must be hard to go so long without destruction or murder," le Fey stood and gently traced her fingers down his chest, "I've found the best way to get over such needs is to fill the void with something else. I can think of a few things…"

Dark Dan let out a snort, "Even if you were serious and this wasn't just one of your games, you know that one of us would get caught up in the passion and kill the other."

"The only question would be who," Morgaine agreed, "But the threat of demise…It would make it so much better. The high would be world shattering."

"Unlike right now where the Earth really is shattering," Dark Dan noted as he turned away from the women.

Morgaine giggled once more, "What is it with you Phantom men? Neither of you fall like the other men."

"If it's one thing that my younger self and I still have in common is that we are alphas," Dark Dan noted, "That's why Trigon tried to take care of Danny personally."

"Tried?"

"He won't die so easily," Dark Dan stated, "He'll live on. He needs to if we want to fight whatever Nekron's planning. But we'll also need to complete my plan. And that means, we have to leave right now."

Morgaine let out a sigh, "Fine, fine, let's go. I'll just have to deal with watching the action a bit late."

"Don't worry, le Fey. Your investment won't go to waste," Dark Dan let out a low chuckle, "Because once everything is set, I'll show you something far more interesting than Trigon's little plan."

* * *

"Father," Greed bowed before his father, "I found her. She was exactly where you said she would be."

Trigon looked down at his son. The massive devil was using a broken skyscraper as a throne. He had wanted to takedown the Watchtower for his throne, but that would be saved for later when the pests were all dealt with, " **Excellent work, my son. Leave her and return to your post. I wish to have a word with her.** "

Nodding, Greed threw the women he had dragged with him to the ground and began to walk away. He didn't look back, even as the frightened form of Agatha Roth stared wide eyed at one of the strongest beings in existence. Her eyes widened even more when red energy jumped off her and dragged her into the air.

" **Ah, my dear Agatha…** " Trigon stretched out a massive finger and gently stroked her trembling face, " **I have missed you**."

"W-well I-I haven't missed you…" Agatha felt like she was hyperventilating.

" **Why? You invited me to be with you.** "

"No! I never agreed to be raped!" Agatha argued, "I was just a kid! I thought that whole demon worship thing was a game to make people mad!"

" **They always do** ," Trigon laughed and pulled his hand away, " **The shock is always the same. All seven times. You were different, though. You were the only one to give me a daughter.** "

"Rachel…Where is she?!" Agatha demanded.

" **Oh? You've grown to actually care for her? That's funny,** " Trigon let out a chuckle, " **I thought that little charade you did with Torch and Youngblood was just for show. You secretly hoped that Raven would get killed**."

"I would never think that!"

" **Really? You never wanted her gone? Not even when you tried to have that abortion?** " Trigon questioned.

Agatha flinched.

" **Yes, I know about it. Did you really think that I would let that happen? Of course not,** " Trigon stroked his chin, " **After that, I was sure that you would dump my Pride and run away, but you stuck with her.** "

"I had to…She needed me, and it wasn't her fault she was born," Agatha felt tears run down her face, "Maybe I did resent her a little. It makes me sick, but that's just how I felt. But she was my child. I couldn't just give up on her. Real family supports their loved ones no matter how much it hurts them. Just ask Torch and Youngblood."

" **I don't need to. I know their stories. After all, Agent Z was my subordinate. His children were a liability. And as for Thorn…** " Trigon trailed off, " **She is inconsequential. Her abilities would indeed make her a thorn in my side, but only for a short time. Besides, the child will never release the seal again.** "

"You really did plan for everything…" Agatha realized.

Trigon nodded, " **I did. And now, you get to see how my plans have worked out for the rest of eternity. You will forever be my side, my favorite moral. The one that has given me the most pleasure and opportunity in centuries.** "

"No! Please, just kill me! Show a mercy, I beg you—" Agatha was silenced when she was quickly turned to stone in a flash of red light.

Trigon reached out and gently moved the statue to the foot of his throne, " **Foolish women. You know that I don't comprehend the idea of mercy.** "

* * *

"Oi, wake up," Constantine poked at a downed Zatara with his stick.

"Gah…" Zatara groaned as he forced his eyes open, "John?"

"Yep," Constantine nodded, "Looks like you still got your wits about you. That's good. I'm going to need every magic user we can get."

Grunting, Zatara sat up to see various members of the League and the Team in similar states. Most of them were getting up. A few, however, seemed too injured to move like Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. Fortunately, various ghosts were there to help them all. As his bearings came back to him, the magician noticed that the Cave looked wore down and cracked. Everything had held thanks to the seals they created, but Trigon's power took its toll on the mountain.

Pandora knelt by the children and was helping Nyx back to her feet, "Are you okay? Any injuries?"

"Only a hurt pride and some missing friends," Nyx clenched her fists as she leaned against her mom, "They took Spirit."

Vision and Plasmius let out a sigh of relief. When they had arrived they very quickly noticed that a few people were missing from the group. There was still a problem, though, "And where are Phantom and Dusk?"

"They took Danny too," Kid Flash gained a disheartened looked, "And Dusk…"

"That bastard Agent Z killed him," Robin snapped with an angry snarl, "I'll break that SOB's neck next time I see him."

"He didn't kill him," Jinx's voice sounded out. The members of both the League and the Team instantly turned their gaze to the assassin.

"What do you mean?" Troia glared at the girl.

"I got here when that Blood guy made the announcement," Jinx shrugged, "They didn't know I was there, so I stayed back to avoid getting captured. I saw Z setting Black Bat and Dusk on fire. But I could sense the energy. It wasn't meant to kill, it was meant to teleport."

"She's not lying," M'gann stated as she stepped over to Superboy from the now grounded Bioship, "I had to look away from the fire, but there's a very distinct brain pattern people have when they die. I didn't feel any of that from Damon, Black Bat, or Dusk."

"M'gann!" Superboy rushed forward and pulled her into a hug, "I'm so glad you're safe."

"You can thank Jinx and Ember for that," Miss Martian hugged the clone back, "I would have gotten caught up in the energy waves if they didn't save me."

"Ember?"

All eyes were drawn to the siren ghost as she stood over a still downed Torch. She had her foot on top of Torch's chest and was pressing down, "Trever, you jackass! Keeping all this crap about Dad to yourself! I should kick your ass just like when we were kids!"

"Gah! Let Torch up!"

"Like hell!" Ember glared down at him, "You lied to me and hurt my feelings just because you thought I couldn't handle the truth!"

"Torch just wanted Ellie to be happy and complete her obsession!" Torch argued.

"Yeah…" Ember removed her foot and let out a sigh, "I figured that out, asshole. You were trying to look out for me, but I can look out for myself. I'm a big girl and can make my own decisions. So I'm going to help you stop Dad."

"But Torch didn't want to burden you with that."

"I know," Ember gave him a small smile, "In your own stupid way, you gave a choice. Thanks for that, but I prefer the hard truth compared to blissful ignorance. So, I'm going to help you. He's my family too after all. Oh, and for all of you that are asking what's going on, Agent Z is our Dad. Yep, it's a long story, but the short version is he was our Dad before we both died in a fire that was started by a ghost. That probably explains a few things."

There was a collective silence as everyone absorbed that bit of information. Unsurprisingly, Robin was the first to respond, "So you're going to plan on dealing with Agent Z?"

"Yep."

"Count me in. That bastard messed with my friends," Robin punched an open palm with his fist.

"I concur," Troia nodded, "We can rescue our friends while thou confronts thy father."

"Wait a minute," Wonder Woman gained an annoyed look, "We cannot just break off into groups without a plan. And I cannot let you go off on a mission with so little information."

"No, they're right," Batman decided to speak up, "Trigon's forces specifically targeted the half-ghosts for a reason. That means something. Maybe they could be the key to dealing with Trigon."

"No, this is the key to dealing with Trigon," Constantine looked over to the entrance, "Bring her in!"

"Beware!" The Box Ghost shouted as he backed up into the room. As he moved, he used his powers to control a large metal cube that was pulsing with energy. To assist him, Etrigan flee behind the cube giving the massive box an extra push.

"Right, the Box," Artemis nodded, "Please tell me you got it working."

"Basically, yes. But with Trigon out and about, it'll need more time to power up. But we do have the bonus of having me, Etrigan, and Zatara powering it while the Box Ghost amplifies the Banishing Box's effects," Constantine explained.

"My wife isn't exactly please that I'm here, but I do you all one for saving Box Lunch. Plus this does effect the Ghost Zone as well…" Box Ghost let out a nervous laugh.

"Even then, I really don't know if it will work. Trigon is on a completely different level than anything I ever tried to exorcise," Constantine admitted, "We'll have to try to weaken Trigon down…if that's possible."

"All the more reason to save Dusk and the others," Plasmius reasoned, "Dusk's Twilight Canon is a weapon that could significantly harm the Spectre. Not only that, Spirit and Phantom are powerhouses. We need every bit of power we can get, and recruiting other fighters outside the fold is impossible. With everyone turned to stone."

Superman's eyebrows rose, "Everyone?"

"Well, everyone outside this group," Jinx state, "Ember and I worked together on empowering your shields. With our added boost, this place was pretty much protected. I can't speak for anyone else, though. Although, I don't know how the ghosts survived. Unless one of those bunkers you have like Axion Labs is Trigon proof."

"No, even the scientists in Axion Labs were effect," Vision gave Cyborg a side glance, "Silas barely managed to activate the machine to open travel between our realms again. Luckily, the Ghost Zone was spared any terrible fate, but this is all we managed to recruit."

"My dad turned to stone?" Cyborg questioned with a worried look on his face.

"Yes, I'm sorry."

Cyborg gained a deep frown, "Damn…Well, the only way we can help him is to banish Trigon. If those four are going after Dusk, I think Nyx, Youngblood, and I should go after Spirit and the others. Brother Blood didn't look like he wanted them dead, and we seem to have an immunity to his mind control."

"I'd love to agree with you, Sports Star, but how the hell are we supposed to track them down?" Nyx bit her lip in thought.

"That actually might be easy," Etrigan spoke up as he floated out from behind the Cube, "I know my student's energy signal by heart by now. I should be able to track her down."

"She's…She's still alive?" Rocket questioned.

"Yes," Etrigan nodded, "I cast a tracking spell as soon as I came back to the human realm. Her energy is faint, but she's a live. Perhaps Trigon wants to use her again. Perhaps he's just wants her as insurance. Who knows, but she's alive, and I did sense Spirit's signature with her. If anything, I would bet that they are all being held by this Brother Blood you mentioned."

"His name has come up in a few missing children reports I was looking into," Batman stated, "There was heavy police investigation, but they never found anything. He must have brainwashed them. Based on everything I see, he would definitely be the one to keep a hold on the members of the Team to serve his cause."

"And what of Lord Phantom?" The Fright Knight decided to finally voice his opinion.

A silence spread across the room. Everyone looked to Etrigan, who shook his head, "I did not sense his energy anywhere near Raven, and there's too much interference on Trigon's part everywhere else. It's like when I tried to track Nyx back before the Sorcerer Initiative. Too much static."

Captain Marvel gained a saddened look, "I hate to be the one to point this out, but…Agent Z wanted to kill Danny, right? I mean, Danny was unconscious. There…There has to be a pretty good chance that they killed Danny."

"Like hell!" Pink energy flared around Jinx, "He wouldn't die in his sleep! He would never accept that."

"He wouldn't have had a choice," Batman shook his head, "I know this is disheartening, but it's probably the truth. Danny Phantom is dead."

There were several shouts of protests around the room. That was something no one was willing to accept. Danny Phantom didn't just die. Most of them had seen Phantom go through hell and back without dying. How could now be any different?

"Frostbite!" Fright Knight shouted out over everyone, "Do you have the Infi-Map on you?"

"Yes," Frostbite nodded and pulled out the map that he had grown used to carrying at all times this past month, "This will tell if the Great One is still alive…"

Opening the map, Frostbite said Phantom's name. The map glowed a bit and shook. Its usual response was to immediately pull its user to the destination he needed to be. This time, though, the small trembling was all he got.

"What does that mean?"

"I have no idea. It's never done this before," Frostbite admitted, "But at the very least, it means something. If he was dead, then it wouldn't find him at all."

"Give me the map," Fright Knight stuck his hand out, "I will search for my Liege. If there's anything left of him, I will find him and drag him back from the gates of hell if need be."

"Oh, like hell I'm just gonna let you handle this," Jinx stepped up, "I'm going with you."

"I do not need your help," Fright Knight glared at the woman, "I will help Lord Phantom myself."

"Says you," Jinx got right up to the knight and glared up at him, "I'm going to help Danny whether you like it or not."

"I'd like to see you try to follow me," Fright Knight's flaming hair flared a bit.

"Hey! Hey!" Kid Flash run up to them and pushed them apart, "You can both look for Danny. If he is alive, then he's probably in a dangerous spot. The more people the better."

"Well said, Kid Flash," Plasmius nodded, "Which is why you should go with them. Having a voice of reason would help them."

"A voice of reason?" Nightwing raised an eyebrow, "Him?"

"Normally, I would be like 'Dude!' but I agree with you," Kid Flash rubbed the back of his head, "Only reason I stepped up was because I was the fastest on the team."

"All the reason for you to go. You're fast enough to stop any real tension," Artemis swung an arm around her man, "And I'll be there to be the voice of reason for you."

"Err…" Kid Flash nodded slowly, "Okay."

"Well, then we got a plan to get reinforcements, but then we have a problem with the bloody Cube," Constantine rubbed his temples, "Getting Raven is a priority, but we'll need more help charging the energy. So, I'm enlisting the Atlantians."

"What? No!" Aquagirl snapped at the exorcist.

"Our king is injured," Tempest crossed his arms defiantly, "We cannot leave him like this."

"We have to," Aqualad stepped up behind his fellow Atlantians and placed a hand on their shoulders, "Our king would want us to continue to fight. If he was awake, he would order us to go. You know this."

"I know, but…"

"Not buts. It is time for action," Aqualad released their shoulders and walked up to Frostbite, "I am guessing that everything outside resembles the flames of hell. We will require your help to stay at full strength."

Frostbite nodded, "Of course."

"We will also need some protection for all of us while we focus on the Cube," Aqualad noted.

"I can help with that," Nightwing suggested.

"Me too," Batgirl spoke up.

Batman quickly agreed, "Right. That will be the best place for the Team. All remaining members of the Team will work on fueling and protecting the Cube except for Miss Martian. We will need you to fly the Bioship again."

Vision agreed, "The Council and the League will try to distract and wear Trigon down as much as possible."

"Hahahahahahaha!" Colossus roared out in laughter, "Now that sounds like fun!"

"What about me?" Mal rushed forward, "My girlfriend is being controlled by a cult leader. I have to go help her!"

"I'm sorry, Mal, but you can't come with us," Cyborg shook his head, "I'm not trying to bash you or anything, but these guys are way out of your league. It would be best if you and Harriet stays here. Oh…and we'll also need a guard just in case, right?"

"I can do it," J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded out through the Red X suit, "I don't know how effective I would be in the field anyway with everything offline."

"But…" Mal was silenced when Harriet placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave it be. Sometimes, there's nothing we can do."

Mal quickly went quiet, but he didn't look happy about it.

"Well, that's as good of a plan as we're going to get," Superman sighed.

"Agreed," Plasmius looked around, "Here's hoping that this all doesn't go even more to hell."

* * *

He was so tired. His mind was in a complete haze. All he wanted to do was drift off to sleep and rest. There was something holding him back from the blissful peace of sleep. It was a tiny thread keeping him above the abyss below, but the thread seemed ready to snap at any moment.

" _Not yet, Danny. Please, not yet._ "

It was time. He had given enough. Now it was time to rest.

" _That's not for you to decide._ "

Maybe, maybe not. That didn't matter to him. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was drift off. So tired…

" _I understand…Zzz…I am tired too…Zzz…Life is a heavy burden…Zzz…"_

Yes. Someone understood. Life was so tiring. It was better to sleep.

" _You're not helping."_

" _I don't try to help…Zzz… "_

" _He's your responsibility as well now. You knew that the moment you helped him defy me._ "

" _I needed him…Zzz…The darkness was returning…Zzz…It was aiming for me…Zzz…"_

" _Then why give up on him?"_

" _I haven't…Zzz…That's why he's asleep…Zzz…And not dead…"_

" _Gah…_ " Death felt a new frustration fill her. For the first time in a long time, she wished she asked Destiny for some spoilers, or at least Delirium for some advice. It would have made dealing with the Entity much less frustrating or surprising.

She had always known about the Entity. He was the reason her element was even needed, after all. But she never knew just how much his influence had reached into her domain until Danny showed his connection to the Entity of Life. Then, everything was revealed. Ghosts…halfas…Danny…They all stared with the Entity, and now she had the chance to find out why he interfered.

Hopefully, she wouldn't let the frustration get to her. The Life Entity was even more frustrating than her siblings, and that was saying something.

* * *

"Hey, kid, wake up."

Dusk let out a soft grown. Surprisingly, he felt no pain or exhaustion. Maybe this was what death really was, the end of the suffering.

"You're not dead, dumbass. Open your eyes."

Slowly, Dusk forced his eyes open. The bright light all around him nearly blinded the halfa. There was one thing he could make out, though. Above him stood a large man with slicked back blonde hair. His opened black trench coat revealed a muscular frame.

"Who…"

"Names Destruction. Remember it, kid, because it will be important to you," Destruction noted, "Your powers work under my domain after all. You create and then destroy to create again. I'd like that if you were such a pussy about hurting people."

"Destruction…" Dusk blinked, "You're…an Endless?"

"Yep," Destruction looked away, "Be careful what you say around the spazzes, though."

"Wha…"

"Hey, Damon, Dusk is awake," Black Bat stated as she leaned over the reclining halfa, "Welcome back, Joel."

"Black Bat?" Dusk allowed Black Bat to help him into a sitting position, "I thought Z killed you."

"He might have," Damon's voice drew Dusk's attention to the side, "This place seems a lot like hell."

With enough of his senses coming back to him, Dusk could now look around to see where he was. The three of them were all within a cage of flames. Outside the fire, Dusk could see magma sliding across a barren field and the once blue sky was now an angry red. The only thing with any different color was the now unused Exorcist suit that stood outside the cage.

"I've met Death," Dusk pushed himself up to his feet, "I don't think people would get sent to hell without any warning."

"Don't go spilling our secrets, kid," Destruction glared at Dusk as he leaned against the flames seemingly invulnerable to the fire.

Dusk looked over to Destruction. He was about to say something when the Endless raised a hand.

"They can't see me, so I wouldn't talk to me. They might think you're nuts," Destruction explained, "The only reason you can see me is cause of your powers and this whole apocalypse thing."

Dusk bit his lip and turned back to his allies, "I'm guessing that they got to Raven."

Black Bat nodded, "It appears so."

"Damn," Dusk sighed, "Guess this means we have to fix things now."

"We could…if we weren't trapped," Damon rubbed his temples, "So we have to escape, find any other people that can fight, and try to figure out a way to stop an all-powerful demon."

"Assuming that we're even on Earth," Black Bat argued, "Even if Agent Z didn't kill us, he didn't have a reason to keep us on Earth."

"You see, now she asks the big questions," Destruction spoke up, "Don't worry, though. You're on Earth. Trust me, I know this stuff."

Dusk hummed in thought, "What I don't get is why Agent Z didn't kill us in the first place. There's no reason to keep us alive."

"There is a reason," Agent Z appeared outside the cage in a familiar blaze of fire, "But I doubt you'll believe me."

Everyone in the cage turned to the Agent. Destruction let out a laugh, "Here comes the good part."

"Then what do you want?" Dusk questioned.

"I've gotten my revenge. There's nothing left for me to achieve. There's nothing left for me in this world," Agent Z reached up and removed his sunglasses. He then threw them to the ground and crushed them beneath his foot, "I can't bring myself to commit suicide, though, so that leaves me one last choice…"

Destruction snorted, "Here it comes, kid. I can't wait to see how you react."

Dusk frowned, "What's the choice."

"I want you to kill me."

* * *

"W-where am I?" A tiny voice sounded out from a small figure hidden under a normal sized cape and hood. A slight shift caused the hood to move away to show the frightened face of a child Raven.

Raven had a very valid question. She stood in what appeared to be a church based on the pews and podium. It wasn't a normal church, though. Everything in the chapel from the carpet to the lights were painted a blood red. Not only that, the images in the stain glass windows and the paintings on the walls were of demons consuming humans.

"This is the Church of Blood, my dear," Brother Blood smiled down at the little girl, "This is where you will be staying for the next couple of days."

"B-but this place is scary…" Raven cowered before the strange man.

"Do not worry, Pride," Lust stood by Raven's side, "We just need to keep you in a safe place. A lot of power and life energy was drained from you."

"Life…energy?" Raven blinked.

"Yes, Father wants to give you a clean slate," Lust explained, "He hit the reset button, and now he can mold you into the way he wants. You will be the one leading the charge when we move on from Earth. There are many more planets to concur, after all."

"What?"

Lust patted her head, "Don't worry about it. I'll keep you safe, sister."

"So…I'm your sister?" Raven questioned.

"Yes. You have five other brothers too," Lust nodded.

"Oh…Do I have sisters too?"

"No. Only brothers."

"Then what about her?" Raven's eyes drifted over to an unmoving Spirit that stood by equally still Lagoon Boy, Zatanna, and Bumblebee.

"She's a member of my church. Just like my other new recruits," Brother Blood smiled as he walked over to the brainwashed members of Young Justice, "Of course, she is definitely my favorite."

Lust rolled his eyes, "Come, Pride. I don't want to see this."

Raven didn't move, though. She kept her eyes on the scene.

"Such beauty…" Blood leaned in close to Spirit's face, "It's a wonder how you keep it up with such a violent lifestyle. Does it have to do with being a ghost?"

Raven's eyes narrowed.

Blood glanced to some of his nearby cult followers, "Get the three of them some robes. I'll handle Spirit personally."

"No!" Energy sparked off of Raven, "Leave her alone!"

Blood rolled his eyes, "Lust, take care of your kin."

Lust sighed, "Pride, let's go. You can't—"

"I won't leave without her," Raven stated.

Lust tried to grab at Raven, but he was stopped when a bird claw of magic smacked his hand away. Her magic then blasted out of her eyes and blasted Blood away, "Sister's coming with me, or I won't go."

With a snarl, Blood pushed himself up. His glowing red eyes stared at her as he prepared for his mental attack. This attempt made him flinch as he felt anger from Trigon roll over his mind.

Lust dusted himself off, "Father won't allow you to hurt his Pride. He still needs her. Just let me take Spirit with Raven to her room."

"But I was promised that I could take who I wanted, and I want her," Blood argued.

"You'll have her, but later," Lust rolled his eyes, "Right now, just go with Pride's wishes. She is the strongest sin, after all. You don't want to get on her bad side with Trigon in this dimension. Despite her weakened body and mind, her power is greater than ever."

"Fine!" Blood threw up his arms. With a nudge of his head, he ordered Spirit to follow Lust, "Take her! I can wait!"

"Good," Lust nodded, "Come girls, I'll take you to your room."

Silently, the girls followed the man. They left a now fuming Brother Blood to rant to his followers. Unseen by everyone, though, but Spirit, who had been unable to say anything, a strange person had been watching the entire time. With an obvious feminine frame, the lady stood out with her mismatched clothing and wild hair that held many different colors.

"Cults are such a pathetic thing. People seeking the truth only to find lies and deception," Delirium noted, "This seems worse, though. Not even reason can cut through this brainwashing, especially if she can't fight against it."

Throwing a frown at Blood, Delirium followed after Raven and Spirit, "It will take some good friends to stop this cult. Luckily, the little green bug on the bird's shoulder is ready to act."

* * *

Nightwing watched as all the magic users stood around the Cube and was pumping magic into the Cube. Frostbite was near the Atlantians. He was busy cooling the water based heroes to protect them from the heat. Floating above the Cube was the Box Ghost who was enhancing the Cube's progress.

"What do you think?" Batgirl questioned as she stepped by the previous Boy Wonder.

"I'm thinking that it's only a matter of time before we get attacked," Nightwing let out a sigh.

Superboy looked over to defacto leader of their group, "Well, that's obvious. The real question is what will we have to deal with?"

"Worst case scenario?" Rocket floated a bit above the others and was on lookout for anyone approaching them, "An army of lava beetles and the Sons of Trigon."

"Wow, thanks for that," Batgirl glared at Rocket.

"Hey, I've been on this Team for over three years now," Rocket shrugged, "I'm a realist."

"She's right, we need to be prepared for the worst," Nightwing popped his knuckles and stared off into the distance where the form of Trigon loomed, "Let's just hope that the other squads distract him enough to lighten our load to something we can actually deal with."

* * *

Trigon heard the approaching air vehicles before he saw them. Of course, he long since knew they were coming, but his hearing was the first of his close proximity sense that picked up the force heading his way. Still, he did nothing as the aircrafts sailed by him and hit him with blasts from an energy canon. After the quick blitz, the Batwing and the Bioship quickly retreated from the demon lord.

Lazily, Trigon's eyes followed his attackers. The spots where they had hid remained completely unharmed. They hadn't even tickled him. That was to be expected, though. No mortal could hurt him.

Before he could decide what he wanted to do with the fools that dared to attack him, the feeling of tiny bugs drew his attention down. Various members of the Justice League and Council of the Elite were buzzing around him. The attacks they sent to him felt like bug bites that left no mark. Still, they were an annoying bunch, and there was quite a few of them. He wondered how he should deal with them.

"Hey! Big guy!" Colossus roared as he floated in front of Trigon's face, "Man, that's weird saying to someone!"

Trigon looked up at him, " **Colossus the Great General. I know of you. Your strength is formidable, but you won't be able to hurt me. This is one battle that no amount of raw strength will win you**."

"Blah! Blah! Blah!" Colossus clenched a fist and focused his energy to it, "You talk too much! I thought you were an all-powerful demon! Come on! Show me what you got!"

"Colossus, you idiot!" Pandora shouted up at her fellow S-rank ghost as she tried stabbing at Trigon's legs with her spear, "Stop goading him!"

"I have never been outclassed like this before!" Colossus shook his head, "It's too exciting! I have to see what the big deal is about."

" **Very well, bug. I shall grant your request,** " Energy burst from Trigon's eyes and smashed into Colossus. The giant red waves of energy continued through the ghost and flew far into the horizon.

"Hahahahahaha!" A smoking and burnt Colossus continued to float in front of Trigon, "Now that hurt! I haven't been hit like that in years! Now it's my turn!"

Throwing a punch forward, Colossus sent out a massive shockwave to Trigon's face. Unlike almost everything that stood in Colossus's path, Trigon just sat still and endured the attack with ease. Just like with everything, he remained unharmed. The same, however, could not be said for the building he used as a makeshift thrown.

With several large groans and an uncountable number of crashes, the building collapsed in on itself. Trion instantly fell back as the steel and concrete gave way. With a massive thud, Trigon tumbled through the collapsed wreckage and onto his back.

"HA! How do you like that one!?" Colossus gained a giant grinned, "I knocked you over! First point goes to me!"

"Would you please take this seriously?!" Superman glared at the ghost.

"I always take my fights seriously!" Colossus argued, "I just like to enjoy them too—"

Colossus was silenced when Trigon's massive hands smashed together around him. The giant demon lord had worked his way back to his feet and was now towering over his enemies. Grabbing Colossus, Trigon threw the ghost to the earth below burying him in a crater.

" **Alright, mortals. You annoyed me. Great job. As your reward, I'll take this battle somewhat seriously.** "

* * *

"Um…" Kid Flash looked down at the pit his group stood in front of in the middle of a large shattered cavern, "We're going down there?"

"That's what the map says," The Fright Knight nodded as he eyed the map he held in his hands.

"Great…" Artemis sighed as she pulled out an arrow with a cord on it, "We'll just have to work our way down slowly.

"Or…" Jinx waved her hand at the hole. Pink energy danced from her fingers and spread into the ground. Rock shot out at the side of the deep crater and circled down creating a stairway, "We can just walk down."

"Well, that works," Kid Flash nodded.

"Yeah," Artemis frowned as she put the arrow back in its quiver, "I guess that's safer…Hopefully."

"What?" Jinx gave her a side glance, "Don't trust me?"

Artemis placed her hands on her hips, "You already know the answer to that."

Before Jinx could say anything, the Fright Knight spoke up, "You lead the way, Jinx. We need a light, and I can't do that while holding the map."

Jinx didn't look happy, but she did as he said. Raising a glowing hand, she took the lead began her trek down the stairs. She was quickly followed by the rest of her group into the darkness below them. This continued for a solid minute. The only sound that rang through the darkness were their feet meeting the stone.

"How deep does this thing go?" Kid Flash decided to break the break the awkwardness of the near silence.

"The map just says to keep going down," Fright Knight stated, "It could be a bit of walk."

Artemis sighed, "So it's going to take a while."

Jinx gained a small smirk, "Well, I know how to speed this up."

"What do you mean?"

"This," Jinx snapped her fingers and turned the stairs into a large slide, "Next time, maybe you should be nicer to me."

"Oh, you bi—AAAHHH!" Artemis let out a shout as her feet slipped and began to slide down into the darkness along with Jinx and Kid Flash.

Fright Knight just floated above the rock and shook his head. Moving to the center of the hole, he quickly descended downward following the shouts of fear and shock, "This is going to be an experience."

* * *

Robin looked across the field of fire and lava that Ember dropped him onto, "So they're around here?"

Torch nodded as he released Troia, "Torch followed his father's trail as best he could. We might be a bit off, but this is the immediate area where they will be."

"And how dost thou plan to find them through this field of sulfur and flames?" Troia questioned.

Torch shrugged uncaringly, "Torch doesn't know. Torch was just going to look around because he is immune to most fire. So is Ellie. It's you two that are in trouble."

"Well, mostly the bird boy," Ember pulled out her guitar so she could be ready for anything, "He's the only one that can't fly after all, which is pretty funny. A flightless bird. You should be called Penguin instead."

"It was already taken," Robin let out a grunt, "I guess Donna's gonna have to carry me."

"Oh really?" Troia gained a sly smirk, "Art thou sure that they masculine pride can handle being carried by a dainty maiden."

"I don't hang around dainty maidens," Robin snorted, "Besides, you can lift a car and I'm allergic to fire. I think I get a pass this one time."

"Very well," Troia took him in her arms.

"I can narrow the search area down," Ember noted as she plucked her strings, "If I send out an echo that only bounces off of living things, I should be able to get a real direction at least."

"Fine," Torch crossed his arms, "The sooner Troch deals with Dad, the better."

"It's not just you dealing with Dad," Ember reminded him, "He's my problem too."

"Ellie should stay back and help the captives escape," Troch shook his head, "Agent Z doesn't show mercy to ghosts."

"And I don't show mercy to anyone," Ember countered, "I'm going to fight him. The only question is if I have to fight you first."

"Hey! Can you two hurry this up?!" Robin shouted at them, "My friends are in trouble, and every second we waste is another where they could get killed."

"I concur," Troia nodded, "We should begin our search."

"Fine, fine," Torch frowned, "We'll deal with this when we get our target in sight."

"Fair enough," Ember pulled out her guitar pick, "Let's do it."

* * *

Cyborg silently led his group around the perimeter of a large brick church. There were several guards dressed in white robes, but the ghosts used their ability to turn others invisible to keep them all undetected. Once they reached a window, Cyborg stopped his lead and looked into the window to see more of the cult members.

"This is definitely the place," Cyborg whispered, "It's overrun with the cultists."

"What's the plan, then?" Nyx questioned, "Despite how much I want to, we can't just charge in and tear everyone apart. Those guys are victims of Blood just like our friends."

"We're ghosts," Youngblood noted, "Sneaking in should be no problem as long as no one in there can sense our body heat or energy waves."

"Who knows what types of people Blood have recruited," Etrigan scratched his chin, "The real question is if he has any of them on the lookout for us."

"Blood seemed pretty arrogant, but we can't rule anything out," Cyborg's arm shifted to show a small radar, "I should be able to keep track of people's positions and see if any patterns change based on how we move."

"So we got to move around slowly," Nyx let out a sigh, "Not my style, but I'll do it for Dani."

"Well, that leads us to the big question," Youngblood gave his friends a serious look, "Who do we save first? Because whoever we go after later will be in the greatest danger."

"He's right," Etrigan closed his eyes and extended his sixth sense, "Spirit is with Raven…And the others…They're together…and they're closer…"

"If we free them first, we'll have a bigger fighting force," Nyx reasoned, "Plus, it's not like Blood can control Raven."

"But Raven is the priority," Youngblood argued, "We need her to help take down Trigon."

"Yes, but she's in the least amount of danger and would probably kick our asses if we went to save her before the others," Cyborg stated, "As for Spirit…Well, we all want to save her first, but that's not the smart plan. We'll have to be careful in case Blood order her to kill herself. For now, Youngblood, I want you to stay a bit further back than us. If we get caught up in anything, sneak around, get to Spirit, and de-age her to keep her safe."

"I can't do that."

"What?"

Youngblood looked away, "I've broken my seal two times within the past year. Doing so again might prove dangerous to my obsession."

Cyborg let out a sigh, "Alright. Just do whatever you can then. Try to tie her up or something. And hopefully, it won't come to that. Ideally, we get everyone silently and get out."

"Ideally?" Etrigan raised an eyebrow, "When has anything gone ideally for us?"

"Well…there's a first time for everything."

* * *

The first sign of interference was when Wonder Woman began choking herself. The next big indicator happened when the Flash started to run in a circle like he was a dog chasing its tail. By the time that Superman began to hula dance, Vision knew what was happening.

"Greed!" Vision turned away from Trigon to see Greed standing an overturned bus down the street from the current battle. He waved his hands around like a puppet master as he flashed her a mischievous grin.

Just as Vision was about to rush towards her previous enemy, Greed jerked his hands back. Ten members of the Justice League were sent flying towards him. Just as the Leaguers passed a certain point, a large red dome appeared around the area surrounding Trigon cutting off Vision from the ten people in distress.

"Damn!" Red Arrow hissed as he looked over his shoulder to see his mentor and Black Canary get pulled into danger, "We have to save them!"

"That's not going to work, child!" Pandora picked Red Arrow and carried him out of the way of one Trigon's energy attacks, "If we try to get past the shield, Trigon shall tear us to pieces!"

"So we just let them die?" Green Lantern demanded.

"No…" Vision turned back to Trigon and readied her battle attire, "We let the ones on the outside save them."

Outside the dome, Greed hummed to himself. With small twitches of his fingers, he made the various members of the League under his control dance. Part of him was surprised that no one was trying to escape from the dome his father had created. Sure, the ghosts probably weren't too attached to the League members, but he was sure that some of the still free Leaguers would try to save their comrades.

"Whoops!" Greed ducked forward to dodge a sneak sucker punch to the back of his head. Rolling to the side, he controlled Superman and Captain Marvel to get between him and his attacker. That didn't work, though, because there was another attack coming from above him. A quick order to Hawkwoman made it so she went to shield him from the attack.

That stopped the attacker quickly enough, but there were still follow up attackers to handle. As such, Greed ordered Flash to grab him and quickly carry him to the side. Once he was a safe distance away, the Flash put Greed down allowing him to get a view of his attacker.

"I wasn't expecting a ghost," Greed mentioned when he saw various Plasmius duplicates floating around his puppets.

"But I was expecting you," Plasmius noted. In a few blazes of magenta, his duplicates returned to him, "For a being that wants to conquer entire planets, greed must be important. And greed is something I know about."

"Very true," Greed nodded, "I've heard about you. The oldest halfa, yet the one that plays the weakest role."

"I always preferred to work in the background," Plasmius shrugged, "But I am very good at front line assaults as well."

"We'll see about that," Greed smiled at him, "Indeed, greed is an important sin of Father's. It's his second strongest sin after Pride. And my power is amplified with Father so close. I can control ten people. One for each finger on my hand. How will you fight against such odds?"

"I'm aware that it won't be easy, but…" Plasmius's eyes trailed up to see the Batwing and Bioship soaring around the area, "I am not alone."

"Indeed," Greed gave a small laugh, "You know, in different circumstances, I would have enjoyed having a sit down chat with you. I bet you give a stimulating conversation."

"I can say the same for you. Unfortunately, these circumstances are our reality, and we must deal with them," Plasmius's hands began to glow a light pink.

"Well said."

* * *

Kid Flash groaned as he pulled himself up out of the dirt. While the slide down had been bad, the landing had been worse. He hadn't been expecting the sudden stop at all, "Well, that sucked."

"It sure did," Artemis agreed, "Jinx, if you ever do that again, I'll kill you."

"No you won't," Jinx nonchalantly dusted herself off, "If you were a killer, you'd be on my side."

"I'll make an exception just for you, frenemy," Artemis let out a small growl.

"Enough," Fright Knight landed beside the young people, "We need to stay focused on finding Lord Phantom."

"Right, right," Kid Flash popped his sore neck, "I'm guessing that we need to go down the only tunnel down here?"

"Right," Fright Knight nodded as he turned and began to lead them through the tunnel exiting the giant crater.

"How far down are we exactly?" Artemis questioned as she noticed the heat blazing around all around her.

"I believe the best analogy I could use is halfway to China," Fright Knight stated.

"That deep?" Jinx frowned, "Then why is this tunnel down here?"

Kid Flash examined the rock as they continued to travel through the tunnel, "Well, I can definitely say that it's not a natural occurrence. No water or earthquake could do this. It's too clean. Some type of energy cut through this."

"Was it Danny?" Artemis questioned.

"I doubt it," Kid Flash shook his head, "If Danny had enough energy to do this, then he would have just flown out of here."

"Then something took him," Jinx noted as they reached the end of the tunnel, "But who?"

"That was my question."

Everyone froze when they heard Phantom's voice sounded from in front of them. They now stood in a giant cavern covered in in glowing red rocks. Heat blared around the room, but that wasn't what bothered them. At the center of the room and standing between them and the exit at the far end of the cave was someone that looked like Danny Phantom. They all knew better, though. Danny Phantom never had such an evil look in his eyes.

"Envy!" Artemis pulled out her bow and pointed an arrow at him.

"Oh! You caught on so quickly!" Envy roared out in laughter, "Probably should have changed it to look like I was hurt, but my job isn't to trick you right now. Father wanted me to make sure nothing funny happened down here. Looks like Phantom is still alive…maybe. I'm not too sure right now."

"So it wasn't you that made this tunnel," Fright Knight put the Infi-Map up and unsheathed Soul Shredder.

"Nope, but I do wonder what did," Envy looked around at the cavern, "This is some pretty good work. And it seems pretty new too, so someone did it quickly. That means that whoever did this is pretty damn powerful. Now that's something I should tell Father."

"We won't let you escape," Jinx glared at him.

"Escape?" Envy gave her a sly grin, "Now that wouldn't be any fun. Instead, why don't I just kill you before leaving? That sounds like it will be loads of fun."

* * *

Wrath knelt in the middle of a burning field. His eyes were closed and had a single hand placed on the ground. Despite the flames and heat all around him, Wrath wasn't even sweated. It was his element after all. Heat and anger were always closely associated.

Taking deep breaths, Wrath extended his senses. That was unique gift that his father only bestowed on him. Unlike his other brothers, his sin dealt with one emotion in particular, anger. If he tried, he would spread out his sixth sense and spread out a radar for anyone filled with anger.

It only took a few seconds.

At the center of the field were four people. Agent Z…Two of those heroes…and that half-ghost. Strange. He thought Z killed them, "Why keep them alive? Hmm…Father was right to have me follow him."

For some odd reason, Trigon seemed cautions of the half-ghosts, even the older one. There was something about their toeing of the line between life and death that caught his attention. That and their tendency to ruin plans. Yeah, it was probably that for the most part.

Agent Z was supposed to take care of the youngest halfa. For some reason, he let the boy live. Maybe he wanted to take his time. Maybe he wanted something else. That was yet to be seen. He'd have to wait to make a judgment on that one.

There were other people flying above the field, though. He recognized three of the angers from his fights against the ghosts and Young Justice. That Robin had a kind of explosive anger to him that was hard to copy. The Amazon's anger was there too. It seemed more tuned down than what she had back on Pride's birthday.

Then there were the others. One was Agent Z's son, and the other was probably his other kid. It seemed like Trigon's promise was going to come true. He couldn't interfere until then. But afterwards…

Wrath gave a wide grin, "I'll have some fun turning them against each other."

* * *

Brother Blood leaned onto his podium. A deep scowl marred his aged features. His newest recruits were now dressed properly for their new home, but that didn't lighten his mood.

"Are you really still pouting?" Lust questioned as he approached the podium.

"Of course I am," Brother Blood glared at the demi-demon, "Did you expect me to just get over it?"

"I expected you to stop acting like a child about it," Lust scolded the cult leader, "But I guess a man of your talents isn't used to not getting what he wants."

"No, I'm not used to it," Blood sighed and stood upright, "And why are you even here? Shouldn't you be guarding your Gem?"

"I'm here for the same reason you're pretending to put your guard down," Lust stated.

"Tsk, I was going to wait until they got closer," Blood waved his hand. A telepathic blast shot out and smashed into the invisible intruders into the cult church. With loud shouts, the three intruders that were sneaking up on him were sent flying back into the far war. With that done, Blood looked to Lust, "How did you know about them?"

"Father figured at least one ghost would come for Spirit and Pride," Lust rolled up his sleeve to reveal a glowing red brand of a T, "He gave me form of 'ghost sense,' which is why I know that there is one more—oof!"

Before Lust could finish his sentence, Youngblood rammed into Lust and pushed him out of the room, "I'll make this guy tell me where Raven and Spirit are! You handle Brother Blood!"

Brother Blood frowned at the sight, "Hmm…That child might give Lust a challenge. Zatanna, you're the best magic user her. Go help Trigon's son."

The magician quickly followed his commands. She rushed out of the room. Cyborg scowled at the sight, "That might lead to problems for Chuck."

"You should stop worrying about him and worry about yourself," Brother Blood's eyes began to glow once more. The same thing occurred to every cultist in the vicinity, "Kill them my followers."

* * *

Nightwing glared at the two people that were approaching the Cube, "What? Not even bothering to sneak up on us?"

"Meh," Sloth rolled his head to the side, "That sounds like too much trouble. It would be a lot easier to make this quick."

"Quick?" Superboy took a deep stance, "You're underestimating us. We completely outnumber you."

"And we completely outclass you," Gluttony gave a small grunt and threw the back of potato chips he was carrying away, "Man, this is going to be great. I can already taste all that energy from here."

"Oi, Teen Justice!" Constantine yelled over to him, "Phantom told me about 'm. Don't let the bloody fatass get too close. If he absorbs our energy, we're completely out of luck."

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Rocket mumbled, "What's our strategy?"

That was a good question. Sloth and Gluttony were hard opponents to face one their own. Together, they might be an unstoppable force. They couldn't get close to them, they couldn't use energy blasts or explosions, and they couldn't focus on one of the demi-demons without the other taking them down.

"Separate them," Nightwing ordered, "It's our only chance. Superboy and Batgirl take Gluttony. Attack from a distance and use anything you can to fight him. Rocket and I will try to take on Sloth."

"The key word is try," Sloth sighed, "Luckily, this won't take a lot of effort."

"We'll see about," Rocket formed an energy bubble around Sloth and moved him away from his brother before Gluttony could absorb the energy.

Gluttony turned to race after his brother, but he was stopped when Superboy chucked a large boulder at him and knocked him away. This worked as Gluttony was sent bouncing away with Superboy and Batgirl on his trail.

"Gee…This seems like a pain," Sloth mentioned. He placed his hand on the bubble holding him. With barely any effort, he shattered the bubble, "Any chance of you giving up?"

"None," Nightwing pulled out his shock batons.

Sloth groaned, "Of course you don't. Bugs always think that biting a giant hurts them. Right up until they get squished without warning, that is."

* * *

Amorpho stood off to the side of a large bunker filled with ghosts. Many of them were seated around plain tables covered in small snacks provided by the Lunch Lady. Vision had prepared the bunker for emergencies. Granted, not a lot of emergencies influenced the Ghost Zone, but things like le Fey's attack justified such measures. Of course, the bunker wouldn't do much if Trigon managed to get into the Ghost Zone, but Amorpho assumed that the idea now was to prevent the ghosts from wandering into the human world and get themselves killed.

No one seemed to notice him. That wasn't new. He always blended into the background. It was always his blessing and his curse as well as the greatest talent. Infiltration, investigation, and impersonation were always his talents. Combat on the other hand was his weakest aspect. That was why he was here instead of helping.

…Just like it always seemed to be…

Amorpho clenched his cane so hard that he felt his knuckles were about to crack.

"It's okay, Kitty," Johnny 13 whispered gently to his girlfriend as he slid his leather coat over her shoulders.

Lunch Lady looked up from Box Lunch in her arms, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Johnny sighed as he slid next to Kitty's seat, "She's been acting weird lately, but this is the worst I've seen her."

"He's in trouble," Kitty muttered, "He's in so much pain. It's our fault. We should have done better."

"The stress might just be getting to her," Johnny pulled her into a hug.

"I can relate," Lunch Lady's eyes drifted back to the toddler in her arms, "My husband is out there…In danger. I know they need him, but we need him more."

"Well…" Johnny frowned, "It's not like we can do anything now."

"Maybe there is."

Their eyes drifted over to Amorpho, "Huh?"

"Every time there is an emergency, we're either in the way or cowering. I hate it," Amorpho stated, "This affects us too, yet we just hide and let the big wigs take care of our problems."

Kitty seemed to gain a bit of composure of herself, "What can we do? We aren't nearly as strong as them."

"Maybe not, but an army doesn't need to be made of elite warriors," Amorpho noted, "Sometimes, numbers is all that matters."

"How exactly do you plan to get those numbers?" Lunch Lady questioned, "There aren't many ghosts willing to fight."

"I may not have skills fighting myself, but I'm pretty good at getting others to fight," Amorpho's form began to shift to that of Danny Phantom, "You just need to know how to stir people up and point them in the right direction."

* * *

 **Next update: "Blood" on April 25, 2016**

 **Anyone hear about that Justice League vs Teen Titans animated movie coming out? Guess who the main villain is...Trigon. I swear, DC is stealing my ideas. Every time I come up with something, they copy it.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	20. Blood

*In honor and memory of Joan Marie Laurer AKA Chyna, December 27,1969-April 20,2016. She was one of the great pioneers of women's wrestling. You died too young, Ninth Wonder of the World.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."

Richard Bach

* * *

Chapter 20: "Blood"

(Friday-April 11, 2014)

Mal let out a shout as he kicked the wall, "Damn it!"

"Calm down," Harriet sighed. She sat with her back against the same wall, "Getting mad won't help."

"Sorry," Mal took a deep breath, "I've just never felt so powerless. My girlfriend has been kidnapped by a psycho cult, and I can't do anything."

"Join the club kid," Harriet gave him a small smile, "I've been hanging around Danny and these super types for years without being able to actually do anything."

"Doesn't that bother you?" Mal questioned.

Harriet looked away, "We all have our place kid. I'm not a good fighter, and unless I can yell my enemies into submission, I'll never be. Eventually, you have to accept your limitations. Otherwise, you'll be like Damon. Throwing yourself out into the fight without any real concern for yourself."

"I always thought Damon was being brave," Mal argued.

"Brave. Stupid. There's a very thin line between them," Harriet let out a laugh.

"Perhaps his reasons were somewhat foolish, but at least he wasn't afraid to do what he had to," J.A.Z.Z. suddenly spoke up. The Red X suit was kneeling by the downed Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, making sure that they were still stable, "One of the reasons I volunteered to stay back and help guard these two was because I was scared."

"Scared?"

"Well," J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded amused, "I don't 'feel' scared. I don't really feel like humans do. A.I. remember? But I have been programmed with an in depth understanding of emotions, and my compulsion for self-preservation would fall under the category of scared."

"Self-preservation? But can't you just upload your consciousness into the web if your body is in danger?" Mal questioned.

"Normally, yes. Right now, no. Trigon has effectively shut down such systems. If this body goes, my consciousness goes to," J.A.Z.Z. noted, "As such, my reluctance to fight could fall under the category of being a 'coward'."

"Cowards tend to live, though," Harriet mentioned as her gaze drifted upward, "So, what's better. A living coward, or a dead hero?"

"We work with heroes on a daily basis," Mal stated, "They would argue that dying for the cause is just part of being a hero."

"True, but I don't want to die. J.A.Z.Z. doesn't want to die, and I'm sure Karin doesn't want you to die," Harriet gently stated, "You can try to be a hero, but this is a situation where there's literally nothing you can do. Right now, you wouldn't die as a hero. You would die as a fool. That might sound harsh, but its reality. Sometimes, your instinct for survival is right. Listen to it."

"Gah…Fine…" Mal leaned against the wall and slid down to a seated position. Reaching into his coat, Mal pulled out a familiar book. Opening the book entitled 'Gabriel's Horn,' Mal looked down at the blank pages. Part of him had hoped that there was some secret to it that would give him an answer. Despite looking through the book several time, he found nothing. It was just a blank book—

Huh?

Written on the front of the page was two simple sentences. Mal knew that it wasn't there before, but now the words stood bold and proud.

'Hi, my name is Jericho. What's your name?'

* * *

Death glared at the Life Entity as they stood in front of an unmoving Danny Phantom, " _I get it. Nekron is your natural enemy, your only real threat, but what you want Danny to be will hurt him._ "

"… _Perhaps…Zzz…But it is needed…Zzz…My survival means the survival of everything. You included…Zzz…"_

Death sighed, " _That may be true, but it doesn't mean what you're asking of him is fair."_

" _Life isn't fair…I'm not fair…_ _" _ The Entity noted _, "_ _So tired…_ _"_

" _Stay awake, you lazy fool. You're worse than my brother,"_ Death felt her patience dwindle. No one got under her skin like the being in front of her, " _You saved him from Trigon. You saved him when he was born. You put him in the crosshairs of both our domains. Why? Why him?"_

" _He would have died anyway…Zzz…His life would have been inconsequential…Zzz…I gave him a longer life…A greater meaning...Now, all I ask is that he give back…_ _"_

" _Hasn't he given enough? Hasn't he lost and sacrificed enough?"_ Death questioned.

" _No…Not yet…Everything was to build up for what is to come…You know this now…Clockwork knew this from the beginning…Destiny knew this before the beginning…Everything comes down to this,_ " The Life Entity's glowing eyes snapped open, " _His whole reason for existing has come. After this, he's unnecessary._ _"_

" _Unnecessary? UNNECESSARY?!"_ Death's face twist into a rage filled snarl, _"How dare you. After all these years, you just ignore him. You haven't seen him suffer. You haven't seen him lose everything. You haven't seen him cry over his dead fiancé! I have, so don't you look at me and say that he's unnecessary after this, but he's necessary."_

" _He's no more necessary than any other life. His worth was given by me. He is my Chosen to defend Life. He will bring an end to Nekron. Even if he has to sacrifice everything he cares about once again."_

* * *

"No," Dusk immediately stated while giving Agent Z a hard look.

"Well, that was fast," Destruction burst out laughing.

"I figured you'd say that," Agent Z sighed.

"Then why even ask?" Dusk demanded, "You don't do useless things, and you know my stance on killings."

"True, but it's in you. I've been watching. I saw how things went down at the Sorcerer Initiative," Z's eyes drifted to Black Bat and Damon, "Seeing your people suffer makes you angry, doesn't it?"

"Don't you touch them," Dusk snapped.

"Way to walk into the trap, kid," Destruction rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry," Agent Z shook his head, "I didn't take them for that. I took them because they might be the only ones to convince you to do the deed."

"Really?" Dusk frowned, "And what makes you say that?"

"You have friends filled with anger. The Boy Wonder for example," Agent Z noted, "But these two are different. They have suffered what it means to lose the bond between parent and child."

"We haven't given up on life, idiot," Black Bat argued, "That would be spitting on my parent's memory."

"Val would kick my ass if I didn't keep fighting," Damon added.

"Really?" Agent Z eyed them, "Because your actions say otherwise. Tell me, Damon, what right do you have to be on the battlefield? Even with this suit, you lack any experience, and you know it. There's a high probability that you'll die."

Damon was silent.

"And you Cassandra," Agent Z smirked, "The only reason you haven't tried to kill Ra's yet is because of your father's warning. But it's in there. You want revenge just like I did against the ghosts, and you'll do anything to get it. You are well aware of the consequences, too. You know that going down this road will lead to your own destruction, but you just don't care because he took your parents from you."

Black Bat was silent.

"I have suffered what both these two have gone through," Agent Z noted, "I have sacrificed everything for revenge all the while not caring what happened to me. Look what's happened because of that. If my kids saw me now, they'd be ashamed of me. I have nothing left but shame, and there's only one person I can trust to give me a respectable death. You, Joel."

Destruction looked extremely amused, "So what's your answer, Joel? After all, to build something new, you need to destroy."

Dusk sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver locket. He stared at it with a longing gaze, "I refuse."

"Joel…" Black Bat gave Dusk a side glance, "Normally, I at least consider your viewpoint, but this isn't the time for it. This is the end of the world. We need to do what we have to. If you kill Z, then we can move on and rendezvous with the others."

"No."

"Things aren't always black and white, Dusk," Damon argued, "If we stop Trigon, he's dead anyway, right? Wouldn't it be kinder to give him the death that he wants?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. All I know is that I feel that's wrong," Dusk's eyes did not drift away from the locket, "I've been told a lot of things recently, a lot of different viewpoints. Hell, I even had Dark Dan tell me to avoid people dying. That was surreal. And I know that sometimes, death can't be avoided. Teekl and Klarion had to go, even though I hate how it happened. But through all that, through everything I remember one thing…"

All eyes were on Dusk. Everyone was so silent that they could hear a pin drop. Even Destruction didn't have a smart remark to make.

"I remember a young woman that loved her brother," Dusk stated, "I remember Greta. She never once gave up on her brother. She begged and pleaded for help in saving him. Despite everything he did, she never once wavered. She held fast even when the entire world was willing to kill Harm. And she was rewarded for it. Harm eventually felt regret for what he did. He repented and begged for forgiveness, and that never would have happened if I gave into pressure and let him die."

"And you think that I can do that?" Agent Z questioned, "You think that I can be redeemed."

"I'm not sure," Dusk admitted, "But I think you can try, and sometimes, that's enough."

* * *

Delirium was waving her head back and forth in front of a nonresponsive Spirit, "Hello~ Hello~ Are you awake yet~"

Spirit just continued to look ahead to the bland room.

"Boring!" Delirium sighed and stood up. She looked over to the little Raven that was sitting on a bed, "Can you please do something now?"

She was met with silence.

"Of course," Delirium deflated a bit, "You can't hear me, can you? Lame~"

Despite not being able to sense Delirium, Raven looked up. Her vision saw through Delirium and took in the sight of Spirit sitting on a simple metal chair, "Can you talk now that those guys are gone?"

Spirit didn't respond.

Raven looked back down, "I didn't think so."

The young girl didn't know what was going on right now. For some reason, everything felt wrong. Despite Lust's, such a strange name, kindness to her, she still felt like she didn't belong here. Brother Blood bothered her, and she felt a weird pull to those strange people that weren't wearing the robes. This was especially true for the girl sitting across from her, even if she didn't know who she was.

"Raven."

Raven's head shot up as a green bug jumped off her shoulder and transferred into a green, monkey boy, "W-Who are you?"

"What?" Beast Boy tilted his head to the side, "Raven, don't you remember? It's me, Beast Boy."

"Beast…Boy?"

Beast Boy was a little shaken. He had never heard Raven sound so weak and unsure, "You know…Garfield? We're friends and teammates."

"Teammates?" Raven gave him a hopeful look.

"Yeah, although usually you don't act like you like it…" Beast Boy admitted, "But we do look out for each other. That's why I hid in your hood when everything went down."

Raven's eyes widened, "You know what happened?"

"Well…I know that it involved you super demon dad…I kind of zoned out during the debriefing," Beast Boy admitted, "I wasn't allowed to fight anyway, so I hid on your shoulder to keep an eye out for you. But there wasn't anything I could do, so I stayed hidden until you got to the alter thing. Then, I, uh, kind of passed out."

"You're not making any sense," Raven noted.

"Yeah, I suck at explaining stuff," Beast Boy admitted, "But that doesn't matter. We need to get out of here before Lust comes back."

"B-But how? The door's locked."

"Yeah…" Beast Boy blinked at her, "Just blast it open or teleport us out of here."

"What? I can't do that…"

"Sure you can," Beast Boy noted, "I've seen you do tons of times."

"No…No, I can't," Raven shook her head. She looked ready to cry.

"Okay, okay, I can handle this," Beast Boy turned to the door. Once again, he shifted into a lady bug. He then flew to the keyhole and entered the lock. A few short seconds later, a few quiet clicks sounded signaling that the door was now unlocked.

"You did it!" Raven noted happily as Beast Boy existed the key hole, transformed back to normal, and opened the door.

"Yeah, grab Spirit and let's go," Beast Boy noted, "If neither of you can fight, then we need to move slowly so we don't get caught. I'll take point and make sure no one is ahead of us."

* * *

Envy started the fight by using Phantom's powers to create three duplicates. The four fake Phantoms then rushed forward to combat his enemies. To their surprise, Envy's duplicates were far faster than they anticipated. Only Kid Flash was able to dodge the first rush. His three allies weren't as quick though and were pushed back by blasts of demonic ectoplasm.

The fake Phantoms then continued to send a barrage of energy blasts out to obliterate their enemies. Artemis quickly dodged and ran around to avoid getting hit. As she did this, she used her bow to fight from afar. The Fright Knight decided to take a more raw power approach. He used his blade to black the attacks while trying to push forward to the duplicate attacking him. Jinx had the most luck ironically. She teleported herself close to a duplicate and went to fight him with her powers.

It was then that dozens of more duplicates popped up all around the room. This was a tactic seldom used by the real Phantom as each duplicate drained his power significantly and left him vulnerable. Right now, though, Envy was simply trying to kill them by overwhelming them with sheer numbers. Luckily, they were all too powerful and skilled to get caught so easily. More and more duplicates were appearing, though, to the point that the cavern were quickly getting filled with fake Phantoms.

Seeing that they were quickly being outnumbered, Kid Flash rushed in between the various fakes. Despite the chaos, his super speed allowed him to follow the original Envy. Using one of the duplicates as a springboard, Kid Flash launched himself at Envy and tackled the demi-demon to the ground. Before Envy could recover, the speedster began to rapidly to punch his enemy in the face in a desperate attempt to keep him down.

This caused all the duplicates to turn to the Kid Flash in attempt to save their original. Before they could move, though, Fright Knight, Jinx, and Artemis quickly began to cut them down while they were distracted. Soon, the number of duplicates had been drastically diminished.

Seeing that this tactic wasn't working, Envy called the duplicates back to himself. He then transformed into the Flash. Using his now superior speed, he dodged Kid Flash's blows. He then began to vibrate his molecules to the point that he could stand up and pass straight through the slower speedster.

"He's stronger than before," Kid Flash noted, "He has the full power of the people he copies."

"Right you are!" Envy smacked Kid Flash away, "Father's presence gives me strength! Who should I turn into next? Oh, I know! How about Superman?"

Artemis pulled out an arrow and shot it at Envy. Nonchalantly, Envy caught the arrow with a single hand. As soon as the arrow was touched, though, foam burst out from the arrow and covered him in a giant pillow of foam.

"Really?" Envy rolled his eyes and began to vibrate through the foam. Just as he did that, though, Kid Flash tackled him. Using as much of his speed as possible, Kid Flash vibrating his molecules as well in a desperate attempt to keep a hold on them.

"Fine!" Envy took the form of Superman, "I'll show you—"

As Envy changed, Artemis pulled out a special glowing green arrow. She then shot it at Kid Flash surprisingly. The speedster caught the arrow just like Envy did before and held the Kryptonite arrow to the fake Superman.

"AH!" Envy flinched in pain.

"Gotcha!" Kid Flash gave a wide grin.

Screaming in pain, Envy began to swing around wildly. Red beams blasted wildly from his eyes as he lost control of his powers. Through everything, though, Kid Flash desperately kept his hold.

"We only have a few seconds before he changes!" Kid Flash yelled, "Jinx, Fright Knight, go find Danny! We'll hold him off!"

"You can't fight the entire League and Council!" Fright Knight shouted.

"We don't have to! He can only be one person at a time!" Kid Flash noted as Envy's form began to shift once more.

"He's right!" Artemis pulled out a new arrow, "Danny taught us strategies on how to fight basically anyone we would need to. We might not win, but we can hold him off until you find Danny and come back."

"They're right," Jinx looked to Fright Knight, "Our powers are best suited for finding Danny, and we don't have time to waste on trying to take Envy down. It will take forever, and the longer we take to find Danny, the more time Trigon has to kill our big guns."

"But…"

"Just do it!" Kid Flash was sent flying through the air as Envy turned into Wonder Woman and threw him off, "Gah…We got this…"

"Very well," Fright Knight nodded. He and Jinx turned and began to run towards the exit to the cavern.

"Oh, no you don't!" Envy tried to go after them but was stopped when Artemis jumped in his way, "Fine! I'll just kill you two and then go after them! Not like it matters! Phantom's dead anyway!"

* * *

"Try, eh? You're still a naïve brat, you know that?" Agent Z chuckled and shook his head.

Dusk shrugged, "I don't want to lose the little bit of positive outlook I have left. Not after so many people have sacrificed so I could be alive and free."

"Still it…" Agent Z paused, "Huh…You got some really good friends kid. I'll give you that."

"What?"

Turing around, Agent Z dismissed the flames that burned through the flames. Almost instantly, the smoke and steam vanished to reveal that there had been people spying on them. This caused Agent Z to burst out laughing.

"Hahahahahaha! The fire ghost again!? You're persistent, I'll give you that. You said your name was Torch, right?"

Torch nodded as his group landed on the ground, "Yes. Torch is called Torch."

"Thy grammar is atrocious," Troia muttered.

Robin shook his head, "Babe, you talk in ye old English. Kind of hypocritical for you to judge how other people talk."

Troia blushed and looked away.

"Whelp…" Agent sighed. He stuck his arms out wide and behind him, "You seem determined to kill me, and Joel won't do it, so why the hell not. Go ahead, Torch. I got nothing left to live for anymore anyway."

Torch was about to take a step forward, but he was stopped by Ember. The siren ghost stood in Torch's way and gave Agent Z a hard look, "Do you remember who I am?"

"Yeah, you're the singer ghost," Agent Z nodded, "We caught wind of you after Phantom stopped that concert of yours, but you went off the grid. You had a catchy song, but it always pissed me off for some reason."

"I bet it did," Ember smiled at him, "It reminded you of your daughter."

Agent Z gained a confused look. He turned to Dusk, "I thought you kept my daughter a secret."

"I did. I never told anyone about it," Dusk noted.

"He didn't have to," Ember took a step forward, "I found out for myself when I looked into my past. I remembered everything. Who I was, and what my family was like. I had a brother and a dad. My mom passed away when I was young, and my dad started investigating ghosts to try and find her, but she died satisfied so she never came back."

Agent Z was silent.

"But he never stopped investigating ghosts. He wanted to work with them, to build a world where we didn't have to fear each other. Some ghosts, like people, don't listen to reason. He escaped the lab and set fire to my house with me in it," Ember reached a hand out to Agent Z, "Do you remember, Dad?"

"No!" Agent Z roared, "No…It's a lie! A trick! Some kind of revenge from Phantom! He must have looked into my past! How dare you use that against me! My own family…That's low!"

"No!" Ember pleaded desperately, "Please, Daddy, you have to believe me!"

"That's it! Even when confronted with the truth, this moron refuses to repent!" Torch quickly formed his scythe, "Torch will burn him to ashes!"

"No! Don't!" Ember held out a hand to either one of them, "There's a better way!"

Dusk watched on with a critical eye. That was odd. They were acting volitile even for them. Something was wrong. It was then that he felt a familiar feeling in the air. It was a weight that he had felt only hours before this. He remembered it clearly.

"Wrath!" Dusk yelled out.

As soon as Dusk said that, the muscular form of Wrath came crashing down. His weight and strength sent out a miniature quake and sent everyone flying. He made sure to try to knock Agent Z towards his children. As for the others, well, he cared less about them. This actually helped them a bit as the fiery cage that held Damon, Black Bad, and Dusk disappeared from the power of the landing.

"I was going to stay out of it for a bit, but this is more fun. A real family feud," Wrath walked over to the Exorcist suit and effortlessly threw it into the distance, far away from the combat.

Dusk looked over to see the fire erupting as the family of fire users began to move away from them. He couldn't worry about them. Torch and Ember could handle Z. Right now, he had to focus on Wrath.

"Damon, back up!" Dusk ordered. The older man quickly obeyed and began his long trek to get back to the Exorcist suit.

"This guy abuses anger, right?" Robin pulled out his bo staff, "That's not really all that great for a group of hot heads."

"I am not a hot head!" Troia snapped at him.

"Sure, babe. Sure."

Dusk frowned. Robin was right. Wrath had the advantage here. He could easily make most of them lose their cool.

"Just stay as focused as you can," Black Bat advised.

"Oh? And how did that work out for you, little girl?" Wrath began to laugh, "I already know every one of you four's emotional triggers. This will be like pouring water onto a cat. It's gonna be hilarious."

* * *

Youngblood wiped the blood from his brow as he chased after Lust. To the ghost's surprise, Lust proved to be an evasive foe. None of his attacks seemed to hit the demi-demon.

"Rack!" Polly cried from Youngblood's shoulder, "He lacks strength on his own, so he perfected dodging."

Youngblood nodded. He kind of wished that he had such skills in dodging. Zatanna was relentless in her attacks. She was her magic to throw everything at the ghost from books to the swords that hung from the walls. Youngblood tried to block them, but the magic behind the attacks overpowered most of his powers while he was in child form.

He had tried more than once to attack the magician, but there was a huge problem. While good at dodging, Lust's true power came from his ability to control people. He used people's inner desires to control them. The more lust a person has, the easier it was for the demi-demon to control them. Thus, with all of Brother Blood's teenage cultists, it was easy to have them basically lung in the way of Youngblood's attack.

Ducking under another sword, Youngblood tried to continue to try to chase after Lust. With every few steps, though, Lust was coercing more and more of the cultists to do his will. They desperately threw themselves at Youngblood with more passion than Youngblood had ever seen in anyone. It almost like they needed to sacrifice themselves for Lust.

"Tel meht hcuot Doolbgnuoy!"

Youngblood cursed under his breath as the cultist's arms began to gain a magical glow. Two of the cultists were now hanging off of him. His intangibility failed to allow him to pass through the hands grabbing him. He was instantly weighed down, and this gave the cultists even more of a chance to grab onto him. Soon, he was in the middle of a pile of people.

As he heard the muffled sound of Zatanna preparing a new spell, Youngblood changed his fake hand and leg into canons. He prepared to blast the people off of him, but he paused. These people here innocent. That never bothered him before, but…

Dani's smiling face popped into his mind. He remembered that because he had saved a group of people in a car crash. She seemed so proud of him.

Youngblood stopped his attack. Damn. He couldn't do it. Stupid maturity and caring about people. They always got in the way. He only had one more option.

"Idiot!" Polly screamed at him, "If you break the seal again, then it's all over! This will cause far more trouble than it will fix!"

The bird was right, but Youngblood didn't have a choice. Even if it undid everything he had worked for, at least he would have a chance to fix it. If he died here, then the seal would break anyway and no one would know how to deal with Thorn. This was the only real way…

"RAW!" A giant green gorilla yanked the people off of Youngblood and threw them at Zatanna to stop her spell. Youngblood immediately took this opportunity to slide out through the new opening.

"Beast Boy!" The young Raven cried out in shock as the green hero carefully move through the pile of people.

Beast Boy quickly changed back into his normal form, "Keep going! I need to help them! Get Spirit out of here!"

"B-But…"

"Just do it! Keep going down this hall! It should lead you out of here!" Beast Boy ordered before turning back into a gorilla.

Filled with terror, Raven nodded and began to drag Spirit behind her down the hall intersection and out of sight.

"No! Cultists, go after-mmh!" Lust's eyes widened when Youngblood covered his mouth with his non-weapon hand.

"Got you!" Youngblood pointed the hook canon at Lust. A large grin split across his face as he finally managed to get a hold on his enemy, "Just in time for a little flight!"

Boom!

* * *

Cyborg groaned as he was slammed into the ceiling by Brother Blood's telekinetic force. Before he could even complain about how he's always thrown back first into walls, he then thrown face first to the ground. A puffer fish version of Lagoon Boy immediately jumped on him. The Atlantian pulled him up and held him in a tight bear hug, trying to crush his metal body while trying to tear open his metal chest plate.

With gritted teeth, Cyborg readjusted his arm into a sonic canon and pointed it to the far wall. A blast of energy shot out of the canon and hit the far wall. Cyborg continued the stream so that the energy pushed him and Lagoon Boy into the far wall. This time, Lagoon Boy smacked into the wall spine first. With a yelp of pain, he immediately released the older member of Young Justice.

"Sorry, man!" Cyborg immediately turned around and smashed a metal fist to the side of Lagoon Boy's head, "Better a headache than mind control, right?"

Turning, Cyborg saw the chaos happening in the church. Both Etrigan and Nyx were trying to wade through a wave of literally brainwashed cultists. Etrigan could muscle through most of them trying to hold him down, but Bumblebee proved to be the bigger annoyance for him. She was zooming around his head shooting every weak point she could find. With no way to swing at her without hurting the cultists, he was effectively blinded.

Nyx, on the other hand, easily made it through the waves by using intangibility. She managed to get to Blood, but she was stopped a blast of psychic energy that rocked her ghost powers. As such, she was sent flying back into crowd of cultists.

Seeing that Brother Blood was distracted, Cyborg aimed his sonic canon at Blood, but his aim was quickly changed when Lagoon Boy grabbed him once more, "Come on, man!"

Cyborg quickly returned to his struggle of fighting a friend without hurting him too badly. Nyx, however, was taking another approach. Floating above the cultists, she began to control the shadows running across the rooms and made them reach out towards Brother Blood.

Realizing that he was about to be surrounded by the shadows, the cult leader decided to end the fun and games, "Stop breathing!"

The effect was instant. All the cultists, including Bumblebee and Lagoon Boy, instantly dropped to the floor. Their faces quickly turned blue. They all looked like they desperately wanted air, but none of them could disobey their leader's command.

Nyx quickly dismissed the shadows, "Okay! Okay! Just let them breath!"

"Breathe!"

The room was instantly filled with dozens of grateful gasps of air.

"I'll order it again," Brother Blood warned, "So stand down now."

Giving each other glances, all three of them immediately raised their hands in defeat. Cyborg made sure to change his sonic canon back to normal. Nyx floated to the ground once more to show her submission.

"Good…" Brother Blood eyed them. He couldn't control any of them. There was no point to keep around such rebels, "Make sure not to fight back or your friends die. Kill them!"

The cultists once again lunged at the heroes. The three heroes did nothing as they were tackled to the ground and were choked, scratched and beaten.

"Stop!" Raven stepped out from the hall she had been hiding. Despite her fear, she couldn't stop herself. For some reason, she felt the same pull from those three as she felt from Spirit.

"Oh?" Brother Blood raised an eyebrow at the demi-demon, "How did you get out?"

Raven ignored him, "Stop it! Leave them alone!"

Brother Blood scoffed, "They can't hear you, girl."

"I said STOP IT!" The entire room shook as magic blasted off of her. All the cultists were grabbed by magical bird claws and pulled to the ground. Several of the claws then turned to Brother Blood. With a look of fear on his face, Brother Blood created a psychic shield around him to stop that attack.

Now freed, the injured heroes began to work their way back to their feet. Etrigan was the first one to speak, "His powers are being boosted by Trigon. I felt it every time he gave out orders. Get me close to him, and I can stop his control."

Nodding, his two allies quickly went to work. Cyborg once again brought out his sonic canon and opened fire at Brother Blood. Nyx returned to her previous effort of using the shadows to attack the cult leader. Like the bird claws, their attacks were stopped by the psychic shield. The force of their combined efforts did manage to force Brother Blood to his knees, though.

Wincing in pain, Brother Blood desperately looked around for help. His eyes quickly caught sight of Spirit standing silently in the shadows of the hallway. A large grin spread across his face, "Spirit! Protect me!"

Without a moment of hesitation, Spirit rushed forward. She knocked Raven over, stopping her spells. She then rushed to Nyx. Seeing her friend flying to her ready to attack, Nyx turned the shadows to Spirit. As the shadows were about to hit the halfa, though, Nyx flinched as she imagined Spirit being hurt once again because of her. That moment of hesitation allowed Spirit to blast through the shadows and land a solid kick to Nyx's midsection, cracking the ghost's armor and sending her flying back.

After a few skips, Nyx landed on her back with a pained groan. Before she could sit up, Spirit was already on her with Spectral Claws at the ready. Just as she was about to stab down at Nyx's head, Cyborg thrusted an arm in the way. Spirit's Spectral Claws easily cut through Cyborg's metal arm, but Cyborg already knew that would happen. After letting the claw stab through his arm, he then jerked her away and held her close.

Like Nyx, Cyborg could not bring himself to hit his girlfriend. That didn't mean he couldn't hold her in place, though. Even if she fought back, Cyborg could absorb a lot more damage than Trigon. Holding Spirit close to his chest, Cyborg looked over to Etrigan, "Do it now! I can only hold her for so long!"

Etrigan was already on task. During the shuffle, he had lunged himself at Brother Blood. With Raven dazed, Nyx hurt, and Cyborg distracted, it was a one-on-one fight. This meant that Brother Blood could focus his full attention on Etrigan, so he threw all of his power straight at Etrigan.

The demon possessed magician felt like he was hit by a bus. Psychic force slammed into his body in a violent attempt to throw him away. His brain felt like it was being stabbed by one thousand knives from the telepathic backup to the attack. Etrigan desperately fought against the pain. Both is body and his mind begged him to stop, but he did not give up. Slowly, step by step, Etrigan pushed his way forward.

Brother Blood's twisted with horror, "H-How?!"

"You…" Etrigan groaned as blood began to pool out of his nose and ears, "You're a disgrace."

"What?!"

"Abusing your power over young people…It's pathetic!" Etrigan roared. Magic blasted off of his body. Dark runes popped up all around his body, releasing some of the vasts amount of magic from inside his body. He never thought he would have been grateful for the Sorcerer Initiative until this day, "I'm ashamed to share a name with you!"

"G-Get away from me!"

"Brother Blood…Let me introduce myself," Entrigan grinned as he stood in front of the cult leader, "My name is Jason Blood, fallen knight, cursed demon, and reluctant immortal. I'm all those terrible things, and I'm ashamed of it; but if there's one thing that I have pride in, it's this…"

"No! No!" Brother Blood screamed in panic as Entrigan placed a scaly thumb over his forehead.

"I'm a teacher, and I've guided this kids the best I could. And I will protect them from you no matter what!" Entrigan let out one last roar as he chanted out a spell, "Eerf enoyreve!

* * *

Vision stood at the edge of the battlefield. Her eyes swept over Trigon and his various enemies. She was desperately looking for anything she could use against the giant demon. That was her best strength. She knew that she didn't have close enough to the raw power needed to fight against Trigon effectively. She could, however, direct the others. As such, she watched with the eyes of an eagle.

Dora in dragon from roared as she launched herself onto the back of Trigon. Despite being the physically largest combatant on their side, she barely managed to cover most of his back. She clawed and bit wildly at his back while refraining from using flames against a demon that thrived in the fiery pits of hell. None of her attacks reaped any fruit, though. Trigon barely looked like he felt the dragon on his back.

Reaching back, the giant demon grabbed Dora. He easily pealed her off of his back. Holding her in his hand, he examined the lizard for a second before throwing her straight towards Colossus. Said ghost was forced to halt his latest charge forward and attempt to catch Dora. The dragon's massive frame fell onto Colossus's shoulders and forced him to go crashing to the ground under the force of Trigon's brutal throw.

The throw did leave an opening for Trigon's head, though. Pandora was the first to react. She launched herself forward with as much speed as she could muster. With a loud battle cry, she pumped electricity into her spears and attempted to stab one of Trigon's crimson eyes. Before the spears could make contact, though, a barrier of red energy formed around the eyes and immediately halted the attack. It then sent out a blast of energy that sent Pandora flying away.

From below, the heroes of the Justice League that were not dealing with Greed were sending as many attacks as possible to the giant demon. Red Arrow fired every type of arrow he had to try to slow Trigon down. At the same time, Captain Atom sent a constant stream of energy at Trigon. He looked for any weak spot, but he couldn't find any. With a small huff, Trigon nonchalantly kicked at them. The hooved foot destroyed the entire area, forcing the heroes to scatter once more.

It was at that moment that Vision realized that they were dealing with a being that was far beyond their depths. Trigon views them all as tiny bugs that were only still alive because they amused him. Vision shivered at the thought of what he would do when the amusement died away. They're only real chance was to buy for time and try to amuse him enough that he wouldn't kill them all in one giant blast.

Charging forward, Vision readied every attack plan she had. For the first time, they were not meant to defeat the enemy though. This time, they were meant to entertain the enemy for as long as possible. It was a terrible plan, but it was the best strategy Vision had against Trigon.

* * *

Plasmius hated going into a battle without a plan. That was the foolish thing to do. Those with the best strategy always won. He knew that. Power, speed, and technique would all fall before his plans. It was almost like a religion that he and Vision followed. Unfortunately, there were times that there was no time for strategy.

Fighting against Greed was one of those times.

The demi-demon had ten Leaguers under his control, and Plasmius merely reacted to Greed's initial attack the fastest. As such, he really had no way of dealing with so many powerful enemies at once. They were constantly barraging him attacks. Each one hit because he didn't have time to move. He could only endure.

Luckily, his ability to shift his state of matter helped keep from getting killed. While in the state of pure plasma, he could not get hurt. As such, every attack did nothing to actually hurt him. Even Superman's heat vision and the Flash's supersonic punches did nothing. The real problem was that he had no way to counterattack. While in his plasma state, Plasmius could not attack. It was a defense only move.

Actually, that wasn't totally true. As plasma, he could move to cover his enemy's mouth and nose to restrict their breathing, but it was difficult to pull off in the best of times. As plasma, he moved slowly, even more so under the constant barrage of attacks. This meant that he could only stay there and endure the attacks.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone. The Batwing and Bioship flew above him giving him support. The weapons managed to push some of the Leaguers back. Hell, they even managed to knock Green Arrow unconscious. All that fortune quickly melted away when Green Arrow's body kept moving on its own though. Greed could still control them even while they were unconscious and maybe even if they were dead.

'What do I do here?' Plasmius questioned. Neither Batman nor Miss Martian could come down to the fight. Batman's lack of powers would make him an easy target for ten overpowered juggernauts. As for Miss Martian, the heat and flames on the ground would make her comatose the moment she got too low.

In truth, he knew that there was no safe way to go about this. Trying to be safe here would only get him killed. As such, he knew he had to take a risk and do something that was outright stupid. So he waited for his moment, and he was rewarded. Batman and Miss Martian coordinated their attacks. They sent large missiles straight at Plasmius knowing that he wouldn't get hurt.

To avoid losing his puppets, Greed had the Leaguers retreat. The explosions burst out just as the Leaguers got enough distance away. Right as the flames died down enough for Plasmius to safely move, he quickly took his normal form. He then rocketed up to the sky. As soon as Greed saw this, he had all the flying members of the League race after him.

Reaching a good distance up, Plasmius paused and looked down. The Leaguers were right on his tail. In a few seconds, he would be in the same spot as mere moments ago. Taking a deep breath, Plasmius plunged right into the danger. In a blaze of magenta, nine duplicates were made. Just as the flying Leaguers were about to make contact, the duplicates turned to them and overshadowed them. Then, the remaining duplicates plus the original flew down. They rushed towards the remaining duplicates and overshadowed them as well.

Greed laughed as he stood in the center of the mass of Leaguers, preventing the air support from doing anything, "Really? That was your plan? You want to have a puppet master contest with me? I thought you were smart!? I'll just have the Leaguers kill themselves! That will take care of you and them."

With that said, all the Leaguers stopped breathing. Plasmius tried to force his control over them to make them continue to breath, but in his divided state, he lacked the individual willpower to fight against Greed's control. The duplicates held on strong knowing that their demise meant nothing. The real Plasmius, however, felt his vision began to darken. While not needing oxygen himself, he was limited to the bodies he inhabited.

'Hold on! I just need to hold on!'

Such thoughts proved pointless, though, as the Leaguer's body began to go slack. So, Plasmius had a choice. Either stay in the body and die with the Leaguer or exit the body and immediately get killed by Greed.

Yeah, this is what he got for going into a fight with no real plan.

* * *

Sloth let out a yawn as one of Nightwing's shuriken shattered against his side. It had rusted into borderline dust by the time it hit him. There was no pain or damage, just like with all the other attacks being thrown at him. Rocket and Nightwing were rushing around him sending as many different ranged attacks as they could.

They were desperately trying to avoid getting close to him. Sloth scoffed at all the pointless effort. The heroes couldn't hurt him with such a strategy. That was fine, though. All this meant less work for him.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Sloth began a slow walk back towards the Cube. Nightwing and Rocket responded by doubling their efforts. It was just as useless as before, though.

"Damn it!" Rocket gritted her teeth as Sloth effortless pushed through another shield.

"One more time!" Nightwing pulled out a canister and threw it at Sloth. Before the canister could get too close to the demi-demon, it suddenly burst and released a cloud of knock out gas that floated around Sloth.

Rocket quickly formed a kinetic shield around Sloth once again. She hoped that the shield slowed him down enough for the knock out gas to take effect. Unfortunately, her hopes were shattered just like the kinetic shield as Sloth stepped out of the smoke unaffected.

"Nice try," Sloth continued his steady pace towards the Cube, "But I can make even gasses become lazy."

"Crap," Nightwing muttered. He had no idea how to deal with this enemy with the cards he had. All of his weapons had no effect on Loth. For once, he was drawing a blank on how to deal with a fight. It was time for some desperation moves, "Aim for the ground! Slow him down as much as you can!"

Rocket nodded, "On it!"

* * *

Superboy threw himself back as Gluttony charged forward. While he was used to behemoths trying to trample him down, this was the first time he fought one that could beat him just by touching him. One single brush of skin would drain him of all his muscle mass. Not even his Kryptonian blood could stop him from that.

It seemed like Gluttony was focused more on him at the moment. That gave Batgirl plenty of opportunities to attack from a distance. Unfortunately, Gluttony was too tough for batterangs. Electricity and energy based weapons just seemed to feed him. Hell, even different gasses seemed to not be a problem for him. He called them seasoning.

"Damn it!" Superboy roared as he kept retreating, "What do we do!?"

Batgirl watched as Gluttony moved forward with the force of a train. She had thought about having Superboy switch with Nightwing or Rocket. Unfortunately, Superboy probably wouldn't have an effective way to fight Sloth either, and the others wouldn't help against this demi-demon.

"I don't know…" Batgirl realized the answer to Superboy's question, "I just…There's nothing we can do…"

"Come on!" Superboy chucked everything he could get his hands on at Gluttony. They barely slowed the massive man down, "There has to be something."

"The only thing left to do is try to survive."

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Then keep doing it, because that's all I got."

* * *

Constantine grunted as he watched the battles going on not but a few dozen yards away from him and the Cube. The heroes were not doing well, which was to be expected. Demons being empowered by Trigon the Terrible? Those guys could take down small armies with Trigon being so close. Those four heroes were skilled, though. They were holding out fairly well.

Unfortunately, it wasn't well enough. The demons would get close within a few minutes. They needed to do something.

"Oi, Box Ghost!" Constantine shouted up to the ghost, "Do you think you could keep this stable for a few minutes?"

"I believe so," The Box Ghost noted, "This beautiful cube of salvation is almost ready as it is. Even without you, I should be fine."

"Great," Constantine stopped pumping magic and turned away from the Cube, "I won't be able to handle both of them at once…"

"Then only handle one of them," Frostbite turned walked up to him. The ghost had left what seemed like a glowing, frozen crystal by the Atlantians to keep them cool, "It took a while to make, but that crystal should by me a few minutes."

"Good," Constantine pulled out his cane, "I'll take the skinny one. You take the fat one."

"Very well," Frostbite bared his teeth, "Let's see how well demons handle the cold."

* * *

"We need to hurry and find Lord Phantom," Fright Knight quickly took flight and grabbed Jinx to carry her along down the dark tunnel, "No time for caution."

"Agreed, but—Down!" Jinx shouted out as the end of the tunnel showed a giant drop like the one they originally descended. Fright Knight quickly reacted and turned his flight down into the tunnel. Jinx quickly lit her fingers aflame with her pink energy to light their way, "Be careful!"

"I said that we need to hurry. I have no idea if those two stand a chance against Envy," Fright Knight noted, "We need to turn to them as soon as possible."

"Never thought you would care so much about heroes," Jinx mentioned.

"The Justice League means nothing to me. My Liege's team is different, though. They stood by him in his darkest of times. They have long since proved their loyalty and earned my respect," The Fright Knight noted, "Unlike others…"

"Is this really the time to bring that up?" Jinx's voice was filled with annoyance as they caught sight of the bottom of the hole, "I get that you people don't like me, but we're on the same side here."

"For now," Fright Knight reached the bottom of the hole and turned down one last tunnel. They could now see some odd white light glimmering in the distance of the cavern, "But you have yet to prove you are 100% loyal to the king."

"I was there for him during the Sorcerer Initiative," Jinx argued, "And right now."

"Only because you have your father's blessing," Fright Knight countered, "Lady Valerie went against her father when he tried to make her stop. She cared nothing for what other people thought, and fought by the king's side to the bitter end. She earned her place as queen. You, however, have not proven that yet, and until that time, I will continue to keep my eye on you."

"Jeeze, bringing her up again. Danny's over her," Jinx grumbled.

"Is he? Or did you move in at the perfect time for him to push his feelings for her onto you?" The Fright Knight's tone was filled with anger, "You manipulated him and his emotions."

"I just took a chance."

"A calculated chance," The Fright Knight let out a snort, "If there was any day that Lord Phantom would have caved into temptation, it was the day of Saint Valentine. I should have known that you would try that, but I wanted to give everyone their space on the day of love and hearts."

Jinx frowned as they drew closer to the white light. Neither of them carrying that they could very well be stepping into a dire trap, "So what do I have to do to gain your trust? To gain everyone's trust?"

"It can't come from one big gesture. It is something that must be earned over time," The Fright Knight's voice was a bit gentler as he said this, "I protect Lord Phantom for he is the best king. He is a being with power most mortals can't even comprehend, yet he still can look at you and say that he's nobody. A person that just got lucky. A humble and great king like that deserves a queen by his side that is just as great."

"Well, I think I'm that great."

The Fright Knight shook his head as they flew straight into the blinding light. Neither of them being able to see anything, "Of course you do. That's the biggest difference between you and my Liege."

* * *

Artemis was completely drenched in sweat. She had constantly been running and flipping around in order to stay alive. The archer had never been more grateful to have gloves, because if she didn't, then there was no way she could grip her bow the correct way. Not that it would matter. She didn't think she could even hit Envy right now.

The demi-demon had switched back to the Flash. He and Kid Flash were running around the room fighting each other. She had been desperately trying to catch up with them, but they were too fast. Artemis couldn't get a clear shot, and she wasn't going to risk hitting her boyfriend.

Still she was desperately trying to find an opening. Kid Flash was getting killed out there. If it was a speed vs speed match up, very few could keep up with him. Unfortunately, the Flash was one of the people, and Envy could turn into the Flash. Thus, Kid Flash was completely outclassed. In the brief glimpses she managed to get of her boyfriend, he looked like a total wreck, but he didn't stop fighting.

At least until he was sent flying back by a punch sent at light speed.

Kid Flash rolled back until he came to a stop on his stomach. He quickly pushed himself up to his knees and coughed out blood, "That…all you got?"

"Not even close, Kid," Envy rushed forward to kick the kid while he was down, but he had to stop and catch an arrow that Artemis finally managed find an opening to fire. Before Envy could do anything, he noticed the beeping coming from the arrow, "Shit."

Boom!

Artemis quickly took this opportunity to run to the downed Kid Flash. She quickly knelt down next to check on her boyfriend, "What's broken?"

"My ribs. My nose. My pride," Kid Flash let out a groan.

"You can live without that last one," Artemis smiled at him, "We got him."

"Yeah, we did."

"Did you?"

In terror, Artemis whirled around with her bow ready to shot Envy down again. A blurred backfist immediately shattered the weapon leaving Artemis without her main way of fighting. Not even batting an eyelash, Artemis launched herself to Envy with the full intention of fighting hand to hand. She didn't even see the Flash's blows come towards her. In a second's time, she was sent sprawling away with more than a few major injuries.

"Artemis—Gack!" Kid Flash gagged as Envy grabbed him by the throat and began to squeeze.

"Enough of this…" Envy's body began to vibrate.

Artemis weakly reached out towards them, "No…"

"Good hit back there," Envy was seething in rage, "Your reward is you get to watch your love die by his mentor's hand. Lucky you."

* * *

Robin had been the first one to lose his cool.

"Oh, the unwanted one? Tell me, if you disappeared right now, would anyone care?"

That was all it took. With all the heat around him, the stress of the situation, and Hate's influence, Robin's intensive training from the Dark Knight instantly melted away. He rushed in like a wild bull. Wrath just laughed as he smacked the Boy Wonder away.

"Robin!" Troia quickly flew in towards the demi-demon. Dusk and Black Bat were right on her heels. They tried to flank the larger enemy, but Wrath proved to be a surprising combination of nimble and durable, like a moving brick wall. He easily took Black Bat's attacks while dodging Troia's efforts.

Wrath grinned as he saw Troia upset by his going after Robin, "And here I thought Amazons hated men. Do your sisters know that you're spreading your legs at such a young age? What would they think?"

"Shut up!" Troia roared. She sent a wild punch at Wrath's head which was swiftly dodged.

Dusk moved behind Wrath. He formed his Pendulum Nunchaku and swung them at his enemy. The muscular son of Trigon was quickly covered by the chains.

"Hey, maybe they'll string you up like this and throw rocks," Wrath suggested, "That's if they even let you step on the island now, right? I mean, you haven't exactly been a great rep for your people. Have you actually beaten any bad guys?"

"I said shut up!" Troia snapped. She rushed to Wrath with the intent of tackling him to the ground. He just dropped to the ground, though, and allowed the Amazon to fly over him and straight into a surprised Dusk. With a grunt, they both went tumbling away with the nunchaku flying out of Dusk's hands.

Before Wrath could get up, Black Bat was quickly on him. With the chains no longer connected to Dusk, they weakened significantly and allowed her to rip his arm up and hold it into an arm bar, "Got you."

"You do, but you might want to—"

"Talk and I'll break your arm," Black Bat warned.

"RAW!" Robin jumped onto both Black Bat and Wrath. In his blind rage, Robin accidentally forced Black Bat to release her captive. Grinning, Wrath threw them both off with ease.

"I was going to warn you about that," Wrath mentioned as he got off the ground, "You'd think that the daughter of Lady Shiva and David Cain would do better than that. Maybe they died from the shame of being related to you?"

Black Bat bit hard into her lip to try to stop the anger that surged through her at hearing that. Shoving Robin off of her, she took another battle stance and prepared to fight. What this man said didn't matter. She had been taught all her life to keep calm under the pressure. This was no different.

"Either way, they did die because of you and Phantom. How can you live with yourself? Working with the man that sacrificed your parents for the greater good? It's sad really."

Black Bat saw red. She pulled out a knife from her utility belt and rushed forward. Like the others before her that lost their cool, she was smacked away with little effort. All her training meant nothing if she just flailed around like an angry dog.

Dusk quickly caught the girl before she could fly too far. Placing her down, he tried to calm the twitching young woman down, "Black Bat, this isn't you. Calm down. You know that this guy's full of shit."

"AH!" Black Bat's face twisted in anger. To Dusk's surprise, red smoke drifted off of her and floated over to Wrath who absorbed the smoke through his skin. A quick glance to his other friends showed that this was happing to the others as well.

Wrath let out a laugh, "Pretty cool, huh? Being angry takes a lot out of ya, you know? I figured I might as well take that energy and put it to some good use. Got to love my old man's power ups."

Frowning, Dusk stood and formed his Scribe Staff.

"Oh please, you really think you still have a chance? I know your triggers too, pal," Wrath rolled his shoulders, "If I took down the three of them so easy, what's going to stop me from beating you?"

"I don't know," Dusk honestly admitted, "But I have to try."

"Fair enough."

Dusk rushed at Wrath. The halfa swung his weapon towards the demi-demon. Wrath didn't even try to block it. He just let it bounce of his arm.

"Got three power sources right now, dude. You'll need something with more oomph to it," Wrath advised, "Like that Twilight Canon thing. Last time you used that was back when your girl was still alive right?"

Dusk ignored him. Switching his weapon to his Burst Gauntlets, Dusk sent a barrage of punches that were easily blocked by Wrath.

"Big mistake in my opinion. If you used that on Teekl, then Cujo would still be alive."

Dusk put more power behind this strikes. This only caused Wrath's grin to grow.

"You're just loosing everyone, aren't ya? The girl you love. Your dog. And soon, your best friends as well," Wrath gave him a look of pity, "Starting to wish that your whore mother didn't pop you out."

"Shut your damn mouth!"

"There we go!" Wrath pushed Dusk back, "I know that anger's in there. You showed it to me already. You're just like your father, a demon in human skin."

"No! I'm not!"

"Trust me, I know demons, and kid, you're a bigger monster than I ever could be," Wrath noted.

Dusk took some steady breaths. He wouldn't let Wrath do this. No matter what, he had to keep his cool. His friends were depending on him.

"It will come out eventually. Our parent's sins becomes our own no matter what. You've already taken the first step. You've killed out of anger and hatred. What's to stop you from doing it again?"

No…He had to calm down. There may be a killer instinct in him, but that didn't mean he had to be a killer. He was Dusk. He was who he chose to be.

"I bet you think that it's your family and friends. Nice try, but that doesn't work. You just put them in harm's way. How many of them died because of you? Your mother. Your girl. Your dog. Hell! I saw Phantom die not too long ago."

"Mentor…is dead?"

"Yep," Wrath stepped over and stepped on the back of Robin's head and began to push down, "Just like this guy. He's destined to die. Probably because of you, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"No…NO!"

"Yes! It's your fault! If you just went for the kill, then so many of your friends would still be alive! Come on, kid! Save your friends! Let the killer out!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Dusk screamed and scratched as his face. His vision turned red as the anger overtook him once more. Then, there was only pain.

* * *

Torch ran beside Agent Z. He swung his scythe towards his father in an attempt to cut the man down. Agent Z merely blocked the weapon by covering his arms in spinning flames. He tried to counter strikes of his own, but Torch dodged each burst of fire knowing that Trigon's fire could overpower his own flame endurance.

The two of them would have continued in their sprint, but they were broken up when a sound wave forced them to separate and move back to avoid getting hit. As the two of them skid away, Ember smashed down where they were just fighting. Her guitar and pick were ready for her next move.

"There, we're out of the big guy's range," Ember noted, "Now we can talk without losing our cool."

"There's nothing left to talk about, Ellie," Torch noted, "He's already made his choice."

"Stop calling her that!" Agent Z roared, "She is not my Ellie! And you are not Trever!"

"Of course not! Torch is Torch!" Fire blazed around Torch.

Ember glared at Torch, "Stop it. I know how you feel, Trever. I do, but this isn't the way to do this. He's still Dad somewhere in there, and I don't want to see him die like this."

"Stop it!" Agent Z clutched his head, "You can't be real! You can't!"

"I am! Face reality, you dumbass father!" Ember shouted, "Of course we'd come back! We got your damn stubbornness after all!"

"I looked…I did, but I never found them…Just like my wife…They didn't come back…" Agent Z hissed out, "They're gone! I know it! Taken from me by ghosts! I hate ghosts! I HATE THEM!"

Dark flames flared all around Agent Z. It covered him in a veil, setting his suit aflame and creating a mane of fire on top of his skull. He let out a roar that caused the heat to blast off him and force his children back.

"Torch knew it wouldn't work!" Torch noted as he tried to use his own flames to protect himself.

"I had to try," Ember shook her head. Her burning hair moved around her to absorb as much of the fire as possible, "He's our dad, Trever."

"Torch knows. That's why he wanted to put this shell of a man out of his misery," Torch clenched his scythe tightly, "The longer he exists, the longer the memory of our father is tainted."

Ember couldn't deny that, but… "I hoped that there was a way to redeem him. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe we just need to beat the truth into him. Either way, we got to fight. Together, we can beat him."

Torch watched as Ember removed one of her hands from her guitar and stuck it out to him. Torch eyed the hand for a moment, before slowly removing his own hand from his weapon and gently placing it into hers.

"Right. Together. Ellie…Torch is sorry. He never wanted to hurt you. He just…"

"I know, Trever. I know," Ember smiled at him, "Now, put up or shut up. We've got a fight to win."

"Damn right we do!"

In unison, both of the ghosts were set aflame. Red flames waltzed around Torch while blue swirled around Ember. The two colors soon began to mix and flicker in unison. The combined heat of their fire easily matched that of Agent Z. In fact, they're power began to push back Agent Z's own dark flames. This caused the ex-GIW leader's eyes to widen. That was impossible. No fire could compete with the power of Trigon.

This…This was impossible.

Gritting his teeth, Agent Z let out another roar and rushed forward. Thrusting his hand forward, Agent Z sent a blast of fire towards his children. His dark flames were met with a mixture of red and blue. Then, the very sky itself was set aflame.

* * *

Etrigan was sent flying back in a blaze of light as soon as his spell was cast. Nyx quickly jumped up to catch her teacher and gently set him on the ground, "You okay, teach?"

"Yeah…I'm fine…" Etrigan nodded despite the blood running down his face.

"How did you do that?" Cyborg questioned.

"Let's just say, having a ton of magic pumped into you can come in handy once you get over the pain of it all," Entrigan snorted.

"Gah…" Spirit blinked as the red fade from her eyes.

"Spirit!" Nyx's face lit up as Spirit returned to normal.

"My spell worked," Etrigan watched as the rest of the cult members went through their own groggy awakening, "The cultists are free."

"Ugh…What happened?" Spirit questioned as she tried to gain her bearings. She quickly realized how beat up her friends were, "Oh my god! What happened to you! Who…" Spirit gained a horrified look as she realized her arm was still stabbed through Cyborg. She quickly removed her arm and gave her boyfriend a pleading look, "Victor…No, I'm so sorry…I…hurt you again…"

"It's okay," Cyborg hugged her close, "It wasn't you, Dani. It was Brother Blood."

"Still…" Spirit blinked her tears away, "I'll make it up to you."

"You don't—Mmmh!" Cyborg's eyes widened as Spirit passionately pushed her lips to his.

After a few seconds, Spirit pulled away, "No arguing."

Cyborg shook his head, "Yes, ma'am."

"Okay! Okay! Enough of the kissy face, lovebirds," Nyx couldn't hide her grin, "Come on, we still got work to do. We need to help Youngblood with Lust and get these cultists to safety."

"Right," Spirit nodded. She looked around to her fellow heroes, "Bumblebee! Lagoon Boy! Can you two still move?!"

"Agh…Yeah, girl," Bumblebee nodded as she grew back to normal size, "I'm good."

"Neptune's beard!" Lagoon Boy shouted out. He stumbled over to them slowly, "Did a whale sit on me or something?"

Cyborg shrugged, "Sorry, man. But you're too tough for me to hold back."

"Flattery…" Lagoon Boy noted, "You are trying to distract me from the pain. It is working. You have my thanks."

"Okay," Spirit eyed her teammates, "You two start leading the cultists and Entrigan out of here. Don't argue, Mr. Blood, you're too injured to fight anymore."

Etrigan sighed, "Alright."

"What about me?" Raven shyly stepped up to them.

"Oh, uh…" Nyx rubbed her chin, "I forgot about that. Why is she a little girl again?"

Cyborg shrugged.

"Um…Raven, you go with the cultists," Spirit gently patted her head, "I don't want you to get hurt."

"O-Okay."

Nodding, Spirit turned back to her other friends, "Nyx and I will go help Chuck. Cy, you get Brother Douchd—"

"That's Brother Blood to you, urchin!"

Everyone turned to see Brother Blood stumble to his feet. He looked positively furious with blood running down his face. Seeing that their captor was still active, the cultists quickly began to scream and run away.

"La'gaan, Bee, go! Lead the civilians out of here!" Cyborg shouted.

"Right!" Bumblebee quickly took flight.

"Come on, Teacher," Lagoon Boy helped Entrigan up, "Let's get you out of here."

With the room quickly becoming emptier, Spirit glared at her enemy, "Usually, I'd give you a chance to give up. But you're the one that's dumb enough to get back up after hurting my friends, so I'll enjoy curb stomping your teeth out."

"Do you really think that's it? That I wouldn't have a backup plan!?" Brother Blood's skin began to gain a red tint to it. Horns popped out from his head. Fangs extended into a deep snarl. His muscles grew to a massive size, " **Did you forget! I worship Master Trigon! Although I prefer to use my psychic powers, I still have the powers he's given me.** "

Nyx did not look impressed, "You know what? I think he looks better like that."

" **Arrogant little girl!** " Brother Blood roared, " **I'll tear your throat out**!"

"No!" Raven rushed to the heroes' sides.

"Rae! What are you doing here! You need to get out of here with the others!" Cyborg shouted.

"No! I won't let the demon hurt anyone!" Raven's eyes began to glow. Oddly enough, she seemed to age a little, "Not again!"

Spirit grinned, "Looks like some of the older Raven is still in you. Alright, but stay back. I don't want you getting hurt."

* * *

"We know it's you, Amorpho! Phantom's out fighting!" A voice from the crowd shouted up at Amorpho. Said ghost was still in the form of Phantom and was standing above the other ghosts on a table.

"I know, but my regular form isn't very striking," Amorpho admitted, "I figured looking like Phantom would help."

"Help with what? Make you look like a wannabe?"

Amorpho held a steady look as laughter sounded out throughout the room, "That's where you're wrong. I never wanted to be Phantom or any of them. I've never been too much of a fan of having people know that I'm the one in the spotlight."

Johnny looked up from his spot of comforting Kitty, "Then why are you doing it now?"

"Because someone has to," Amorpho took a deep breath and desperately struggled to keep his legs from shaking. To hide this, he changed into the form of Vision, "Right now, the Council of the Elite are out in the human world fighting for us. For our safety."

"They were the ones that wanted to be in charge," Other ghosts in the crowd quickly agreed to that statement.

"Yes, they did want that, but we just let it happen," Amorpho argued, "We could have stepped up and defended ourselves, but we were content in just hiding away and let them do our fighting for us. Think about it. The last time we actually fought for ourselves was back in the GIW War."

Murmurs spread throughout the room. That was true. Despite the numerous threats to the Ghost Zone, they hadn't all fought in years. In the end, it was the Council that save them, even during le Fey's attack.

"Now, though, we can't just do that," Amorpho looked all across the room, "Trigon is not a threat that we can just ignore and hope that other people deal with. For once, the heroes and the Council won't be enough. I know it. They're being overwhelmed as we speak."

"Then what do we do?"

Amorpho clenched his fists and shifted into the massive form of Colossus, "We fight for ourselves. We head out into the danger and take our fate in our own hands. We take down Trigon."

"But how?" Lunch Lady suddenly spoke up, "If the strong ones can't, what chance do we have?"

"Maybe we don't have much of a chance. Maybe this is a fool's errand, but would you rather go out and fight for a chance to live, or stay here waiting to die?" Amorpho glared at them all, "Well!? Answer me! Fight or die!?"

"…Fight…"

"Fight."

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Chants spread all across the room. Amorpho felt relief rush through his body. He didn't know if he could do it, but it worked. They were all willing to fight, but all that relied on him. If he chickened out, then they would all lose their nerve too. So there was only one last option.

"Let's go!"

He would have to lead the charge.

* * *

 **Next update: "Live" on May 9, 2016**

 **Once again, I must apologize to non-wrestling fans, but Chyna's death was a big one. I held off on Blackjack Mulligan, but Chyna's different. She was one of THE women wrestlers. But she never got her proper recognition because of backstage politics. She was one of the top members of DX, a three time Intercontinental Champion (generally a male title), a one time Women's Champion, and the first woman to enter the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring tournament. She could throw around grown men like they were rag dolls and was one of the baddest women on the planet. We can only hope that death is kinder to her than real life was.**

 **On lighter news...Captain America: Civil War is finally upon us. Let us rejoice and forget the disappointment that is known as Batman v Superman...Ratchet and Clank got a reboot game and movie. And they were great. Finally, a respectable retelling of something from my childhood...Better Call Saul season 2 finale was great (after I finally managed to find the time to marathon Breaking Bad)...**

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	21. Live

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Have the courage to live. Anyone can die."

Robert Cody

* * *

Chapter 21: "Live"

(Friday-April 11, 2014)

Vision groaned in pain and fatigue as she slid to her knees. Every one of her allies was in a similar state. Even Colossus and Pandora were exhausted. After hours of throwing everything they had at Trigon, they had nothing to fight with anymore. Their enemy, on the other hand, had no such problem.

Staring down at them, Trigon laughed. Vision felt fury boil in her stomach. How dare he? They had given everything possible, and he laughed at it all. Vision would kill him where he stood if she could.

" **You mortals never cease to amuse me** ," Trigon looked down directly at Vision, " **Faced with an unstoppable force, you think if you just try hard enough, you can stop it. Well, guess what? You're wrong. You never stood a chance from the beginning**."

Vision couldn't argue against that. She had seen it in front of her eyes. Nothing they could do would harm Trigon, but that was never the plan. They had to buy as much time as possible, and hope, pray really, that everything on the outside worked out okay. That was the plan, and Vision always swore by her plans.

Trigon raised an eyebrow as she stood, " **Really? You want more?** "

Her allies quickly followed her lead.

" **You think that I'm unaware? I know of your plans, of your allies' movements. It won't work. None of your plans will work. My era is just beginning, no spells or reinforcements will change that.** "

Their response was a new wave of attacks.

" **My amusement is quickly fading. Play time is over. Let's finish this, shall we?** "

* * *

Death paused as she watched two figures enter the cavern, " _They've come for him._ "

" _Good. He is ready_ ," The Entity did not look as the Fright Knight and Jinx struggled through the cave filled with his energy, " _He will help defeat Trigon. Then, he will put an end to Nekron once and for all._ "

" _And then what?_ " Death glared at Life, " _You let everything he's worked for fade away. Did you forget about how he's defended everything you stood for all these years?_ "

" _Your moral self-righteousness is understandable. You meet every life. You see how they struggle after I breathe life into them. That's the problem, though. I cannot afford to care about individuals. My job is to continue to feed life into this universe. Just as yours is to escort the dead away from it. How you choose to do your job doesn't affect me. Growing attached to Phantom was sloppy, though. He'd die eventually no matter what. It's sad when Life knows this better than Death."_

Death just glared at the Life Entity, " _And your lack of compassion is what will bring an end to everything. It's sad that Death knows this better than life._ "

" _Touché, my counterpart…Zzz…Touché… _ " Entity's form began to fade away as it went back to sleep, " _Perhaps…Zzz…We've both made mistakes involving Phantom…Zzz…Too late now, though…Zzz…I've already…Zzz…Prepared his body…Zzz…_ "

" _I suppose you're right,_ " Death gave the downed Danny a look of pity, " _I can only hope that he lives through this. I know it's doubtful, but there's always Hope. He showed us all that before."_

" _Zzz…Indeed…Zzz..."_

With that, they both disappeared into the light.

* * *

Delirium stood against the wall of the chapel. She watched as Spirit was sent crashing into the piece of wall right beside her, "Heya!"

Spirit looked up at the Endless, "You…"

"Forgot about me? Can't blame you. I kind of came in while you were all kind off 'wah' and stuff. Plus, I held back to see how things turned out," Delirium giggled. She then reached down to pull Spirit towards her. Just in time for a blast of magic to hit where the halfa just was, "Head in the game, Dani,"

Spirit looked back to the fight. Brother Blood was sending out dozens of blasts of magic spells. They had been doing very well against the demonic cultists. He was on the ropes, but he managed to get a few lucky hits in every so often.

"I was hoping to have a nice chat with you about the structure of the universe and all that before the end of this little adventure, but it looks like I'm running out of time," Delirium let out a sigh, "Oh well, it's been fun no matter what. I would like to point out that Raven could easily beat the old guy, so I would just chuck her at him."

"What?"

"Spirit! Hurry up!" Nyx shouted at to her friend.

Spirit's eyes snapped over to see Nyx holding Brother Blood with several different stands of shadow. While she was doing that, Cyborg was hitting the cultist with a continuous wave of his sonic canon. This had Brother Blood completely subdued on the ground, but he was still in his demonic form, and that didn't look to be changing any time soon.

"Remember to think outside the box, Dani."

Spirit's eyes snapped back to Delirium to see that the woman was gone. She then looked to Raven who was standing back and giving support through small mumbled spells that didn't seem to be doing much.

"Not that we need help, but I assumed that you'd want in on this!" Cyborg had switched from his sonic canon to trying to knock Brother Blood out with his bare fists. Still, the cult leader did not seem to be changing back.

Spirit quickly stood. Think outside the box… "Yeah, but I've got an idea. Raven, come here."

* * *

Dusk stood lost in a rushing sea of red. His mind buzzed in a familiar feeling of madness. Instincts that he always tried to suppress surged to the front of his mind. The only thing that he could manage to think was how much he wanted to kill, cut, and slaughter. Images of a mangled Wrath flashed before his eyes. He imagined just what he would do to the demon. Every new image was bloodier than the last.

The familiar weight of a weapon pulled firmly on his hands. Without even thinking, he fought. Even as the energy continued to drain from him, he swung his weapon with the full intent to kill. To his satisfaction, his efforts rewarded by the splashing of blood across his face.

" **Little idiot. Calm down. Take some deep breaths. Remember.** "

 _"I'm glad. Thank you so much, Joel. For everything. Goodbye," Greta gave him one last beaming smile. She pushed herself onto her toes so that her face was right in front of Joel. Greta leaned forward and gently placed her lips onto Joel's lips. It was a chaste kiss at best, but it was one filled with love. In that moment, Joel thought that it was the sweetest thing he ever tasted._

Dusk found himself slowing in his moments. His stomached clenched in regret. Suddenly, the feeling of blood on his face made him feel sick. Still, in the back of his mind, a tiny voice whispered to him, urging him. Like a puppet being pulled by strings, he moved to the orders of his inner instincts. The killer's rage forced him forward to the fight.

" **That's it. You made a promise, yeah? Destruction and creation shouldn't be done out of anger. They are a necessity.** "

 _Cujo closed his eyes in contentment. Little balls of light began to rise from the dog's body. Just as that happened, though, his body began to dissolve. Before Cujo could become one of the few ghosts to ascend fully, his body finally gave out. Soon, he was merely a pile of green slime sliding from Dusk's arms, and just like that Cujo was gone._

More blood was spilt. His enemy was on the ground. The dripping ooze from his sword seemed to increase the weight significantly. With his weapon raised, Dusk felt the absolute need to put it down violently right into his enemy's chest. Still, he paused. He fought against the voice. His reason and conscious fought against the killer instinct. This wasn't him. He wasn't an angry murderer.

" **Now stop acting so stupid. Don't raise a sword like that if you don't want to kill.** "

 _The happiest day of my life. I love you, Joel_

Closed eyes. Steady breaths. This wasn't him. This wasn't who he chose to be. Anger would never get the better of him again, not after everything that helped him make it this far with his beliefs. He would not let that be in vain.

Slowly, the rage fades. The desperate whisper in his ear began to become softer and softer. His instinct demanded that he let it take control again. He would need it in the future. Being soft wouldn't get him anywhere. Still, the halfa did not listen. Rage was the enemy. The killer inside him thrived on it, just like his father. He would never let it get the better of him again.

He was calm.

Opening his eyes, Dusk saw who he was attacking. Robin laid before him. There were several cuts on the Boy Wonder's arms, but it was nothing life threatening. If Dusk had gone through with it, though…

"There you go, kid," Destruction smirked at the half-ghost. His voice returned to normal now that the halfa had regained his composure, "I knew there was some reason I invested some time in you. I expect you to show everyone the other side of destruction, yeah? I could use a little good publicity."

"What?!" Wrath snapped out in anger at the sight of Dusk lowing his weapon, "Where did all the anger go?! It just disappeared! There was no way you could suppress it!"

"I didn't, I just remember some promises I made to important people," Dusk turned to Wrath and pointed his sword at the demi-demon, "I will not let the blood of the demon get the better of me again. Especially not because of Wrath."

"Jeeze, you're a strange kid," Wrath snarled out, "What cha gonna do, boy? Use that sword on me? I know you won't kill me."

"I don't have to," Dusk slowly stepped away from Robin, "I'm going to make you defeat yourself."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Come in find out, if you think you can handle me," Dusk stood ready with his blade.

Wrath gritted his teeth. He had absorbed a lot of energy from the halfa. There was no way the kid could form any of his big weapons, and he wasn't going to go for the kill with that blade. The brat was just messing with him.

Destruction's form began to fade away, "That's the way. I'm counting on you."

"Have it your way, brat!" Wrath swung a massive hook punch at Dusk's head. The halfa just moved the minimum amount of space to dodge the attack. His blade moved in a flash.

"Ha! Like that tiny thing will do anything!" Wrath snorted as he looked at the tiny cut on his arm, "I barely feel that."

"I figured," Dusk stood ready, "Tell me, have you ever heard about death by a thousand cuts? This is kind of like that, but only with less dying and more anger."

* * *

Artemis desperately crawled her way towards Envy. Her arms were screaming in agony, but she ignored them. Slowly, she dragged her way to the demi-demon. Her body was loudly protesting and she lacked a means to hurt Envy, but that didn't stop her. She continued to move forward in a desperate attempt to save her love.

"Gah!" Artemis groaned in pain as Envy flicked towards her and sent a concentrated pocket of momentum energy at her and send her skipping away again.

"Ar…" Kid Flash failed to finish the word as Envy's grip tightened even further. He desperately clawed, scratched, and struggled to try to escape, but it wasn't enough. Even he needed air for his powers to be effective.

"Cockroaches, all of you," Envy hissed, "Go away."

With that, Envy's body began to violently vibrate. Electricity sparked off of him. The vibration soon passed onto Kid Flash. With terror on his face, Kid's form slowly began to disappear. Even as his brain struggled to stay conscious, his body slowly became transparent. As he faded, he looked to the side.

His eyes met Artemis's own pleading eyes. Her face was twisted in agony, begging him to not die. Kid tried. He really did, but he had nothing left. His limbs fell uselessly to his sides. Tears began to fall from Artemis's eyes as she saw Wally's body give out on him. She cried out, but her words fell on deaf ears. Despite not hearing them, Kid Flash knew the meaning. He watched Artemis break down, sob, and beg her not to leave her in such a cruel world.

That was what Kid saw as his vision began to fade to black. His heart skipped a beat as the image burned in his eyes. He didn't want to die like this, slowly and pathetically in front of his love's eyes. So, despite his weakening state, he fought. He began to vibrate himself.

That was when he felt it. The energy passing from Envy to him was different. It wasn't strong. It was fast. It was speed. Speed…Speed…Speed…

His body instantly came back.

"What?!" Envy's eyes widened in horror as electricity passed from him to the real speedster. Before he could do anything else, Envy was suddenly sent flying back by a blast of electricity. After crashing to the ground, Envy immediately shot up and was shocked by what he saw.

Kid Flash now stood. His body was vibrating so fast that it seemed like he was at two places at once. Electricity danced off him almost lovingly. More than that, Envy could actually feel the power radiating off of him.

"This…" Kid Flash stared in wonder at his electricity covered hands, "This is…speed force…"

* * *

Lust and Youngblood stood across from each other. They were both covered in injuries, as was Zatanna who still stood beside Lust's side. While the red glowing eyes fading signaled that Blood's control had wavered, but Lust's powers still held true. Luckily, Beast Boy had run crowd control and kept the cultists out of the conflict. This gave Youngblood a fighting chance, but there was still a problem…

"Huff…Hahaha…" Lust let out a small laugh, "So the bird wasn't lying, huh? You really won't release that seal of yours. I may be one of my father's weakest sins, but you still can't beat me while holding back so much. That lucky shot of yours won't happen again."

"Maybe, but you're not using your powers to their full potential either," Youngblood argued, "You haven't had any of the people you control threaten to kill themselves."

Lust gained a displeased look, "I prefer not to use my powers in such a way. Brother Blood's methods are…distasteful."

Youngblood frowned, "You don't…Oh, I get it. You six…the Sons of Trigon…You're not really all that into this are you? You're just into this because of your dad."

"You speak about things you don't understand."

Youngblood snorted, "Trust me on this. I know about making choices to make sure your parents are happy. That's why I refuse to break the seal. But even that has its limits. Just like you have your own limits."

Lust was silent for a moment, but that moment quickly passed, "Perhaps, but it changes nothing of my goal. Everything I do is for Father."

"And everything I do is for my parents and my friends," Youngblood shook his head, "The only difference is that I'm on the winning side. Give up now, and I'll go easy on you."

Lust was the one who snorted this time, "Really? I know you won't release the seal, and I have a magician here that's proven to get the best of you. What can you do?"

"I can snap her out of it," Youngblood's hook shifted into a stun baton.

"Kill him!" Lust ordered.

Zatanna stuck her hands out, "Hsinif mih!"

The weapons that Zatanna had used before flared to life once more. The swords rushed towards him with magic flaring from the steel like fire. Youngblood felt too exhausted to fully dodge the swords fully. So, he didn't even try. To Lust's absolute shock, Youngblood rushed forward and allowed himself to be cut.

Despite several different gashes that were bleeding rather badly, Youngblood continued forward. He finally found himself in front of Zatanna. With a grunt, he then shoved his stun baton forward towards her stomach. He only kept it there for a second. After a few spasms from Zatanna, he removed the stun baton and frowned down at her, "I'm sorry, but it was the best possible way…"

"Ah…" Tears began to fall from Zatanna's eyes, "Thank you…"

"What are you doing?!" Lust glared at Zatanna, "Kill him!"

Zatanna didn't react to his orders. She just moved a hand to clutch her stomach and silently cried.

"There are some things that move people far above lust," Youngblood noted, "After all, we just talked about parents. Nothing tops the grief of one of them."

Lust gained an alarmed look as Youngblood turned to him, "Wait—"

Youngblood slammed Lust into the wall. The demi-god slid down on his back in a dazed state, "Ha…I always figured that lust would never take me far…"

With that, he collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

Youngblood nodded. He stood silently in the hallway with an unconscious Lust and a crying Zatanna. From down the hallway, Beast Boy stopped his crowd control and looked down to the hall to the ghost. Glancing to Beast Boy then to Zatanna, Youngblood quietly mumbled, "Yeah, it seems unfulfilling."

* * *

Agent Z stood in an inferno of dancing flames. Red, blue, and black swirled around in a massive dome of fire. The colors filled the area and covered everything in their beautiful dance. Surrounded by the fire, Agent Z had to grit his teeth at the pain. After years spent in Trigon's domain, he thought that he really understood pain.

Years of being surrounded by the flames of hell had all but dulled his senses. Agent Z now realized that it was only the dark side of flames that he had withstood before this fight. While the black flames were filled with hate and content, the red and blue were different. While not perfectly good, they were a far step above Trigon. They were flawed individually, but together, the red and blue burned with a brightness that Agent Z could barely stand to be around.

He knew the feeling he got from the combined fire. It was something he had missed for so long. These flames were not of monsters. No, they were the fire of humanity.

Looking through the waltz of fire, Agent Z spied his enemies. Ember and Torch still stood together. Hand in hand, they defied him and his master. They looked so determined, so filled with righteous conviction. It…moved him…

Suddenly, the images of Torch and Ember shifted to show the figures that haunted his dreams. Trever and Ellie stood side by side. Like always, they defied his wishes. They couldn't just let things be. That was fine, though. They wouldn't be his kids if they just blindly obeyed.

They wouldn't…be his kids…if they didn't question their fate.

The forms shifted again. Now, the two grown ghosts appeared as tiny babes. That was how he always saw Trever and Ellie. No matter how much they grew, Agent Z saw them as the babies he had held in his arms after their births and cried over. The two happiest moments of his life swept before his eyes. It was then that he knew for sure.

They were his children.

Lowering his arms, Agent Z dismissed the black flames. He couldn't fight them. He wouldn't. So he silently closed his eyes and accepted the blue and red flames. Oddly enough, they didn't hurt nearly as badly as he thought they would. In fact, they felt peaceful.

* * *

Plasmius knew that he couldn't hold on forever. He had been just hoping to hold out for time. Unfortunately, the time was up. It was now the point where he had to make a choice. Which way did he want to die? The choice was made by his instincts. He and his duplicates quickly vacated the bodies of the Leaguers and collapsed onto the ground as he quickly got accustomed to being a ghost once more. In a blaze of green, the duplicates returned to Plasmius.

"There we go," Greed quickly released the Leaguers who all collapsed as well. He then tried to move his control over to Plasmius. With a wave of his hands, he lifted Plasmius up and began to pull the halfa apart.

Before that could get too far, though, Greed had to release the hold and whirl around to protect himself from Batman and Miss Martian. Even though they couldn't use their ships to attack without risking injuring the Leaguers, they could come down and sneak attack Greed with the hopes that he wouldn't be able to use his powers on them.

Unfortunately, Greed sensed them coming. He managed to hold his hands up and used his powers to halt the two's movements right before they managed to get to him. Then, he realized the he had turned his attention away from Plasmius. Keeping his control on the two heroes, he turned back to Plasmius and stopped the halfa that also tried to charge forward toward the son of Trigon.

"Nice try," Greed admitted, "You almost got me. Looks like that's checkmate then."

Plasmius grinned, "No…It's just check…on my part…"

With that, Plasmius disappeared in a burst of ectoplasm to reveal that he was a duplicate.

"What?!"

Before Greed could recover himself, Plasmius burst from the ground and overshadowed the demi-demon. With his full will and power in tact now, Plasmius immediately went on the mental attack. He viciously threw himself at Greed's unprepared mind. The halfa gave no quarters.

He tore and ripped his way through his enemy's mind. Plasmius saw everything. Greed's hopes, dreams, and past were all laid bare. All of it was beaten away until Plasmius got to Greed's core. That was when he saw it. A tiny child in rages stood looking up at window showing an expensive suit on display. Desire was shown clearly on his face.

A desire that Trigon only encouraged…

With that, Plasmius released Greed and allowed the son of Trigon to collapse to the ground. The demi-demon let out a groan of pain.

"That was checkmate," Plasmius noted.

"Damn…" Greed hissed out, "I wanted to win…"

"Trust me on this one," Plasmius frowned to now sleeping demi-demon. He then looked as the Leaguers began to recover, "You don't always get what you want."

* * *

Sloth yawned as he stopped his slow approach, "Oh? Another one?"

Nightwing turned to see Constantine stepping up to them. The British exorcist was slowly twirling his cane around his finger, "John! I thought the Box needed you to charge it!"

Constantine stopped spinning the cane and caught in out of the air, "Well, I can't just let him get close and steal all the energy, now can I, bird man?"

"Well, good luck," Rocket floated above the wizard, "We failed to do anything to him."

"That's because you don't know how to handle these bloody demon types," Constantine pointed his cane at Sloth.

"Oh?" Sloth shook his head and continued his slow approach, "And what are you going to do?"

"This," Constantine stabbed his cane into the ground. Magical fire burst from the ground and began to run around the demi-demon. Sloth watched with mild interest as the flames circled around him, but it did not come close to him. Instead, it seemed to be writing something…

"Shit!" Sloth's eyes widened as he realized what this was.

"You sure your sin isn't arrogance, lad?" Constantine let out a laugh.

Sloth rushed towards the fire. He tried to reach out and weaken the flames with his powers but was forced back by the magical fire. It was too late. The symbol around him was complete. He stood at the center of a flaming pentagon, exorcist circle.

"No!" Sloth desperately thought about what to do.

"Sorry, pal," Constantine raised his cane once more and pointed it at Sloth once more, "I'm a professional."

Saying a low chant, Constantine unleased a burst of magic from the end of his cane. The burst flew and smashed into the chest of the son of Trigon. As soon as the burst made contact, the exorcist circle burst to life. Light shined through the area as energy spread through Sloth. Twisting in agony, Sloth's head shot up as red smoke poured from his mouth. Once all the smoke was out, it fell down and disappeared into the flames. With that done, the circle faded into nothingness, and Sloth fell to the ground.

Sloth scoffed lightly at himself, "Oh well…This was all too much trouble anyway…I just wanted to sleep…"

"Woah…" Rocket's jaw was dropped.

Constantine raised his cane and blew away the smoke at the end, "Be glad. Usually, I don't let people watch me work. Luckily, he was either too dumb or too lazy to move until it was too late."

"Is he going to be okay?" Nightwing questioned.

Constantine shrugged, "He'll live, but I took away his powers. I bet it feels bloody painful. He'll be limping for a while, but that's all."

"Good…" Nightwing gave Sloth a look of pity, "I didn't think his hear was really in this. Like…he wanted us to stop him."

Constantine nodded, "Maybe he did. Destroying the Box would have been a lot of work."

* * *

Frostbite took steady steps towards the equally towering form of Gluttony. Blue smoke drifted out of his mouth as cold seemed to radiate off the yeti ghost. Each step he took left a growing trail of ice behind him. His face was set into a vicious snarl. Gluttony just looked onto the approaching ghost impassively.

Superboy gained an alarmed look as Frostbite passed him, "What are you doing?! You can't get too close."

"I know that it's dangerous, but I do have a plan," Frostbite let out a growl, "Step back. I don't want you to get caught in the chaos."

Batgirl quickly grabbed the back of Superboy's shirt and pulled him back, "You heard the guy. I get the feeling that this isn't going to be pretty."

Gluttony let out a grunt and walked out in front of Frostbite, "You do know my powers, right? Are you just offering up your energy as a bribe?"

"No, I'm going to give you more than you can handle," Frostbite gave Gluttony a sharp grin.

"Oh, a comedian!" Gluttony rushed forward and grabbed onto the ghost, "I like entertainment with my meal!"

As soon as Gluttony made contact, Frostbite's energy poured from the ghost to the demi-demon. Blue flowed from Frostbite's shoulder to Gluttony's arm. Despite this, though, Frostbite just stood calmly. Slowly, he reached up with his fake arm and gently gripped one of Gluttony's arms. Just like with his shoulders, energy began to transfer from the point of contact. This time was different, though. As soon as the energy made contact with Gluttony, ice began to spread across Glutonny's arms.

With wide eyes, Gluttony tried to pull free, but Frostbite wouldn't let him go. He then tried to cut off the flow of energy, but he couldn't' stop it. The cryoplasm continued to transfer, and Gluttony was beginning to be completely covered in ice.

"Be careful what you eat," Frostbite noted even as his ice arm began to fade away and his muscle mass slowly began to diminish, "Some types of energy don't like demons from the flames of hell."

"No! No!" Gluttony pleaded as the ice spread over his face, "Please! I—"

Gluttony never got to finish that sentence as he was completely frozen over. With his opponent covered in ice, Frostbite finally pulled away. His fake arm was gone, and he was far thinner now. Nevertheless, he was victorious.

"Forgive me," Frostbite's features calmed as looked at Gluttony's frozen features that were twisted in fear, "You gave me no choice. But you'll live…"

Reaching up, Frostbite tapped Gluttony's forehead. The ice faded away to allow Gluttony to breath. He was still unconscious, but he wasn't in life threatening danger anymore.

"That seems like a costly victory," Superboy spoke up, "I mean. You lost an arm."

Frostbite sighed, "Yes, it will take a while to reform, but the Box is safe. Let us rejoice on that."

* * *

Vision fought back scream of pain as Trigon held her tightly in his massive fist. On the ground below her, all of her allies laid defeated. They all struggled to get up. Colossus did managed to get back up to his feet, but Trigon quickly stomped down on the ghost and held him down with a massive hoof.

" **You're the leader, right?** " Trigon peered at her with amused eyes, " **So this is your fault? Does it feel good knowing that you lead your people into a pointless death?** "

Vision couldn't speak. He was crushing her too much for her to get a word out. Even if she could speak, though, she wouldn't have anything to say. Trigon had defeated them with several wide spread blasts of pure energy. With the dome still around them, they had no way to dodge. It had been a brutal defeat, and by the looks of things, help wouldn't be coming all that quickly.

" **Don't worry, though. You won't have to suffer through watching them die,** " Trigon's eye began to glow, " **I believe in taking out the people in charge first. That's why I took care of Phantom personally.** "

Vision just glared up at the demon.

" **There we go. That's the face I wanted to see when you…What's going on?!** "

To everyone's shock, the dome around the area dropped. As the red energy faded away, the form of Greed stepped forward. He floated up to Trigon's eye level and spoke, "Father, I've taken care of the halfa."

" **Good, but why did you…** " Trigon's eyes widened, " **You're not** —"

Greed raised a hand and sent out a green blast of ectoplasm to Trigon's eyes. Said demon cried out in pain as he wasn't prepared for such an attack to a vulnerable spot. He instantly released Vision. This allowed Greed to grab her and pull her back.

Vision watched as Greed's form shifted, "Amorpho…What are you doing?"

"Saving you!" Amorpho pointed at Trigon with his free hand, "Charge!"

At his command, hundreds of ghosts fazed through the ground and swarmed around the massive demon. Still weakened by Amorpho's sneak attack, Trigon could only stumble back in pain as the ghosts attacked him from all angles. This freed Colossus and allowed him to help some of the ghosts at the ground level to collect the downed fighters and pull them back as well.

"You…did this?" Vision's voice came out as a whispered shock.

"I'm as shocked as you are," Amorpho sounded genuinely surprised with himself, "I never thought I would be able to do anything in the spotlight. But today is a day for miracles, don't you think?"

"Agreed," Vision smiled at him, "Thank you, Amorpho. You saved all of our…my life."

"Don't mention it. If we start keeping count on who saves who, then you'll surpass me within the next five minutes."

* * *

Jinx and Fright Knight were blinded as they flew into the white light. They couldn't even see their hands in front of their face. Yet there was no pain. Despite being in light bright enough to burn away corneas, they didn't feel any pain. Quite the contrary, actually. The white light actually was filling them with strength. Jinx instantly recognized the feeling.

"Ascended ectoplasm!" Jinx shouted out in shock, "I recognize this! It was just like when Danny transferred it to me!"

The Fright Knight was silent. Instead, he focused on the energy. It seemed to be pulsing from an original source. Keeping his hold onto Jinx, he began to head towards the source. He saw what seemed to be a cocoon wrapped in strands of white and gold. It was hard to make out, but it was there. For a brief second, he would have sworn he saw two figures standing in front of the bright cocoon. One looked like an angel while the other was a contrary black in the sea of white. He almost thought that the black figure gave him a look of pity before it disappeared.

That was when things got strange. A giant force began to push against them. It was like a hand was pushing them away. They quickly noticed how the energy flared off the cocoon. It was like the entire thing became unstable in their presence. They both had to fight not get be thrown back.

"It's him!" Jinx shouted, "I know it!"

Grunting in agreement, Fright Knight began to move forward. The force of the blast forced the two of them apart, but neither of them were thrown back. Jinx instead infused energy into her boots and used that to stay anchored to the ground. All the while, the Fright Knight tried to fly forward to get to his king. Both of them struggled to get forward even a few centimeters. Still, neither one of them were willing to give up.

As they slowly made their way to the cocoon, the energy seemed to take a life of its own. The white and gold slowly began to come together above the cocoon to form what appeared to be a large skeletal hand. It began to swing around wildly. Eventually, the swings made their way towards Jinx and Fright Knight.

Unsheathing his blade, the Fright Knight sung upward to stop the arm. Using every bit of strength that he possessed, the Fright Knight pushed back and stopped the skeletal arm. His body groaned in agony as he fought against the arm. That one blow was one of the most powerful attacks that he had ever taken. It was insane.

Sensing that it had finally hit something, the arm quickly whipped up and struck back down. Again, the Fright Knight fought against the blow. Then, it happened a third time. He had to fight not to fall to his knees.

"Go! Prove yourself and save him!" The Fright Knight shouted out to Jinx as the arm swung up again, "I'll deal with this!"

Nodding, Jinx began to push forward again. She used all her energy to create a dome of energy around herself to protect her from the flowing energy. Unfortunately, this was still not an easy task. Each time the skeletal arm struck the Fright Knight, a blast of energy spread out from the point of impact. The barrier around her came close to shattering with each spread of energy.

Still, she fought forward towards the cocoon. As she drew close to the cocoon, she reached out to it. To her surprise, the cocoon reached out as well to mix in with her energy. The energy dance out and drew her close. Once again, a giant blast of energy spread out. This time, though, the skeletal arm went with it. Freezing mid-swing, the arm began to shake before it violently shattering into one thousand pieces.

The white energy began to move once again. This time, though, it swirled towards the cocoon which was slowly breaking away to show the person inside of it. Phantom, who appeared to be frozen in stone, quickly began to animate once more. White and gold energy flared around him like a familiar halo. His skin regained its normal tone as white eyes snapped open.

Then, the energy stopped. Phantom stood in front of Jinx who was looking on in awe. Reaching out, he quickly took Jinx in his arms, " **Thank you, Jen. You too, Fright Knight.** "

"Danny…" Jinx eyed Phantom's features with interest, "How are you…What happened?"

Phantom shook his head, " **I don't know. I remember beating Nabu…then there was pain and a lot of red light. Then…an angle surrounded in white saved me and pulled me in here. That's all I remember…** "

"Did your ascended ectoplasm kick in as a defensive reflex?" The Fright Knight questioned.

" **No…No, it was something else. I think…** " Phantom's head snapped up, " **I feel something…Wally's in danger.** "

"Yes! They stayed back so that we could come save you, my Liege," Fright Knight quickly proclaimed, "We must return to them immediately or Envy shall dispose of them."

" **No…It's not Envy…** " Phantom looked towards the knight, " **Hold onto me. I'm going to get us out of here.** "

The knight quickly obeyed. Jinx suddenly felt uncomfortable sharing space near Danny with the Fright Knight, "What are you doing?"

" **Getting us out of here fast. Hold on.** "

Before he could get a response, the halfa went to work. His energy flared to life once more and rocketed into the air once more. With unbelievable speeds, he raced back to where his two allies entered the cave. Within seconds, he was far away from the cavern.

After the halfa was gone, the opening to cave closed and the tunnel leading to it was filled with rock and dirt. With the cavern now blocked off again, the Life Entity formed once more at the center of the cave. Quiet snores echoed off the walls. Its job was done. Every else was left to Phantom. Finally, it could sleep once more…

* * *

Raven had wide eyes as Spirit grabbed her and carried her forward, "W-What are you doing?"

"This!" Spirit rushed beside Brother Blood. To everyone's surprise, Raven's magic instantly lashed out and snapped at the cultist. He roared in pain as the magic latched onto him and began to tear away the demonic magic from his core.

As his demonic features faded and the red energy was ripped from him, Brother Blood desperately tried to hold onto his borrowed power. Cyborg just smacked him upside the head while Nyx constricted him with her shadows. With the side attacks, Brother Blood screamed out in pain as Raven naturally pulled the demonic energy from the cultist and then absorbed it. Once again, Raven seemed to age. This time, she was only a few years distance from her actual age.

"Gah…" Brother Blood groaned.

Cyborg let out a low whistle, "Wow. That's new."

Raven looked down to her hands, "It is. Lust mentioned how Blood never stood a chance against me, but…"

"Pride," Spirit suddenly spoke up, "You're Trigon's Pride, right? You have his dominance over demons. At least while he's in the same dimension as you."

Nyx blinked, "How did you even think about that? Jeeze, my plan was just to beat him up until his powers went away. It may have taken a while, but it would have been fun as hell."

Spirit shrugged, "I, uh, just thought outside the box. I remember Raven accidentally hurting Brother Blood while I was under his control. I thought it might happen again."

"Gah…" Brother Blood's eyes flickered open to glare at Raven, "You…I swear, I'll—"

Cyborg knocked him out with a solid punch to the back of the head, "Would you shut up?"

"Okay," Nyx waved her hands to have her shadows tie Brother Blood up like a gift, "So Brother Blood's done, we got Raven and Spirit, and Chuck…Chuck!"

Raven closed her eyes and focused on Youngblood's energy, "He's okay. His energy is stable. Lust is down."

"Good," Cyborg let out a sigh of relief. He then grabbed Brother Blood and flung him over his metallic shoulder, "But the fight's not over. We need to regroup and head back. Constantine said he'd need Raven for the Box to work. I think I know why now. Let's hope that Raven's demon dominance powers work on her Dad."

* * *

Dusk ducked under Wrath's various punches. Each strike was met with a swing of Dusk's blade. The demi-demon's thicker skin prevented the sword from cutting too deeply, but that was fine with Dusk. He didn't intend to do any real damage. At least to anything besides the man's ego.

"Stupid fly!" Wrath roared out as he continued to try to swat Dusk away. He was rewarded with more cuts.

Dusk ignored his words. He just continued to move. With each strike of his own, he slowly counting in his head. He was over one hundred at this point. It seems like he wasn't going to get close to one thousand. With each miss and each new cut, Wrath's face twisted with more and more anger. At this rate, it would happen soon.

"Damn it!"

Two more cuts.

"Why can't I hit you!?"

Four more cuts.

"RAW!"

Dusk smiled as he moved back. One hundred and twenty-six…That was a good number. He held out for longer than expected.

Muscles bulging and scowl growing, Wrath beat the ground with his fists a few times, causing the ground to shake. Dusk looked on impassibly as he floated above the shaking ground. With a roar, Wrath lunged himself at the halfa. This time, though, Dusk merely turned intangible and let the demon pass through him.

Surprised by the lack of contact, Wrath tumbled to the ground. Before he could get up, he felt a bola wrap around his legs and trap him. A quick glance to the weapon's origin showed that Black Bat had gotten back to her feet—

"AH!" Wrath cried out Robin landed on him and shoved a stun gun into his spine. His rage rocketing even further, Wrath bulged his muscles again. This snapped the bola and forced Robin off of his back. Whirling around with a snarl, Wrath was just in time to be punched by Troia.

Reeling from the strength of the Amazon, Wrath stumbled back. Before he could recover, Troia hammered him with several more blows that rocked the demi-demon away. She then grabbed the massive form of Wrath and threw him over head straight into the ground.

Before he could recover, different shuriken and baterangs slammed into the ground right beside him. Different gasses and ropes blasted from the weapons, causing the demi-demon to cough as he trapped to the ground.

"I don't get it!" Wrath roared as he struggled. This only helped the knock out gas spread through his system, though, "You were trapped in anger!"

Dusk stepped onto Wrath's chest. He pointed the tip of his sword at Wrath's neck. The son of Trigon instantly paled and went silent, "That was when you were calm yourself. I figured your control of them would drop if you lost your temper. That's the problem with using your own sin as a weapon. Those who fight with rage will only drown in it."

"But anger is all I have!" Wrath argued, "It's my father's gift!"

"No," Dusk removed the blade from Wrath's neck. He transformed it into a staff and slammed in across the demi-demon's temple, "It's a curse."

Looking at the downed demon, the other three members of Young Justice slowly approached Dusk. Black Bat was the first to speak, "How did you fight that? The anger…it was suffocating…"

Dusk absorbed his weapon and reached into his pocket to pull out a familiar necklace, "It wasn't easy. But…I have some reasons to calm down."

Troia took a deep steady breath, "That…That's impressive to say the least. We failed completely."

"It was a lesson I learned the hard way," Dusk admitted while looking towards Robin's bleeding arms, "Sorry about that."

Robin shrugged while trying to hide his wounds, "It's nothing, man. Could have been worse."

Black Bat shook her head as she pulled out bandages from her utility belt, "Hold still, Robin. We don't want you to bleed out. Well…maybe we do a little, but we still need you for Trigon. After that, though…"

Robin let out a snort, "Jeeze, thanks, Black Bat. Feeling the love."

Dusk looked out to the distance, "I saw a pretty big explosion while fighting Wrath. I think Torch and Ember beat Z. Otherwise, Z would already be here trying to kill us."

"So…We win?"

"We still got to deal with Trigon," Dusk blinked as he noticed the Exorcist Armor flying towards them, "And of course he comes back now. The convenient stuff always happens after the fight."

* * *

Envy frowned, "Speed Force? Really? That sounds stupid."

Kid Flash was too busy awed by the power he was emitting. He felt like he could do anything. It was amazing. The last time ever felt anything like this was when he first got his powers. This was different, though. He could never imagine getting used to this.

Artemis too was looking on in awe. She could feel her gut twist. Something about this was off. Where did this power even come from?

"Well, if you're just gonna stand there," Envy smirked. He rushed forward with the full intent to hit Kid Flash. He aimed at Kid with a punch at the speed of sound. To his complete surprise, he missed. The dozens of other punches missed as well. Every strike passed right through the vibrating form of Kid Flash. To combat this, Envy began to vibrate himself. The Flash wouldn't lose in a game of speed—

Envy didn't even see Kid Flash's punch coming. He was sent flying away in a blur. As he flew through the air, he immediately recognized that he would not win in speed. As such, he decided to go for endurance. His form shifted into that of Superman. As Envy landed, he glared to where Kid Flash just was only to see that the speedster had disappeared.

Suddenly, he felt blows hitting him from every direction. He didn't even see the blur of Kid Flash moving. He only felt the after effects of the punches. None of them did any damage. So, he now had a chance to come up with a game plan.

In an instant, there was a tornado around Envy. Kid Flash seemed to running around the demi-demon at speeds that wasn't even comprehensible to the son of Trigon. For a second, Envy wondered what this would do. The moment after that, though, he realized that the his breath was being sucked from his lungs. Envy instantly crashed to his knees clutching his throat.

Desperately, he switched to a person that didn't need to breathe. In the form of Phantom, Envy turned intangible as a way to defend himself. To his undying surprise, though, Kid Flash rushed in from his tornado and punched him right in the face. It seems like the Speed Force could overcome intangibility.

Envy's head swirled from the blow. Knowing the next blow would come, he changed into anyone he could conceive. It was Martian Manhunter.

Kid Flash just smacked him away.

Next was Wonder Woman.

Kid Flash kicked him away.

Finally, he made a desperate change. The form of Artemis looked up to Kid Flash who paused in his punch. Envy looked up at Kid Flash with a pleading look. Kid Flash looked at him for a tense few seconds before punching him away.

"Gah!" Envy groaned as he fell to the ground and transformed into a young man. He was very thin and dressed in rags. His features were rather average and did not stand out all that much.

"Artemis never looks that pathetic," Kid Flash noted.

"Hahaha…" Envy moaned pathetically, "Yeah…It was worth a shot…Not like I could compete against that power any other way…I'm jealous…"

Kid Flash watched as Envy slumped down in unconsciousness. He then turned to Artemis who was still looking on in awe. Kid went to help her up, but he paused when he suddenly felt very light. Looking at his hands again, he was horrified to see his form fading. He was vibrating too fast. Fear struck his heart as he reached out to his girlfriend.

"Artemis!" Kid Flash cried out as he began to disappear, "Help!"

Artemis reached out desperately as she watched her boyfriend fade away. She couldn't' move, though. She couldn't help him. In seconds, he disappeared…A hand reached out and grabbed Kid Flash to steady his form.

Kid Flash looked at the owner of the hand with wide eyes, "Danny?"

Phantom gave Kid a steady look, " **You have to keep yourself steady. Trust me, you can't let your power get the better of you.** "

Nodding, Kid Flash took a steady breath. He focused on controlling himself, to slow himself down when the Speed Force demanded that he speed up. Soon, he was still vibrating, but it was far more stable than before, "Okay…I got it…"

Phantom nodded, " **Good. Keep it that way. We'll need the power.** "

Artemis looked at them with tears in her eyes, "Wally…Danny…I'm so glad you're alive."

Phantom smiled, " **I have no real idea what's happening, but I'm assuming that we need to stop Trigon, right?** "

Kid Flash nodded, "Yeah, things are pretty bad. We came looking for you."

Phantom looked over his shoulder to see Jinx and Fright Knight where he left them, " **They mentioned that. How is everyone else**?"

"It's complicated…"

" **Of course it is. Fill me in fast, I get the feeling we don't have a lot of time.** "

* * *

Zatanna was silent as Youngblood helped her through the halls of the church. Her magic was carrying the unconscious cultists in addition to a bound and gagged Lust, but she was having a more difficult time walking on her own at the moment. Thus, Youngblood decided to help her move.

"Shouldn't I be carrying her?" Beast Boy questioned as he walked beside the two of them, "You look pretty hurt, dude."

"I'm good," Youngblood gave a small smile to the other boy, "You're still fresh. I need you to go ahead and check on the others. Don't worry about us. We can hold each other up."

"You sure?" Beast Boy's wide eyes stared up at them.

Zatanna nodded, "Yeah, Gar. Go and see if they need help. We'll be fine."

"If you say so," Beast Boy quickly changed into a bird and flew down the hallways towards the entrance of the church. Youngblood and Zatanna waited until he was out of sight before slowly following after him.

"You can go ahead and talk about it," Youngblood stated, "He won't hear now, and I won't tell anyone."

"You aimed for my stomach. You knew that would snap me out of Lust's control."

"I did. Sorry I had to remind you about it."

Zatanna gave Youngblood a side glance, "How did you know?"

Youngblood gave a single shoulder shrug, "I noticed how you clenched your stomach and that look on your face. I've seen it before when I was doing some research on my seal years ago, and things just clicked for me. Don't worry, I don't think anyone else in your age group will figure it out. Kids barely think about such things right now."

"You act like you're not a kid."

Youngblood could almost feel the glare Polly was giving him at this point, "I'm not much of one anymore. This is just appearance right now. It's all I have left."

Zatanna frowned, "That doesn't sound good for you."

"It isn't, so we both have a problem for our futures," Youngblood noted sadly.

Zatanna looked down, "It wasn't something I thought about before…before Klarion's attack caused the damage. Hell, I don't think I was going to even think about it for years, but still…The option is gone, and I don't know how to deal with it."

"Adoption is always an option," Youngblood noted, "There's a lot of kids that need some love."

"So I should pull a Batman and recruit a few wards to follow in my footsteps?" Despite herself, Zatanna couldn't help but let out the joke.

Youngblood chuckled, "It wouldn't be the strangest story I've ever heard."

Zatanna's smile slipped again, "I guess I don't have the worst problem in the world. It could be worse…"

"Don't tell yourself that," Youngblood stated, "Parents and children…They're a big deal. It's what keeps our world going. There's very little that's bigger than that in the grand scheme of things."

"True…"

Youngblood let out a small sigh, "I, uh, for the record, I think you would make a great mom no matter what."

Zatanna smiled, "Thank you. What about you? You know all my baggage now. Do I get to know why you did research on this parent, mother thing?"

Youngblood gained a dazed look, "Let's just say, I have the opposite problem as you. My parents…They needed my help, and now they don't even remember I exist as long as this seal is in place. And if I let it go so they can remember me…I die."

"That's…harsh…"

"It is, but…" Youngblood's head picked up as he noticed that they were getting towards the end of the hallway. He could see his friends in the distance, "For right now, though, let's forget our own issues. Even with our personal problems, the big thing is Raven's dad. Let's deal with that parent issue and then we can deal with the others."

Zatanna nodded, "Right. We can't solve either of our problems if Trigon destroys the world."

* * *

Agent Z groaned as his eyes opened to reveal the face of Ember looking down at him, "Ellie…Why didn't you just let me die?"

Ember shook her head as she sat down and gently placed her father's head on her lap, "Idiot. Why would I go through all this trouble just to kill you?"

"Because I deserve it," Tears trickled from Agent Z's eyes, "I tried to kill you, all ghosts, multiple times. That's a sin a father just can't take back. I don't deserve to live."

"Torch agrees, but Ellie always had a way of getting what she wants," Torch stood nearby. His arms were crossed as he stared down at the downed from of Agent Z, "And Torch would be lying if he said that he didn't have…any desire to have his dad back…"

Agent Z snorted, "Trever…There isn't any going back. Not after everything that's happened."

Torch nodded, "Torch knows, Dad. He never said it was a smart dream. But he's never been known for smart dreams, has he?"

"I suppose not…Neither of you were," Agent Z admitted.

"We got it from you," Ember noted, "You used to want humans and ghosts to live in peace, right? No one believed in that, but you still went for it. Until our deaths broke you."

Agent Z sighed, "Yep. It seems that I'm just one big bag of flaming garbage."

"Tell us…" Torch gained as wistful look, "Do you at least regret any of it?"

"Trev, the only thing I don't regret in my life is having my family. After that was gone, every choice I ever made was a mistake," Agent Z answered completely honestly for once.

Torch closed his eyes and looked away. That sentence meant so much to him, "Yeah…"

"I can't undo anything I've done, though. I own up to my mistakes. That's why I wanted Joel to kill me," Agent Z's voice came out as light as a whisper, "No matter what, I'm dead. Either your side wins, and I die when Trigon is banished, or Trigon wins and kills me for my failure. There's no other way this can go down."

"Yeah, I guess so," Ember admitted, "But that doesn't mean you can't change sides. Be the hero for once. Give us one last good memory of you before this is over."

"Ellie…" Agent Z felt tears run down his face, "I'm not that person. I'm the bad guy. I've known that for a long time."

"We know. Being a bad person doesn't mean you can't be a good Dad one last time, though," Torch turned around to where Wrath had been fighting the heroes. He saw them waving at them, "It's time, Ellie. We have to go."

"Right," Ember slowly placed Agent Z's head down, "Well, I guess this is bye, Dad. Whatever happens, I want you to know that I love you."

"I love you too, Ellie. Again…I'm so sorry," Agent Z watched as Ember stood and began to walk away. He then looked to Torch, "Aren't you going to?"

Torch stared down at Agent Z, "Yeah. Torch just...Torch loves you, Dad. He always has, even when he was trying to kill you. He was trying to preserve the memory of what his dad used to be."

Agent Z was openly sobbing now, "I know, son. I know."

Taking a deep breath, Torch followed his sister. He forced himself not to look back. Not because he couldn't stand the sight of his father crying. No, it was because he didn't want to let his father see his own tears.

* * *

"Danny!" Spirit rushed up to the glowing Phantom and lunged into a hug, "Thank God, you're alive."

" **It takes more than an omnipotent demon to kill me,** " Phantom joked. He blinked as another body made contact with him. It seemed Dusk had been worried as well.

"I assumed the worst," Dusk noted as he and Spirit pulled away.

"We all assumed the worst…for all of you," Plasmius stepped up to the other halfas.

Phantom looked over to Plasmius. He then noticed the crowd of people looking onto them in awe, " **What? You look like you've seen a ghost**."

The tension immediately dropped. Some people burst out laughing. Other sighed in exasperation. The rest just looked on with mild amusement.

Vision shook her head as she sat against a piece of rubble, "I bet you've been waiting years to pull that one out."

" **The wait was worth it,** " Phantom gave the woman a hard look, " **Well, you look like hell. Most of you do. Damn, the whole planet looks like it. I can't sleep for a few hours without everything falling apart?** "

"Sleep he calls it," Torch snorted. He crossed his arms and turns away, "Torch went through the fight of his life, and he looks like he got ran over by a flaming semi. Phantom, though, gets killed by a demon, and he comes back looking perfectly fine, with ascended ectoplasm, and judging Torch. Just great. Today just sucks."

"Calm down, Trev," Ember shook her head, "He's just trying to lighten the mood."

"Got to say, glad you're alive, boss man," Robin waved a bandaged hand to the glowing halfa, "Nice look there. You should keep it."

" **If only,** " Phantom couldn't hide his smile as he turned to Batman and Vision, " **What's the plan?** "

Batman looked over across the group that returned with Phantom, "I'm assuming there's a reason for the ascended ectoplasm and Kid Flash's vibrating. I expect a report after this. Until then, we could use that in our assault on Trigon. You two will definitely be on the frontline assault. That team will be distracting him while the other two teams get everything ready."

Jinx looked over to massive form of Trigon fighting off hundreds of ghosts, "Do we even want to ask?"

Vision tilted her head to a familiar figure, "You can thank Amorpho for that. I doubt I would still be alive if he hadn't brought that army."

Amorpho fidgeted under the attention, "It was nothing."

"No, it was good," The Fright Knight grunted as he carried Envy into a glowing circle that held the other five Sons of Trigon. Laying him down, the knight quickly turned back to the large group, "I'm assuming with these six dealt with, the only one left is Trigon himself."

Cyborg nodded, "We stopped Brother Blood too. He's tied up and being guarded by the cultists and Beast Boy. He's not going anywhere."

Nyx rubbed her temples, "We got back not long before you. Jeeze, no rest for any of us."

Plasmius shook his head, "No, we all came back here to regroup, leave the wounded, and end this."

"Whelp," Constantine stood on top of the Box, "This beaut is all ready to go. Took an effing long time to power up, and it was a pain in the ass to defend, but it's here. We're going to use the Bioship to get it close. We still will need all magic users on deck to power this. That will be the second team."

Phantom looked around, " **And the third?** "

"Not all of us can go against an all power demon," Nightwing mentioned, "But we've thought of something. Cyborg and Bumblebee had a few idea to help out, we'll go with them and try to find a way to attack from afar."

Artemis looked to her back to emphasis her missing weaponry, "Guess that's where I'm going then. Stay safe, babe. I already almost lost you twice today."

"It'll be fine, Artemis," Kid Flash smiled, "I mean, we're just fighting a guy with enough power to destroy the planet. We've been through worse."

Jinx shook her head, "That's a sad fact…What about the injured heavies? We need every hard hitter we can get."

Colossus scoffed, "I can still fight, girl. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"As will I," Pandora looked to her daughter, "I will make sure Trigon doesn't get close to the Box."

"I…" Vision looked away, "I will have to sit this one out. I have nothing left to fight with, and the strategy is made. It is all up to you know."

" **So everything's settled**?" Phantom looked around.

"It is…" Etrigan stood staring up at the box longingly, "It is time to move."

Constantine frowned down at the demon, "You sure about this, bloke? I could have you sit out…Guard Trigon's spawns in that seal."

"No…No, I need to do this."

"Alright then," Constantine looked around at the large group of people, "Let's hope this bloody thing works. I never tried something this big before. Theoretically, it will work, but practice is different. So try not let things get too out of hand, would ya? I don't need any outliers messing up the equation."

"No outliers, eh," Superboy shook his head, "You're in the wrong group then, pal."

* * *

(Play: Bring Them to Light by Apocalyptica)

Trigon roared with rage as he swatted at the ghosts that were swarming around him. His eyes had healed, so he could now see. Through his stumbling, the ghosts had managed to make him move into the bay of the city. They probably were instructed to protect the city as much as possible. The fools. This wouldn't make any difference.

Tired with the bugs and now healed, Trigon prepared for a large scale attack. He would kill them all at once. Just as he was about to send out a massive blast of energy, the Batwing rushed in and shot him in the head with twin rockets. This caused the demon to stumble back and cancel his attack. As he stumbled, something with surprising strength rammed into his leg. To catch himself from falling, he spread his giant hooves apart into a deep stance.

Before he could right himself, the water below him instantly froze over trapping his feet. A quickly glanced revealed that Frostbite stood at the edge of the bay with his hands over the ice constantly pumping it with a constant flow of cryoplasm. Another sharp pain his leg caused the demon to look down to see a blur of yellow surrounding his leg and constantly barraging him with blows that he couldn't even see.

Sneering in rage, Trigon formed a massive fist. Coated in red energy, the demon sent a giant punch downward with the full intent of killing the bug biting at his leg. He felt a strange power radiating from the bug, so he made sure the blow was powerful enough to obliterate anything in his path. As such, he was absolutely shocked when his attack was stopped. It just halted in midair. Something was in his way, but he had no idea what.

To Trigon's further shock, a giant blast of white energy blasted out from the end of his fist. The force of the energy sent his fist flying into the air. This allowed Trigon to see the being that actually managed to stop him.

" **You! I killed you!** " Trigon roared at the form of Phantom.

" **Apparently, you didn't do it well enough,** " Phantom noted.

Before Trigon could respond, a large shockwave from Colossus smashed into the demon's face. This caused him to real back in agony and clutch at his face. His head was suddenly pulled back, though, when Troia hooked her lasso around Trigon's left horn and pulled with all her might. Trigon arced his back in response and was opened up to further attacks. The hundreds of ghosts that were still flocking around him also swarmed at his arms and desperately struggled to keep them place and allow the next few moves to play out.

The heroes wasted no time. The Batwing swung around to fire at Trigon's open torso. As Batman flew the plane, Robin and Black Bat sat at different gunnery spots and opened fire at the demon. The normal non-lethal rounds had been replaced with something with more of a kick to give them a chance to actually hurt the demon. The Exorcist Amor flew up to Trigon's stomach and opened fire at the red skin, trying to weaken it was much as possible. With the combined efforts of the two weapons, Trigon's torso was now covered in different marks of injury.

Trigon quickly began to struggle to get free. Troia and the ghosts fought to keep him from moving, but it was a losing battle. Seeing that the enemy was about to get free, Rocket flew Superboy up straight towards Trigon's neck. Coating the clone in a blast of kinetic energy to speed up his flight, Rocket threw Superboy towards Trigon's Adam's Apple. The effect was instant as Trigon broke free and clutched at his neck. Unfortunately, this meant that Superboy was trapped.

Phantom quickly moved to action. He rushed forward towards Trigon's stomach as the Batwing and the Exorcist armor flew away. The halfa hammered Trigon with a large blast of ascended ectoplasm right into the weakened torso. Trigon immediately grunted in pain and released the Kryptonian in his grasp. This allowed Superboy to jump away back towards the awaiting Rocket.

Looking over his shoulder, Phantom saw that the Bioship was approaching. That meant it was time to bring in their one-shot blows. Nothing would work on Trigon twice, but if they weakened him for a bit, then it was worth using now.

Raising his hand and flaring up some energy for a signal, Phantom watched as Pandora raced towards Trigon's face. The ghosts protected her and gave her safe passage towards the demon. Once in front of Trigon, Pandora stuck her arms out. Six spears made of electricity formed in her six hands. With a roar of battle, she thrusted them into Trigon's eyes and blinded the demon.

" **Ah! Damn it, not again!** "

Shouting in pain, Trigon reeled back. Frostbite managed to keep his feet in place and keep him from moving. This allowed Kid Flash to continue his barrage on Trigon's legs. In fact, Damon had joined the speedster, and the two of them were quickly weakening the leg to the point that hair faded away to raw angry skin.

With Trigon completely distracted, the Bioship made safe passage towards the demon. As the ship orbited him, the others quickly moved in for the next blows. Fright Knight escorted Dusk towards Trigon's head. Plasmius was with Spirit heading to Trigon's weakened leg. Colossus landed down next to Jinx at the center of the frozen bay. Everything was working out.

Of course, such good fortune would never last for them. Black flames burst out from every one of Trigon's pores. Every one of the ghosts surrounding Trigon was knocked back. The ice below quickly turned to slush, forcing everyone down there to retreat. The worst thing was that the Bioship instantly faltered.

The black flames quickly danced all around Trigon. No one was spared from the chaos. They all desperately tried to protect themselves from the attack. Even Phantom struggled as his ice instantly melted when formed.

Luckily, they had been expecting that. Torch and Ember quickly made their way into the inferno. With joined hands, they worked and spread out flames of their own. Red and blue made their way through the black. For the briefest of seconds, it almost seemed like they would succeed in stopping the black flames.

That hope was quickly killed, though. Trigon sensed their power and instantly targeted them. The black fire instantly pushed back the flames of red and blue. Ember and Torch were quickly caught up in their own firestorm. Trigon's fire burned at their skin in ways that had not occurred since their deaths. Despite this, though, they pushed on and continued to fight what seemed to be a pointless battle.

All the while, the Bioship began to shake and rattle. It took all of Miss Martian's effort to not lose control. Fire was always the Martians' greatest weakness. Even the Bioship was having trouble obeying her commands. If it were not for the magicians in the cargo hold chanting different spells of empowerment, they would have instantly fallen to the firestorm. Still, it was only a matter of time before they fell. They could only hope that the fire would be dealt with quickly.

Unfortunately, this didn't seem to be the case. Torch and Ember were now being completely beaten back by the black flames. Despite their combined efforts, they could do nothing to control the flames of hell. This was a completely different level than their previous fight. In a few seconds, their defenses would be shattered. For the second time, they would perish together within a burning inferno. This time, though, there would be no coming back.

Looking at each other, Torch and Ember gave small smiles. At least the death would be quick…

"Oh! Now you give up!"

To their absolute shock, a third figure shoved his way through the inferno to the fire ghosts. He quickly placed his own hand over theirs and forced his own will into the fire. Black flames quickly joined the red in blue in their struggle, and they actually managed to push back.

"Dad!" Ember cried out.

"You…" Torch was shell-shocked, "You came for us!"

"No time! We have only a few seconds before Trigon strips me of by powers!" Agent Z shouted, "Quick! Use my connection to him to control the flames."

Nodding, the sibling went to work. With Agent Z's power, they managed to force their own will into the firestorm. In a blaze, the storm quickly turned towards its origin. Trigon shouted out in surprise and pain as his own fire began to burn him. Desperately, he dispatched of the fire giving the heroes time to move once more. This time, though, there were several patches of land that had formed above the water during the firestorm from the evaporating water, meaning they now had solid footholds. This was something the exhausted fire users quickly used to keep them from falling into the water.

" **Traitor! I knew it! You said that you could handle it!** " Trigon roared in outrage.

"I thought I could," Agent Z snorted, "Guess even I still have a few soft spots in me."

" **I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR THIS!** " Trigon roared as he tried to reach down to them. He was quickly stopped when a massive blast of sonic blue energy rammed into his elbow sending it off course. Another blast of energy rammed into the side of this face. The second blast was red, though. It was quickly followed by several dozen more blasts to the head.

From the shore, Artemis sat on a large red laser gun that had S.T.A.R. Labs painted across the side. Behind her, Nightwing and Batgirl were working with the battery that they pulled from the lab as well in addition to reading different coordinates and figures to the archer.

"Now this is a bow and arrow!" Artemis grinned as she continued to shoot the demon in the head. She made sure to stay away from Cyborg, who was using his jetpack to fly around the demon's injured torso and using his weapons to increase the damage. Like before, large blasts of blue sonic energy shot from his arm canon which had been upgraded with S.T.A.R. Lab equipment as well. Behind him, Youngblood carried a large battery to help power the canon while Bumblebee was flying around to make sure everything stayed stable.

" **Damn it! You mortals need to learn your place! You…** " Trigon paused in his words as the attacks all suddenly stopped. Despite still being blinded, he could sense three people beside his head.

"This is going to have one hell of a kick!" Dusk shouted over the sound of his Twilight Canon powering up, "Make sure I don't go flying away! With the little energy I have left, I'm going to dissolve if I don't get medical attention immediately!"

"You have my word, Dusk!" Troia shouted as she and Fright Knight braced behind the halfa, "We have your back…literally!"

"Alright then, hold on! Twilight Canon: 100% power! Firing!" A concentrated beam of energy shot out of the canon instantly forcing the weapon holder and his helpers back away from the demon. The kickback was extraordinary, but the beam was even more so. The energy rammed into the side of Trigon's head and instantly burst into a massive explosion.

The blast forced the three attackers back even further to the shore of Jump City. They landed with a crash into sandy bay. Both Troia and Fright Knight made sure to hold onto the halfa closely as the weapon shattered and his body began to dissolve. In response, the Fright Knight unsheathed his blade and placed it into the halfa's hands. Energy began to pour off the blade and into Dusk. Once dissolving skin quickly moved back into place much to Fright Knight's satisfaction and Troia's confusion.

"I thought thou had one of those ecto-boosts," Troia noted.

"No, but I knew this would work. Soul Shredder had taken to him…" The Fright Knight noted with happiness lacing his voice as he helped the young knight up.

Groaning, Trigon clutched at his nearly burnt off face. To his horror, his left horn snapped off and fell to the water below him. Looking down, Trigon saw something more than fear inducing that a broken horn. When Plasmius and Spirit were pushed back from the firestorm, Kid Flash had moved to help them. Now, he was carrying them back as speeds that Trigon could not defend against.

With a sonic boom, Kid threw the halfas toward Trigon's weakened leg. Both of the halfas carefully separated to either side of the demon's injured limb. Spirit quickly formed her spectral claws and extended them as far as they could go while Plasmius shaped his arms into hardened plasma blades. Together, they flew by the leg in a blur. They didn't even slow down as they cut completely through the leg.

Knowing that Kid Flash had something else to do and wouldn't catch them, both the halfas worked to slow their movements. They skipped a few times across the water before finally managing to stop themselves. Turning around, they saw Trigon roaring in a combination was agony and rage. Unfortunately for the demon, the heroes weren't done. Standing in front of the demon on a plot of earth, the trio of Phantom, Colossus, and Jinx worked to gather as much energy as possible.

On the right, Colossus gathered all of his remaining energy into his right fist, "Good thing we're aiming up! This would blow up the city if it hit it! Hahahahaha!"

Jinx shook her head. A blinding pink light shined from her hands, "This still might cause some damage."

Phantom continued gather energy into his left hand, " **Not like we have a choice. We can't give Trigon even the smallest chance to recover.** "

With their energy gathered, the trio shoved their hands forward. Pink, white, and red energy mixed together into one massive beam of energy. The beam literally slammed into the demon's torso and cut right through it. The energy then continued upward right into space where it would eventually dissipate.

Trigon stood there with a slacked jaw. His face was half burnt off. His leg was missing. A giant hold stood where his torso once existed. Yet, he did not fall.

"Of for the love of God!" Kid Flash rushed forward carrying Superboy, "Fall already!"

A ramp of ice formed in front of them curtesy of Frostbite. Kid quickly ran up the ramp and then flung the clone towards the demon. Said Kryptonian flew at speeds that rivaled Superman and smashed into Trigon's face. Finally, the demon was tipped over. Superboy was quickly caught by Rocket as Trigon fell backwards and crashed straight into the water.

Lying there, Trigon took deep breaths, " **No…Impossible…Mortals…cannot beat me…** "

"It seems they have, Father."

" **Pride** …" Trigon's blind eyes stared blankly up at Raven. She stood on top of the Banishing Box. With the demon finally downed, Miss Martian had opened the cargo hold and allowed Etrigan to carry the box over Trigon. This allowed Raven to land on the Box and caused it to light up. It was brimming with energy thanks to the work of the magic users in the Bioship keeping it stable, " **Why…You are my kin…My Gem…You could have had everything…** "

Raven's features aged for one final time into her correct age. Her hair grew so long that it flowed down the middle of her back. Her once dark purple cloak turned a pure white.

"I already had everything I wanted. And you tried to take it away from me," Raven's glowing eyes stared down at her father, "For that, I'll never forgive you."

" **Please…Daughter…Have pity on your Father.** "

"The only thing I have for you, Father is contempt. As your Pride, I am your greatest downfall. The key to banishing you once again," Raven pointed a hand at Trigon, "And this time, I'll make sure you can never come back to this plane in any form. It's over for you. Forever."

" **NO!** "

"Azaroth Metrion Zinthos!"

As soon as Raven spoke those words, the Banishing Box came to life. It glowed a bright white as the magic was released. Etrigan screamed out in agony as the Box began to physically pull all of the magic from him. His chest lit up as a ball of compressed magical energy shot out from his body. The ball of energy seemed to glow with the intesity of a miniature sun made out of magic. It quickly slid into the Box and acted as a catalyst for the last part of the Banishing Box's purpose. A beam of energy shot into the air and began to suck up everything related to Trigon. Red energy and smoke poured into the beam. Demons from across the globe were pulled to the beam and sucked into it. People changed back from their statue forms. And Trigon…

" **NOOOOOOO!** " Trigon screamed as his form changed to a red liquid and he too was pulled into the beam. He fought and struggled, but he was already too weakened. He never stood a chance.

To everyone's shock, though, the Banishing Box did not stop at Trigon though. There was one more target needed to shut the Box down. Still holding onto the the Box, Etrigan's form began to waver. Slowly, his image was pulled away to reveal that of Jason Blood. Slowly, the knight of old floated down below to an exposed piece of land. The man and the demon stared at each other for a few seconds, before nodding. Etrigan turned and willingly flew into the beam dragging him away from the mortal plane for the first time in centuries.

Then, the Box finally shut down. The beam banished, and the energy faded away leaving only a simple box in their wake. Still, Raven remained on the Box. She carefully carried it to the ground. Silence reigned through the area for a solid minute before Raven carefully placed a hand on the box and destroyed it with a blast of magic.

It was over. Trigon was gone forever, but like everything, there was a cost. Perhaps this time, though, it was a price that was eagerly paid.

* * *

 _Agent Z…David Zempell watched as the sky turned blue once more and sunlight beamed down on him. It comforted him, telling him that for once, he had done right by his children. A good distance away, Dusk stood at the edge of the battleground. The halfa looked to the man that he had once foolishly trusted. They shared a look for a few moments before Dusk nodded and turned away. David smiled at that. Nothing more needed to be said between the two of them._

" _Dad?"_

 _David turned to see Ember take a careful step forward. He smiled at her, "It's done."_

 _Torch quickly stepped beside his sister, "Dad…Thank you. Torch doesn't know why you did it, but you saved us. You saved the world."_

" _I don't care about the world. I only thought about you," David noted, "If it ended up with other people benefiting, then so be it. Even if it was that bastard Phantom. God, I couldn't kill that jackass no matter what…"_

" _Still," Ember smiled at him, "It…means a lot to us."_

" _I'm glad," David paused as he suddenly felt hollow. Looking down at his hands, he noticed how he was fading away, "Eh…Looks like that's it. Knew it was going to happen. Could be worse. It doesn't hurt at least. Not like the last time I died anyway."_

" _Second time's always easier," Torch noted. He took several steps forward until he was right in front of his father, "Torch can't say that he will miss you, but he will say goodbye. And…he's man enough to admit what he was wrong. You redeemed yourself."_

" _No I didn't," David shook his head, "I'll still always be remembered as the bad guy. But if I was redeemed in your eyes, that's enough for me."_

 _Torch pulled his father into a hug, "Yeah, it's enough."_

 _Ember quickly rushed forward and embraced her father as well. She said no words. There was nothing more to be said. Instead, the small family just stood there and held each other as their father faded into nothingness. Content with his end, David smiled. He could have thought of worse ways to die._

 _Then he was gone, leaving brother and sister to hold each other and silently cry in their grief. He might not have been a good person at all, but he was their father. He loved them, and they would never forget that._

* * *

 _Spirit flew at top speed towards where the Box had landed. Knowing that she was being tailed by her friends, she didn't even pause as she passed the Box and head towards the form of Jason Blood. He stood on top of a large piece of rock looking off to the horizon. The halfa could see a smile on the man's face as he gazed at the rising sun._

" _Mr. Blood!" Spirit cried out as she landed beside her teacher._

 _Blood turned to look at her and smiled, "Hello, Miss Masters. I'm glad you came. It would have been a shame if I passed without seeing you again. Oh! And my other students. Today is indeed a wonderful day."_

" _You knew about this, didn't you," Spirit accused, "You knew that using the Banishment Box would remove Etrigan."_

" _Of course, I helped design it after all. I actually played a big role in it, you see. The extreme amount of magic pumped into me during the Sorcerer Initiative acted as the final push to power the Banishing Box. I'm just glad that the others managed to power and stabilize it enough for it to work. I was my final shot..." Blood nodded and gained a far off look, "I've been searching for centuries for a way to end my curse. It just so happens that the cure was the way to banish all the demons from Earth. At least I did a little bit of good before the end."_

" _But what about us, huh?!" Nyx shouted out in anger, "You're gonna just leave us! Come on! You have to teach me more magic!"_

 _"I have nothing more to teach you. You've all grown up to be wonderful young people. My work is done."_ _Jason shook his head,_ " _It's alright…This is the ending that I chose."_

" _Seriously…" Cyborg shook his head in denial, "This can't be real. You're immortal right?"_

 _Jason gained a satisfied look, "Not anymore. Thank God. I've lived far too long. I'm tired and ready to move on. I'm sure even my library is empty at this point. The Banishment Box is very thorough for full demons. There's nothing left for me here."_

" _So…" Raven gave him a sad look, "The only ones left are me and my brothers."_

" _Yes. Half demons were not influenced by the box," Blood nodded, "Although your brother's abilities rely on Trigon's blessing. As such, they will probably be normal humans from here on out. I'm sorry to leave you without—"_

 _Brother Blood broke off into a coughing fit. To their shock, his features began to rapidly age. His hair turned completely white. The wrinkles across his face and brow grew. Once solid muscles shrunk into weakened tissue. This forced the man to sit down while the sun continued to rain down light onto his back._

 _The young heroes instantly rushed to his side. Blood just calmly held up a hand as the coughing stopped, "Don't worry. My age it just catching up with me."_

 _For the first time since the battle ended, Youngblood spoke up, "Does…does it hurt? To get old and die that is…"_

" _A bit," Blood admitted, "But it's also somewhat peaceful."_

 _Youngblood took in that information with a hard look. He seemed to be pondering hard on that answer._

" _Do…Do you have to go?" Spirit fought against the tears in her eyes, "Can't you stay a bit longer? For my parent's wedding at least?"_

" _Oh, I do wish I could have seen that event. I bet it would have been crazy," Jason let out a weak laugh, "But no…It's my time. It's finally my time. Took long enough…"_

 _With that, Jason Blood closed his eyes. His breathes began to slow into a steady pace as if he was falling asleep. Each breath was smaller to than the last. After a full minute, his chest stopped moving. The heart that had been beating for hundreds of centuries finally stopped its movements. His cool skin was bathed in the sunlight of the new day. As he faded away into the next life surrounded by his beloved students, Jason's last thought was that he couldn't think of a better way to finally find the peace of death._

* * *

"Yeah…Brother Blood is gone…" Beast Boy looked up with guilt in his eyes, "After the whole weird beam thing, he just disappeared…"

Phantom, who had released the ascended ectoplasm, looked over to Constantine, "Do you think that the Box sucked him in too?"

Constantine rubbed his chin in thought, "Maybe. I have no idea how much Trigon changed him. He could have been more demon than man at the end."

Amorpho looked over to where the Sons of Trigon were trapped, "But it didn't affect them. Could he have escaped?"

Phantom sighed and rubbed his face. Looking around at the exhausted heroes and ghosts, he shook his head, "If he did, then that's something to deal with later. I don't think any of us have the energy to track him down right now. We'll just have to keep an eye out for him."

"And what about them?" Constantine gestured towards the demi-demons. Despite not being banished from the Earth, they did seem influenced by the loss of Trigon. Many of their features changed from the aspects that made up their sins to the exact opposite. Gluttony and Wrath looked a lot thinner, while Lust and Envy appeared less neat and proper. Even Sloth was looking less disheveled.

"No Trigon means no powers and no influence," Phantom noted, "We'll just have to keep them locked up for a bit and see what they're really like with demons whispering in their ears."

"Sounds like a plan," Constantine grunted, "I'll make they're secure. Then, I'm taking a twenty-four hour nap. I'm done with this shit for a while. Hell, business is going to be dead for a while…"

"You act like that's a bad thing."

"Meh, if I ain't working, then I'm smoking and boozing. Doubt that Zatanna will appreciate that."

Phantom gained an amused look, "Then I'll just keep you busy."

Constantine groaned, "On second thought, I heard that the Bahamas are great this time of year…"

"I think we could all use a vacation," Raven's voice caused them to turn to see the sole daughter of Trigon approach them.

"I'll leave this to ye," Constantine pulled out a cigarette and began walking away, "I still got work ta do."

Amorpho looked to Phantom, "I'll go get the surprise."

Nodding, Phantom walked towards Raven, "Hey. How you feeling?"

"Great…Better than I have in a long time," Raven took a shuddered breath, "I just…Thank you…for everything. I was ready to give up. You made me push on and now my Father is gone forever. I'll never be able to repay you for this."

"You don't need to repay me. We're family. I always stand by my family."

Raven let out a sob, "Y-yeah…"

Phantom smiled and looked over his shoulder, "I gave Amorpho a job to do during the fight. I think you might like what he found."

Raven's eyes followed Phantom's gaze and widened, "M-mom…"

"Oh, Rachel," The now unfrozen Agatha Roth rushed towards her daughter and pulled her into a hug, "You're safe."

"Yeah…You too…" Raven placed her face in the crook of Agatha's shoulder, "It's over…It's finally over. We're free."

Agatha yet out a loud sob, "Yes…Finally…No more worrying…We can finally, truly live."

* * *

 **Next update: "Tomorrow" on May 23, 2016**

 **So Captain America: Civil War met my extremely high expectations. It wowed me. Especially that battle royal. That has to be my favorite movie fight scene of all time. Not to mention that** **Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland killed it as Black Panther and Spiderman. I can honestly say that I want to go see it again in theaters. So, in the storyline of questioning the morality of vigilantees and having heroes fight, Marvel beat DC so badly that it was like a Super Heavyweight fighting a one armed Strawweight fighter. It seems almost ethically wrong to compare Civil War with BatmanvSuperman.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	22. Tomorrow

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"We are made wise not by our recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future."

George Bernard Shaw

* * *

Chapter 22: "Tomorrow"

(Saturday-April 19, 2014)

Brother Blood knelt before his new master. Sweat poured down his brow under the seething gaze. This was different than with Trigon. There was a feeling of evil that radiated off the demon lord. This was different, though. It wasn't just evil. No, it was like death was being blanketed over his shoulders.

"So, you…you were behind everything," Brother Blood looked to the side to see the six Black Lanterns looking on impassively, "Le Fey's attack…the Sorcerer Initiative…Trigon's invasion…"

Nekron laughed as he reclined into his throne, " **I didn't exactly plan for all of it. The ideas and plans were already set by those clowns. I merely turned everything up a notch and made sure things progressed the way I wanted**."

Blood shivered as Nekron's words washed over him. The truth of those words rocked him to his core. Everything that happened had benefited Nekron greatly. In that instant, Blood was sure that Nekron was more dangerous than Trigon. While Trigon was unmatched in raw power, Nekron emitted a strange strength like nothing could touch him both strategically and physically. Blood recognized the feeling. It was the inevitability of death. That was Nekron. He was every fear people had about their own eventual demise. It was the more base and grounded fear in existence.

"I…I thank you for this opportunity, Master Nekron," Blood quickly ducked his head, "I will not fail you."

" **I'm sure you won't,** " Nekron rose from his throne. His tall figure towered over everyone within the Ghost Zone's domain of death, " **Moving on to more pressing matters, we need to address the blindness we had during Trigon's invasion. I'm certain the alternate Phantom made a move, but I have no idea what. Did you keep an eye on the major target?** "

Nocturne nodded, "Nothing unusual happened, Master. There was no way Dark Dan got close."

"Of course," Aragon spoke up, "He has been off the radar for a while. He might be able to hide from us. How that is possible…I have no idea."

Nekron nodded, " **Oh well, even if he did achieve anything during the blind period, we can't do anything about it now. If he did make a desperate move, then he has been upgrade to a mild annoyance. Fortunately, he still had no idea what I plan for the real Phantom, otherwise they would have already fought. By the time he learns the truth, it will be too late.** "

"And what of Poindexter? He seems to know more than he should," Hotep Ra noted.

" **Please. His master could do nothing against me, and the apprentice will share the same fate as the master. As soon as he pops up again, we'll crush him** ," Nekron explained as he glided over the area towards a barrier of black energy.

"And ze Endless and Life Entity? Zhey made zhere moves just like you predicted," Madame Rogue noted.

" **Of course they did. Trigon's invasion was too tempting an offer to pass up. The fools. They only assured my victory,** " Nekron let out a sharp laugh as he raised a skeletal hand and placed in on the barrier. He was reward for his actions by hundreds of red eyes opening from across the barrier to stare at him, " **I will deal with Phantom. And unlike Trigon, I'll make sure to deal with the Entity. The gate is open now. Soon, it will be time.** "

"So we should make our move?" William Hand questioned, "I can have everything set within hours. The takedown of the Council and League will be immediate and merciless. This time, no one will be able to stand against you."

Nekron gained an amused look, " **No, no. Not yet. We will know when the time is right. The alarm will sound and then we will move. It will be right after that wedding. Trust me, you'll hear it. Then, I will enjoy ripping every bit of joy I can from Vision and the other members of the 'Ancient Six.' Revenge shall be delicious. Until then, we just sit back and watch the chaos leading up to it. In fact, a firework show is about to happen.** "

Blood looked up worried, "Firework show?"

" **Yes, someone in tune with death and chaos have taken notice of our actions. He has begun to panic. In a desperate move to preserve some sort of legacy, he will make a very big move soon. Tomorrow in fact,"** Nekron's smile was straight from that of nightmares, " **It will be a show worth watching. I bet le Fey is just drooling over it.** "

William Hand let out a cough, "Um, Master? I would like to point out that there are enough clues to your return as it is. What if our enemies catch on and try to prepare?"

Nekron laughed roared through the area, " **Let them try. Nothing can prepare them for the Darkest Night. And I have prepared you seven for the direct purpose of combating everything they can throw at me. Soon, I will break them all. Then, I will work to my final goal. The Life Entity will die by my hands, and this universe's life-force will disappear. In the end, the inevitability of death shall consume everything.** "

* * *

Dark Dan smiled in deep satisfaction. Everything went according to plan. Nekron had no idea that he had succeeded. Now, he stood a real fighting chance. As soon as the devil made its move, he would destroy it. Then, the world's destruction will caused by his hands. After all, who could rival him after Nekron was gone?

"Smiles like that don't suit you," Morgaine le Fey noted as she reclined in her chair and watched the different images of Trigon's invasion flash all around her, "You look like you're about to fall over dead from glee. It's creepy."

"I don't care what I look like," Dark Dan let out a deep laugh, "Finally, I have the power to fight Nekron."

Le Fey shrugged, "If you say so. Personally, I don't care who wins. No matter what, the entertainment will be worth. At least it better be. I hate having to watch these reruns like this."

Dark Dan floated over to her, "Don't worry. I promise you that I won't disappoint. Your investment will give you years of more entertainment. Instead of a loud bang, I'll send this universe off in a slow burn."

Le Fey nodded. With a wave of her hands, she dismissed the images and created two images. They were both apartments. One was incredibly well kept, while the other was filthy. Dark Dan was confused by this. Morgan never turned off her entertainment for something so boring.

"What are you doing?" Dark Dan questioned.

"Hush. I will not miss this show. If you talk at all during this, I will throw you right into Nekron's hands," Morgaine hissed, "This is different than with Trigon. I have no idea what the final outcome will be. That makes it one hundred times more important to me."

Dark Dan peered at the screens with interest, "Wait…That's…"

"Yes, now be quiet. It will soon be time for the greatest joke ever pulled," Le Fey leaned forward with interest, "I can only wonder how Phantom will react. Tomorrow…Tomorrow will his final performance one way or another."

* * *

Dani grunted as she placed the box she was carrying onto the floor. Standing up, she looked around the hallway that had once belonged to Jason Blood. Old artifacts and pictures still hung from the walls untouched. They wouldn't be moved any time soon either.

"Thanks for helping us move," Rachel noted as she carried her own box into the manor.

"No problem," Dani nodded, "Wish we could just teleport your stuff in here."

"Sorry, but Mr. Blood has teleportation blocking seals all over the place because of le Fey, and I haven't figured out how to disable them yet."

"He did this on purpose, didn't he?"

"Yeah. He probably thought that we would learn something out of it."

"Well, I did. Manual labor sucks."

After burying the aged form of Jason Blood, the task of deciding what to do with his home fell on their shoulders. Luckily, in his knowledge that Trigon's invasion would be the end for him no matter what, he left a will dictating that everything that he owned now belonged to his favorite students. Considering that Dani, Victor, and Nyx all had family and homes of their own and that Youngblood never really stayed in one place, it fell on Rachel and her mother. Not that either them seemed angry about moving out of a small apartment to a large manor of their own.

"Oi!" Nyx's shout caught their attention as she lugged in several boxes over her arms, "Stop your gabbing, would ya? This will take forever if you keep taking breaks."

"Yeah, yeah," Dani waved her off as the ghost past the duo and tossed down the box, "We're on it."

"Sure," Nyx tossed her arms around their shoulders and dragged them back outside to get more boxes, "Like you weren't planning on letting the boys do all the work."

Rachel gained a small smirk, "That was the plan."

"Lazy asses!" Nyx reared back her head and laughed, "You don't want them to get inflated egos, do you? If they start thinking that they're big bad men, then we're screwed."

Dani smiled, "It'd be fine. We still outnumber them."

"Hahahaha! Fair enough!"

The three women moved outside the manor just in time to pass by Victor and Youngblood carrying a couch into building. Victor looked over to Youngblood as they backed into the manor, "You sure that you can't turn it intangible?"

Youngblood rolled his eyes, "I've already checked. It's fine, though, we can get it through no problem."

Heading back to the pile of boxes, Rachel suddenly stopped. This caused the other girls to look at her. Dani raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong."

"I'm just…taking this in…" Rachel took a deep breath as her eyes looked to her mother who was happily looking through the pile of boxes, "I never thought I'd be at this point, you know. A week after the end of the world, and we're all still here."

"I did," Nyx gently shook Rachel, "We always pull through. Trigon wasn't any different."

"Yeah," Rachel gained a look of content, "I just thought that our luck would run out. You know, like eventually something we be too much. And I always thought it would be Dad…I'm glad I was wrong—"

"No! You're left!" Victor shouted.

"I am going to my left!" Youngblood noted as he tried to turn the couch.

"You're other left!"

Rachel let out a giggle, "Very glad. It's good to be alive. In fact…"

"Hmm?" Dani raised an eyebrow when she was paused.

"It's just that…I've been thinking…With Mr. Blood gone and Trigon stopped…Maybe I should go back to—"

A loud crash drew their attention once more. It seemed as though Victor and Youngblood broke the couch. They both pointed at each other and said, "He did it!"

The women burst out laughing. Nyx quickly stepped forward, "Hahahaha! Alright boys, let the Almighty Nyx help you with that. Carry those parts in side, and I'll glue it back together."

As the men obeyed Nyx's orders, Dani turned back to Rachel, "Hahaha…Ah…So, you were saying?"

Rachel blinked and looked back to the boxes, "Uh, just that we should finish up fast so we can head back to your house in time for the Vision's party, especially if you want to help out Victor first."

"Oh! You're right!" Dani nodded as her thoughts quickly drifted away from the previous conversation to the plans she had set for the day, "Better hurry."

* * *

"Torch would like to thank you for coming," Torch stood in front of a simple cross on a floating rock in the Ghost Zone. Across the front of the cross was the name of his father. It was a simple grave, possibly more than the infamous Agent Z deserved, but Torch and Ember had been determined to memorialize their father in some way.

Dusk nodded as he and his friends stood behind the fire ghost, "You're welcome. I never had a great relationship with the man, but…I knew him pretty well."

"Yeah," Ember reached out and gently brushed the name written across the wooden grave.

"I'm surprised that Youngblood didn't come," Dora spoke softly as she stood behind Torch, "Nabu did research on everything he could on what happened with Trigon. Didn't he help you during Raven's birthday? I assumed you were friends."

Torch shook his head, "Not exactly…We just…He said that he sympathized with parent issues and volunteered to help."

"I see."

A tense silence then fell over the group. Luckily, it was a short one.

"Should…Should we say something? About Z I mean…" Troia lightly whispered.

Ember snorted, "I think there's nothing more to be said."

"His last act was for you," Black Bat spoke out, "That's something."

Torch took a deep breath, "Yes…It was not true redemption, but it was good as he was ever going to get. Torch can't say that he will truly miss Agent Z…But he will miss his father."

Dora slowly stepped up and wrapped an arm around Torch, "I think that's what he would have wanted."

"Well, I think there's plenty of things he would have wanted," Ember noted, "Most of them were terrible things. But if the one good thing is what he got…Then I guess it worked out for the best."

Torch looked over to Ember, "Torch guess that it's now time to decide what to do next."

Ember agreed, "Yeah…I can't go back to blissful ignorance. I know too much about my own past. Things have changed too much. At least I didn't go nuts, that's a good sign. But I shouldn't just go back on tour. Not yet. I need to sort things out."

"Well, you're welcome to stay with Torch," Torch stated.

Ember smiled at him, "Thanks, Trev."

Dusk shifted uncomfortably, "We'll, uh, give you some space."

Dora gave them a tiny smile, "Yes, once again, thank you for your support."

A quick exchange of goodbyes later, the three heroes were off. Troia carried Black Bat as she followed Dusk through the Ghost Zone. Somehow, it seemed like a calmer place than before the invasion. Perhaps the threat of Trigon and Amorpho's actions changed things.

"I just thought of something," Troia noted, "Where has Amorpho been?"

Black Bat answered, "I think that he's been around. Just…unseen. I got a few feelings that someone was in the back ground for the past week."

Dusk nodded, "He's not the most social guy. I don't think that he wanted to be in the spotlight any more than necessary as himself. I can get that. I have heard from Vision that she wants him to join the Council."

"With what he did, he will make a good leader," Troia agreed.

"If he accepts," Black Bat argued, "Of if he doesn't stay hidden and flaky."

"Hmm…" Dusk suddenly stopped and looked behind him, "Hey, I didn't ask before because of the funeral, but didn't Jase agree to come? Did he flake on us?"

"I'm not his babysitter," Black Bat looked to Troia.

Troia frowned, "He has been distant for the past few day. Something about family issues and that he'd tell me later."

"Hmm…" Dusk looked back to Black Bat.

"First I've heard about it," Black Bat shrugged, "But I'm still on probation. Perhaps we should ask Nightwing. He might know more."

Dusk nodded, "Yeah, that seems like a good idea."

* * *

Phantom stood at the window of the Watchtower. His neon green eyes stared down at the Earth below him. The magnificent view of the Earth's natural beauty left him awestruck, "I never get sick of this view."

Superman stepped beside the half-ghost, "I feel the same way."

Nodding, Phantom turned around to the other people in the room. Some of the big leaders from the League stood in the nearby empty main hall of the Watchtower along with a few prominent ghosts that were given access as guests. Besides the various plants and trees at the sides, the only other structure was the Zeta Tube at the end of the hall, "Well…I guess we should get started. Let's address the elephant in the room…Doctor Fate."

Wonder Woman nodded, "Was there any way to avoid destroying the helmet?"

Phantom's lips thinned, "I could have, but I would have had to break my word to him. That's not something I could do."

"We've all read the reports," Batman noted, "Phantom used the best approach possible. I would have preferred that Doctor Fate wasn't removed from the picture, but what's done is done."

"Agreed," Superman patted Phantom on the shoulder, "Although, I don't think Nabu will be happy when the helmet reforms."

"Well, he'll have to get in line behind the Spectre and Klarion," Phantom shook his head.

"That's a problem in the far future," Plasmius mentioned, "Perhaps we should focus on the more pressing matters."

Fright Knight crossed his arms, "With Trigon dealt with, we should now put our attention on the Black Lanterns. We can't afford to ignore their actions anymore. They are the only immediate threat in the horizon, yet we have no idea what they really want. For years, they've been destroying artifacts. But they have been popping up a lot since Clockwork fell into his coma."

Vision had a worried look on her face, "Indeed…Perhaps it's time to throw out the possibility that I've been trying to avoid. What if they're trying to resurrect Nekron?"

Everyone was silent for a moment. They let that statement set in before Batman spoke, "Is that possible? I thought ghosts that died could never come back."

"I did," Phantom argued, "It's because I have a connection with death. And Nekron…his obsession is death, right? Maybe he's been in limbo this entire time?"

Vision frowned, "I have searched relentlessly since the Reaper's defeat for even a hint of him still being alive. I haven't found anything but the rings. Not even a hint. But even then, I wouldn't throw away the possibility of him still existing. As such, we should put our full efforts on the Black Lanterns. If we even get a whiff of them, we strike fast and hard with Danny leading the charge. You seem to be their greatest weakness from everything we've gathered."

"And what about Dark Dan?" Phantom's moved harshly around the room, "Are we just going to ignore him."

"If we assume that he hasn't fled Earth, then he has done an incredible job of hiding," Wonder Woman noted, "But from everything that's happened, it appears that he views the Black Lanterns as enemies as well. In that case, it might be the scenario of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'."

"I will NEVER look as Dark Dan as an ally," Phantom growled.

"Agreed, we will never trust him," Batman noted, "But you need to put your own feelings aside for this. If what Vision has told me about Nekron is true, he's a force of nature. Unlike Dan, he has followers that can defeat entire teams of Leaguers. If he returns, then we'll need all the help we can get. I've had the Green Lanterns request backup from the Guardians of the Universe."

"I don't think you really understand how dangerous Dark Dan is," Phantom looked furious, "Unlike Nekron, he's already succeeded in destroying the planet. Yes, he had the element of surprise and no one knew his weaknesses, but the same could be said for Nekron. Dan…in the end, he's the biggest threat."

"But he's not the immediate threat," Plasmius argued, "Like with Trigon, we deal with the Black Lanterns first. After the wedding, we prep everything possible. All the ghosts, Leaguers, and Team members will be on the hunt for them."

"Not to mention figuring out if we can harness the ascended ectoplasm and Speed Force Kid Flash used," Superman looked to Phantom, "Do you have any ideas how you two achieved that level of power? Did it have to do with Trigon?"

"I don't know, but trust me when I say that we're looking into it," Phantom stated, "But I wouldn't count on either of them. I barely remember anything after the Doctor Fate thing, and introdicing a great speed energy to Kid Flash like before hasn't worked at all."

Batman frowned, "Then we should be look for other options of increased firepower.

"We should also work to bring in more allies like the Green Lanterns," Fright Knight suggested, "Lord Phantom, perhaps you have some ideas?"

Phantom gained a thoughtful look, "Huh…You know what…I do. Let me make a few calls."

* * *

The sliding of metal doors quickly drew Silas's attention from his work. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Dani smiling from the door frame, "Oh, Danielle. It's good to see you. Are you here to get your leg checked on?"

"Close," Dani reached to the side and quickly pulled a sullen Victor into view. She then gently pushed him into the room, "I'm here for an intervention."

Silas immediately turned to face the young people. His work completely left his mind as his son avoided eye contact with him. A quick glance to the side showed that Elinore had a devious look on her face as she manually shut and locked the door behind the two teenagers, "Are you behind this?"

"No. I just agreed to go along," Elinore gestured to Dani, "This was all her idea."

Placing her hands on her hips, Dani glared at the two generations of Stone men, "I am completely sick of you two being stubborn. You've needed to get this out for a long time, and if you're too stubborn to do this willingly, I'll just make you."

"You can't—"

"Yes, I can."

"But—"

"Shush," Dani pointed at Victor and then pointed at Silas, "Start talking."

"We can't—"

"Now."

"Seriously—"

"NOW."

Seeing that his girlfriend wasn't going to budge, Victor sighed and looked to his father, "Alright."

"Victor…" Silas took a hesitant step forward, "I…I just wanted to say…I—"

"I'm sorry," Victor said over his father's voice.

Silas's eyes widened, "What?"

"I'm sorry that I've been such an ass. It's been months since the accident, and I have barely talked to you at all," Victor looked at his hand which had the fake look of being actual flesh. Such a thought had once filled him with bitterness. Now, though, there was only acceptance.

"No…No, you had the right be angry with me," Silas took a shuddered breath, "I wasn't ever thinking about you and what you wanted, and then I was so focused on my project. Then the accident…I took so much from you. Your skin. Half your humanity. You chance to have anything resembling a normal life. If I were you, I wouldn't have talked to me for the rest of your life."

"It could have been a lot worse. No one died," Victor noted, "And I enjoy what I do. Fighting with my friends…Being able to be there for them when they needed me. I wouldn't give that away for anything. In fact, I should have thanked you a long time ago. I mean, you saved my life and gave me the chance to be something great. But…I couldn't bring myself to talk you. Call it pride. Call it shame. Call it stupidity…"

"Or all of the above," Dani suggested.

"Thank you, Dani. You're such a big help," Victor mumbled sarcastically then spoke more clearly, "No matter what it was, though, I shouldn't have acted so stupid."

"I don't blame you. I was the same way. So ashamed that I couldn't even speak to my son for more than a few seconds. It's pathetic," Silas hung his head in shame, "But I want you to know, that no matter how pathetic I was, I've always been proud of you. Even before the accident. I was proud, but I was still trying to make you into what I wanted you to be. That was wrong. Victor…if you want to be a hero, I'll support you. If you just want to be Victor, I'll be proud of you. No matter what you choice, I will always be proud of you."

Victor took a big swallow to try to force down his feelings, "Thanks, Dad. I…I needed to hear that."

"Then I'll be sure to tell you that whenever you need it. And even when you don't."

"There we go!" Dani quickly pushed Victor forward once more, "Now hug it out."

Victor looked back in embarrassment, "Dani, we don't need to—"

He was quickly silenced when Silas met them halfway and embraced his son. After a shot pause of shock, Victor smiled and hugged his father back. Both Stone men felt like a giant weight was lifted off of their shoulders. This moment couldn't be better.

"Group hug!" Dani quickly got in on the embrace, "You too, Elinore!"

As the women in their lives embraced them as well, the two men realized that they were wrong. Now the moment was perfect.

* * *

 **Recognized: Dusk B15, Troia B17, Black Bat B25**

In a flash of light, the three heroes appeared in the Zeta Tube of the Cave. Stepping into the main hall, they were immediately greeted by the sight of Aqualad and Tempest. Both the Atlantians looked completely exhausted. Dusk immediately sympathized with them. Considering what their king was going through, they had to be stressed.

"Hey," Dusk waved at the two more senior members of Young Justice, "How are you two doing?"

"We are fine," Aqualad gave them a reassuring smile.

"And what about Aquaman?" Troia questioned.

Tempest shook his head, "Not as good. There was no way to save his hand. He seems to be taking the injury very personally. No real reason behind it. Just the whim of a madman."

"That's what happens sometimes," Black Bat noted, "Sometimes, there's no real reason for things. Shit happens. Chaos just pops up to destroy everything we though we knew."

"Unfortunately, you are correct," Aqualad rubbed his face tiredly, "And even worse, we have to deal with the fallout no matter what. With our king bedridden, we have had to pull double duty at home all the while trying to plan Young Justice's next missions and training sessions with Danny and Nightwing."

"Speaking of Nightwing…" Dusk looked around, "Where is he? I thought he would be here."

"He is hard to keep track of," Tempest noted with a light amount of amusement in his voice, "He could be anywhere at this point. My guess would be Gotham, though. If you want to check without making a trip, though, you should speak with Mal. I know that Nightwing was talking to him earlier."

"Right," Troia nodded, "We'll do that. Give Aquaman our best wishes."

"We will," Aqualad nodded as the group of three turned to leave. Once they were out of earshot, he turned back to Tempest.

"I do not like lying to them," Tempest noted.

Aqualad shook his head, "We are not lying to them. We are just not explaining how bad it really is. Our king has ordered us to keep quiet."

"I know, but…How long can things last? He and the queen have lost the will to fight."

"We just…we'll just hold out as long as we can and hope that they will get better."

"And what if they don't?"

"…Then I suppose that the responsibility to rule will fall on us…"

"Not us. You."

* * *

Danny sat at his desk. His eyes glanced at the various monitors before him. Unlike months prior, three of the monitors were blank showing the consequences of the past eight months, "Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice, but I've gained intel from my security that you might want to know of."

"It's not often that you give emergency alerts," Lex Luthor gave Fenton a steady gaze, "It had us concerned."

"Yes, well, I've been monitoring the ghosts and the League's movements in my city since the Trigon incident," Danny noted, "Despite how effectively it was handled, I'd prefer not to get caught unguarded from any backlash."

Ra's nodded, "As you should."

"It seems like everything involving that is done with, and the heroes are moving onto their next threat," Danny took a steady breath, "The Black Lanterns."

Queen Bee stroked her chin, "They have been a concern, but with everything that's been happening in our organization, we have been unable to dedicate the popper amount of time to them."

"Well, I think now would be the time to do so. There was serious talk between the ghosts and the heroes that Nekron might be returning."

He was met with silence. Three members of the Light looked concerned. One member, though, looked like he was ready to burst. Savage's glare was as close to deadly as a human's gaze could get, "Nekron the Reaper? They think that he is returning?"

"Yes, that's why I thought that it was paramount that you heard about this," Danny explained, "Apparently, there was talk that they're even bringing in more Green Lanterns. They are taking this seriously, and I think that you should too. Perhaps this is the time to put aside differences and try to work on defeating a common enemy."

Savage took a deep breath, "This…is something that we will seriously take under consideration. We are still rebuilding our organization, but that will be impossible if Nekron returns."

Luthor spoke up, "At the very least, the Black Lanterns are a problem that needs dealt with. If we have the League, the ghosts, and the Green Lanterns assisting, we could eliminate that problem permanently."

Queen Bee was frowning, "But what guarantee do we have that our remaining resources will not be compromised from this?"

"As Vandal said, it's something that we will have to debate about and vote on," Ra's noted, "Thank you, Daniel, for bringing this to our attention."

"You're welcome, and just so you know, I'm willing to throw in my own resources into the mix, as long I get your permission like with the Sorcerer Initiative and Trigon's invasion," Danny stated, "Red X and the Exorcist armor are ready to go. And I have more than a few new projects in the mix."

"Thank you, Mr. Fenton, we will keep all of this in mind," Luthor gave a small smile, "We will get back to you as soon as possible."

"Good. Until then," Danny nodded as the screens faded to black. With that done, he quickly reached behind the desk and made sure to unplug everything in case they tried to contact him again. Now content in his knowledge that no one would be spying on him, he turned around, "You can come out now."

"So…" Jinx stepped out of the shadows and stepped by her boyfriend, "That went as good as it ever was. Dad's kind of sensitive about Nekron. I thought he might lose it a bit when you brought that up."

"Luckily, that didn't happen," Danny let out a smile.

"Yeah, they all seem to really like you," Jinx tapped her lip with a finger, "I've got to ask, how come they aren't suspicious of you? I mean, they're all a bunch of paranoid supervillains. You'd figure that they would draw a few connections between Fenton and Phantom."

Danny smiled, "Let's just say that I thought ahead when I had the Reality Gauntlet and installed a bit of a…mental block in most people's minds. Unless they absolutely know that we're the same person, they won't see the connection."

"Devious and underhanded…" Jinx quickly slipped her arms around her boyfriend, "I love it. I've been such a good influence on you."

"You have," They shared a quick kiss, "By the way, I want to thank you for saving me. If you hadn't I might not have made it out in time."

"You don't have to thank me for helping you," Jinx giggled, "I'd miss you if you were gone."

"Yeah…" Danny stared into her eyes, "I'm glad we're together…"

Jinx sighed, "I know that sound in your voice. What is it?"

"I've been thinking," Danny bit his lip, "How long can this last? I mean, we've been lucky so far. We've been on the same side so far. What happens when you're ordered to fight against me?"

"We take it one step at a time. We'll figure it out," Jinx gently traced his jaw with her finger tips, "Just like always."

"That won't work forever, though. What happens when we've been together a while and what we want change," Danny argued.

Jinx met Danny's gaze, "This is because of the wedding, isn't it?"

"I was ready to marry Val," Danny stated without hesitation, "You know that. I loved her that much, and that's still there a bit. Eventually, I want to get to that point again with you, but I don't see how that would work with us on different sides. What if Savage decides that he wants me dead?"

Jinx was silent.

"Yeah, I didn't think that you'd have an answer," Danny noted, "I don't need an answer now, but I don't want to invest months…years into something that's not going anywhere. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going to give up on being a hero. It's what I do, and as long as you're on the opposite side of things…"

Jinx placed her head on his chest, "I get it. But I love what I do. That will not change. I love being an assassin."

"I know," Danny sighed, "And I love what I do too. For this to work, one of us has to give up what we do. And as long as my family needs my help, I'll never stop until I can't help anymore. So I'm sorry, but it will come down to you. You have to choose."

"Right now?"

"No…no, not now. But soon."

* * *

Vision glanced over at her adopted daughter as they climbed the steps to Masters Mansion, "Thank you for agreeing to go over the plans for the wedding. I want to make sure everything is set perfectly."

"Don't worry about it, Mom," Dani reached over and opened the door to allow her mother entry to their home, "I'll just be glad when it's all over. It's been a long time coming."

Vision nodded as she entered the mansion, "Yes, it has. I just hope that—"

"SURPRISE!"

Vision paused when the main hall of Master Mansion erupted in cheers and clapping. Spread throughout the hall were the various women from the Ghost Zone, Young Justice, and even the Justice League. Vision merely blinked, "What is this?"

Pandora laughed as she walked over to the small ghost and handed her a drink, "Your bachelorette party of course."

"Bachelorette party…" Vision looked over her shoulder to the grinning Dani, "Did you know about this?"

"Yep. Couldn't really plan it because you would have figured it out pretty fast, but I did come up with the idea," Dani's grin was threatening to split her face.

Vision sighed, "I thought we were going to finish planning."

"Lady Vision, every single detail of the wedding and reception is already set," Dora noted with a smile, "Just relax. Everything will go fine. You should enjoy yourself."

"Indeed!" Wonder Woman slammed her cup on the table, "I have been to many of these 'bachelorette' parties in my time. They are quite enjoyable."

"But are there going to be strippers?" Zatanna questioned.

Vision frowned, "I don't think that's appropriate. I know that I already warned Danny about Vlad's bachelor party. It would be hypocritical to have some ourselves."

"Too late!" Nyx laughed as she and Raven pushed in three large cakes with their magic, "What the boys don't know what hurt them!"

Once again, the hall erupted into cheers when the three strippers burst from the cakes and began to dance. Vision merely face palmed at the actions, "Well…I suppose you'll all be mad if I send them away…"

Miss Martial smiled gently at the woman, "If you're uncomfortable, then we'll do what you want."

"Screw that, we already paid for them," Rocket leaned back in her seat and enjoyed the view, "But, uh, what's with the girl stripper?"

"I thought we could use a bit of variety," Nyx snickered.

"Uh huh…" Raven noted, "Hey…Is one of them…"

"Amorpho? I think so," Nyx shrugged, "Don't know which one it is, though."

Vision sighed and just sipped her drink, "Very well. Let us celebrate."

"That's the spirit!" Dani gently bumped her mother, "Hey…are we missing people?"

Bumblebee nodded, "Tula is busy in Atlantis. Cassandra and Donna are running late, and Barbara is on call in Gotham. But I got her on speaker phone!"

Bumblebee held up her phone. Barbara's voice rang out through the room, " _Hey, girls! Sorry for not being there! Batman's been pretty antsy since Joker broke out of Arkham…again._ "

Dani snorted as she watched the strippers dance, "No skin off my back. You're the one missing the show. Woah…Didn't know a guy could bend like that. You'd think that the spine would get in the way."

* * *

"Hey, Mal," Dusk announced their presence as they made their way to the large man. He didn't take notice of them, though. He seemed to be far more focused on the book in his hands. Oddly enough, he was writing in it as well as reading, "Taking notes for a class?"

"Huh?" Mal's eyes suddenly shot up from the book, "No, it's just a really interesting read."

Black Bat looked to the book's title, "Gabriel's Horn. Never heard of it. What's it about?"

"It's really complicated," Mal admitted as he calmly placed in his bookmark and closed the book, "From what I understand, it's about a horn that open holes between dimensions."

"So it is fiction?" Troia questioned.

Mal shrugged, "Probably, but people thought Greek mythology was fiction for a long time."

Troia nodded, "Fair enough."

"Hmm, did you need something, or are you here for my charming personality?" Mal smiled at them.

"You wish," Black Bat's voice came out as an amused drawl, "We were hoping you could tell where Nightwing is. Or we could skip the middle man and just try to contact Robin."

"Alright," With a wave of his hand, Mal brought up a holographic screen. He quickly began to type on the holographic keyboard, "Let's see…Robin…Huh, his communication system is shut of manually. He did it himself with a message that he's dealing with a personal issue."

"What issue?" Troia frowned.

"Don't know," Mal shrugged, "That's all the message says."

"Hmm…" Dusk frowned and looked to Black Bat, "I'm guessing it's not a Batfamily issue."

Black Bat shrugged, "I'm still working my way into the inner circle, so there could be something going on that I don't know about."

"I'll try Nightwing," Mal typed on the keyboard once more. After a few seconds, the image of Nightwing popped up, "Hey, Wing. We were wondering if you've seen Robin."

" _Last I saw him, he was talking with Batman,_ " Nightwing noted, " _But that was a while ago. Batman and I have been working on a case for a while now, so I just assumed that he gave Robin his own assignment._ "

"So, no then. You don't know where he is?" Troia questioned.

" _Nope. If you want to know for sure, let me ask Batman. Hey,_ " Nightwing's head turned, " _Did you sent Robin on an assignment."_

"…"

" _You don't know? But you always know."_

"…"

" _Oh…"_ Nightwing turned back to the screen, " _He knows what Robin's doing, but he doesn't have an exact location. Something about a…crack house? Really?_ "

Dusk frowned. He didn't like the sound of that, "What is he doing?"

Batman's image suddenly popped up, " _If Robin didn't tell you, then I don't have the right to tell you myself. Just know that he's dealing with a personal issue. He will tell you in his own time."_

"But we have not heard from him all day, and he never showed up to the funeral," Troia argued, "We are worried. Just tell me that he's safe."

" _Don't worry. Robin is fine. I'll make sure to have him contact you tomorrow._ "

* * *

"It's late," Harriet mentioned as she stepped into Danny's lab, "Why are you still here?"

Danny turned his attention away from Nicolai and Damon to look at the woman, "Jen's kind of pissed at me, and I got too much work to do. So I don't have a whole lot of reason to go home."

"And I…DAMN IT! I, Nicolai Tillman…forgot to call my wife…" Nicolai grumbled, "She is going to be pissed again…"

"As she should be, you airhead," Damon chuckled as he shook his head. His reason for still being at the lab was an unspoken truth. He had no one to go home to.

Harriet shook her head, "Why am I your babysitter? Nick, I already called your wife and smoothed everything over."

"Thank science," Nicolai breathed out.

"As for the two of you…" Harriet glared at them, "Go home and sleep. You both look like you need it."

"No, there's too much to do," Danny's eyes scanned over to the various projects that stood before him, ranging from the Exorcist Armor all the way to large container of purple gas. A tarp hid most of the strange container, only letting the smallest of peaks to the treasure underneath, "The Exorcist needs more tune up and the gas needs monitored. Not to mention the other weapons I'm working on…"

"Gas?" Harriet eyed the canister, "Do I even want to know?"

"Nope," Danny shook his head.

"Then I won't ask more. As for the Exorcist Armor," Harriet walked up to Damon, "You are not getting into that suit again."

"I need to," Damon argued, "We need everything we have to fight the Black Lanterns."

"And after the Black Lanterns, then what? I know what weird Dan thing is still out there. So is the witch that controlled all those ghosts. Let's not even forget that the Light is healing. When will enough be enough?" Harriet questioned, "You aren't a fighter, Damon. Your luck will run out fast. I mean, for the love of God, Agent Z had you in the palm of his hand. He could have killed you easily. You're lucky to be alive."

" _She is not wrong, Mr. Gray,_ " J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded through the lab, " _I have monitored your activity here in the lab. You are not in any way ready to be out in the field like you are. You are not made of concrete. You are very breakable. I would suggest months of extensive mental and physical training before you even consider getting into the suit again."_

Harriet let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you for the support, J.A.Z.Z. At least someone sees reason."

" _That was what I was made for._ "

"True, J.A.Z.Z. but you can't make decisions for other people," Danny noted, "If Damon wants to be in the suit, I'll let him. Not like I can use it when I'm fighting as Phantom."

Damon nodded.

"But…" Danny looked to Damon, "Training isn't a bad idea. It's a big jump going form security here to field work like we do. We can start your training immediately."

"Yeah…" Damon seemed to like that, "Let's do that."

"Really?" Harriet was borderline steaming, "Are you not listening to me. Damon, you are not a hero or some heavy. This will get you killed."

"And why do you care?" Damon questioned.

"You know what…" Harriet shook her head, "I'm sick of this. I yell at you to try to get through your thick skulls, and it falls on deaf ears. Do what you want, but count me out of it."

With that, Harriet turned and strode out of the lab leaving the three men behind in the silence.

"Well…she was mad," Nicolai noted.

"She'll get over it," Danny argued, "She always does."

" _Perhaps…_ " J.A.Z.Z. spoke out again, " _But I don't think she will appreciate worrying so much._ "

Damon sighed, "Duly noted. Let's just get back to work."

Danny nodded. He reached into his pocket to pullout a cylinder with a giant red X on the front, "I've already done tests on the Red X suit. Everything's fine. Let's get to—"

The halfa was interrupted when his phone went off. Quickly slipping the Red X cylinder back into his lab coat, he pulled out his phone and lifted it to his ear, "Hello?"

Pause.

"Woah, woah, calm down. What's wrong?"

Pause.

"Bombs? Why don't you just call…They won't pick up?"

Pause.

"Okay, I'm heading to Cave. See you there, Wing," Danny shut his phone off and looked to his companions, "I have to go now. Just shut everything down. We'll get back to it tomorrow."

Nicolai reached out to stop his employer. As he did so, he accidentally moved the cloth covering the canister of purple gas, "But Daniel—"

"Look, this is an emergency. I don't have time," Danny quickly brushed off his friend and ran out of the room, "Tomorrow, I swear!"

As Danny left, his two companions watched. Silently, they turned back to the project. The glowing purple gas lit up their faces in addition to the name plate that was now revealed on the top of the canister. It read three simple words.

Big Bang Gas.

* * *

Robin took a steady breath as he slipped into the disheveled apartment from the window. Everything was complete mess. Trash was scattered across the floor. There was no furniture in the tiny place except for a dirty mattress which contained a sleeping woman. Silently, he made his way to the woman, "Wake up."

The blonde woman's eyes snapped open, "Oh God! I'll get the money! Please don't hurt me!"

"I'm not here to hurt you," Robin gave her a look of pity, "I just want to talk, Mom."

"Mom?" The disheveled woman blinked up to him. She slowly took in his appearance, "Oh…Jason…"

"Mom…" Robin reached up to take off his mask, "I tried to get you the money, but I couldn't. Look, I'm sorry, but it's not going to work. But I can take you away. I talked to Batman. He's willing to let you stay in a safe house as long as you're willing to give up the drugs."

"I can't…I can't…" The woman, Sheila Haywood, shakily stood. The dirty clothes that hung loosely from her frame.

Jason gave her a look of pity, "Please, this is the best option you have. I want…I want to get to know you. Even if you didn't want me…You're still my Mom. Let me help you."

"Oh, Jason…" Sheila stood gently reached out and stroked his face, "You're such a good boy. How did you end up like that? You're nothing like me or your father."

"I have good friends and family," Jason noted, "Without them, I would just be another street punk. They pulled me up and healed me. Batman…He's an uptight asshole, but he's the Dad I always wanted. And…and I have the most amazing girlfriend. She keeps me in line. And…my best friend…Joel…I owe him my life. And there are so many more. Without them, I'd be nothing right now."

Shelia nodded, "Because of me and your father…I'm sorry, Jason."

Jason reached out and grasped her shoulders, "It's okay! Everything will work out! Just come with me. I'll get you to the safe house and help you with your addiction."

"Such a good boy…" Shelia pulled him into a hug, "Better than I deserve…I'm sorry…"

"It's okay," Jason closed his eyes and took in the joy of being held by his mother. He never notices as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a needle, "I love you, Mo—"

Shelia rammed the needle into his neck and injected him with the knockout serum. Jason instantly stumbled back. He looked on with worry as his mother gave him a cold look. Reaching up, he pulled the needle out and examined it. His vision was blurred as he struggled to stand up, "W-why?"

"I had no choice…Just like when you were born…"

With tears running down his face, Jason collapsed. He was unconscious before he even hit the floor.

Reaching back into her pocket, Shelia pulled out a phone. She quickly dialed a number that had been given to her for this one incident, "Hello, I got him just like you wanted."

" _Good! Good! Thank you so much, you were a big help!"_

"When do I get my money?"

" _When my guys show up to take him._ "

"And when will that be?"

" _Right now, of course!_

The door was suddenly smashed open with a sledge hammer. To Shelia's horror, a blonde woman dressed in a black and red leotard stepped through the broken door. She swung the sledge hammer over shoulders and allowed her blond pigtails to brush against the weapon.

"We're here for the pickup," Harley Quin noted she skipped into the room. Her red lips and white makeup twisted as she smiled.

"You broke my door!" Shelia yelled in outrage, "You'll fix that right?"

"Lady, I break things. I don't fix nothing," Harley Quin rolled her eyes, "Boy! Get in here!"

Two large men covered in clown masks stepped into the room. One instantly moved to pick up the downed Jason. The other moved to the woman and picked her up as well.

"What are you doing?!" Shelia tried futilely to struggle against the large man. The phone in her hand fell to the floor, "This wasn't part of the deal!"

"Deal's off," Harley reached down and picked up the phone, "Hello, Puddin! We got them just like you wanted."

" _Excellent! Take them to the warehouse. I'll be there in an hour. I have something to take care of first."_

"Okay dokay!" Harley hung up the phone. She then dropped it to the floor and smashed it with her foot, "Let's go, boys!"

"Wait! Why are you taking me?! What do you get from it?!"

"Shits and giggles, of course," Harley stated it like it was obvious, "Besides, Mista J hates abusive parents."

* * *

Barbara Gordon's eyes swept over her laptop. The red haired young woman sat in the living room of her and her father's apartment. From the couch, she leaned over the table holding her laptop and cell phone. While the room was mostly plain because of her father's tastes, the walls were lined with more pictures than were necessary. Most of them were of Barbara herself.

She smiled lightly at the picture of the dress she would be wearing to the wedding. This wedding had been in works since before she joined the Team. They could only hope that it wouldn't be postponed for a…what was it now?

Flicking some of her red hair behind her ear, Barbara voiced her thoughts to the speaker phone, "And how many times has the wedding been rescheduled?"

Vision was the one who answered, " _Too many, I must admit. This time, though, nothing will delay it. I won't allow it._ "

" _Love the confidence, Vision,_ " Zatanna's voice sounded out through the phone, " _But excuse us if we're skeptical._ "

Pandora spoke up this time, " _I have known for a long time, magician. Once she sets her mind to something, it will happen. No matter what._ "

" _That's what I like to hear,_ " Rocket sounded pleased, " _I've been dying to finally introduce Noble to all of you. Don't worry, I already told him about the hero thing. He's cool with it…Although the Ghost Zone thing might freak him out."_

" _Psh! What would freak him out? The swirling green vortexes or the unending doors to strange realities?_ " Nyx let out a giggle, " _That's half the fun of living in the Ghost Zone._ "

" _I think it would more be the people that would freak him out_ ," That was Raven's deadpanned response.

" _Please, Miss Raven. Lady Nyx is not exactly the best example of how people behave in the Ghost Zone. There are perfectly normal people there,_ " Dora argued.

" _Says the woman that turns into a dragon along with dating a fire spouting, third person talking lunatic,_ " Barbara could almost feel Bumblebee's smirk through the phone.

There was a chorus of laughter, " _She's got you there, Dora._ "

A knock at the door caught Barbara's attention. Still laughing, she stood and walked over to the door, "Hahaha…Caline? Is that you again? I told you that I…was busy…"

Barbara froze when she opened the door.

"Candy-gram!"

All the color fled from Barbara's face

"Good to see you laughing! That saves me some time! Now give Uncle J a big smile for the camera!"

Barbara tried to move, but at that distance with so little warning, she never had a chance. A loud bang sounded out through the apartment. The bullet caught her in the stomach and continued all the way to her spine. Barbara instantly crumbled to the ground in agonizing pain.

"Oh come on! Down already?! Show a little spine!"

More voices sounded through the phone, " _Barbara! What happened?! Barbara!?_ "

The home invader walked over to the table and cracked a big smile. The white skin pain moved apart as the wrinkles of the man morphed with the grin over his red lips. Slicking his green hair back, the Joker answered the call, "Barbara can't come to the phone right now. She's a little too shot to move. Can I take a message?"

" _You—_ "

Joker smashed the phone before the speaker could finish, "Too late! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

 **Next update: "Last Laugh" on June 6, 2016**

 **Oh, I'm sorry. Did you expect a calm resolution? Not this time. I just went full Killing Joke on you.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	23. Last Laugh

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once. Am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed."

The Joker

* * *

Chapter 23: "Last Laugh"

(Sunday-April 20, 2014)

Joker grinned as he looked down to his hands. He was handcuffed to a rusted, metal table. His hands trembled in pain as blood dripped from his head onto the rusty metal. A single light bulb shined above him lighting the immediate area around him. Besides that, nothing else could be seen in the room. Joker knew though, that his captor was in the room, stalking him. He couldn't hide his giggle of excitement.

"Please, you think this will intimidate me?" Joker rolled his eyes, "I've been through worse interrogations than this—"

Joker's chair was kicked out from under him. This caused the clown to tumble forward onto the table and slide to the floor. The handcuffs held him to prevent him from getting to far from the apparently nailed down table.

"Nice move, hehehehe…" Joker admitted as he pulled himself up, "Alright. Let's get started. What do you want?"

A voice sounded through the darkness, "Jason Todd…Robin…"

"Oh, him…" Joker snorted, "Why do you care about that little bird? One less good doer to get the way, right?"

The response he received was an armored hand slamming into his left hand. A load crack sounded from the now broken hand before the hand slipped back into the darkness.

"AAAHHahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Joker's groan of pain quickly turned into mad laughter, "There we go! That's the real way to get what you want!"

"His mother. How did you know about her?"

"Psh! She contacted me!" Joker noted, "She said that she had Robin in the palm of her hand and was willing to sell him. Even sent me pictures of him. I couldn't say no, could I? Course I betrayed the dumb crackhead. Not like anyone would miss her if she was gone."

He was met with silence.

"What? No hit this time? Do you agree with me? Hehehehe…"

"I know what type of mother she was…I just never thought that…that anyone would sell their own kids like that. It's sick."

"Oh ho ho! You have no idea," Joker gained a wide grin, "Want to hear about my parents? They were both drinkers. I mean, seriously, you'd think that they were fish trying to keep breathing the way they jugged down the whiskey. And you know what their favorite game was when they got drunk? Hit the kid. Then, this one night—"

Joker was silence when his captor grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed it down on the table.

"I don't care about the fake past you just made up," The voice growled.

"Party pooper," Joker spit out a tooth onto the table, "No cake for you."

"Party…You think this is a game, don't you?" The voice gave a low chuckle. Joker felt the cold barrel of a gun press against the back of his head, "Well, think again."

"Now that…is new…" Joker admitted, "Fair enough. This is a different type of interrogation. But I wonder if you will actually—"

BANG!

"AAAHHH!" Joker screamed as his captor moved the gun away from his head and shot him in the leg.

"Yes. I will shoot you," The voice noted, "Now, I want you to start talking. Tell me what happened. I want to hear every single detail. If I get the hint that you're holding anything back, I'll shoot you in the nuts next."

"You…sure?" Joker gave a sideways grin, "The story is pretty graphic…"

The gun moved so it was pointed at the clown's grown, "I can stomach it. I assure you that."

"Alrighty then…Were to start…Harley captured the good old Jason and his beloved mother…I just finished off shooting Barbara Gordon—OW!"

Joker's kidnapper punched him across the face.

"What was that for? I'm telling the truth!"

"I know. I just really, REALLY wanted to hit you. I'll probably do it again, and you're going to learn to like it."

"Hahahahahahaha! How fun! I like this game!" Joker continued to giggle even as he spoke further, "So I finished up with that business and went to have some fun with Jason…"

* * *

 _Jason's return to consciousness was filled with dizziness and nausea. He felt completely sick and could hardly remember what had happened to cause this feeling. What had exactly happened?_

" _But Puddin!"_

" _No buts, Harley! Get out of here! This is my moment to enjoy, and I don't need you soaking in the humor!"_

" _Oh…Okay, Mista J…"_

 _Suddenly the churning in his stomach changed. Jason would recognize those voices anywhere. Waking up next to them like this…it was bad. This was really bad. Forcing his eyes open, Jason fought back a groan as the world span before his eyes. He had to fight to keep the vomit from crawling up his throat._

" _Please, I did what you wanted. Don't—"_

 _The pleading instantly turned to cries of agony as the sound of metal hitting flesh echoed around the room. Focusing his vision the best he could, Jason saw the two other people in the room. He struggled to move, but the restraints holding his arms and legs together kept him still, "M-mom…"_

 _As his vision cleared, he saw the figures of the Joker and him mother through the darkness. The Joker stood over his mother with a blood soaked crowbar. His mother lie on the ground, broken and sobbing. Several of her bones were broken, and her face was a literal bloody mess._

" _Oh! Boy Blunder is awake!" Joker quickly skipped over to him, "How you feeling? Considering the drugs she shot you up with, you must be feeling pretty damn sick right now. Sicker than my and Harley's sex tapes, and trust me when I say, those are pretty demented even by my standards."_

" _You bastard," Jason hissed, "Let her go—AAAAHHHH!"_

 _Joker quickly shut him up by slamming the crowbar in his hand into the Boy Wonder's side. Jason twisted in agony as at least two of his ribs shattered from the force of the blow. Unfortunately, the pain didn't stop there. Joker quickly followed up with a swing at Jason's knee. The crack and agony shooting up his spine was all that was needed to tell Jason that his knee was shattered._

 _As Jason moaned pitifully, Joker turned to Shelia, "You see what you do? All this is because of you. Poor, poor Roby poo is in pain because of YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

 _Shelia just quietly wept as she laid on the ground bleeding. She had taken her fair share of abuse from the Joker while Jason was asleep. It seemed like Joker had only been warming up for Jason, though. She couldn't bring herself to look on as her son was violently beaten in front of her._

 _Jason gritted his teeth as his body shook in pain. Lowly, he hissed through his teeth, "You…I'll…kill…you…"_

" _That's the spirit!" Joker laughed as he widely swung the crowbar with the sound of a sickening crack, "Tell me, what hurts more? This?"_

 _Jason cried in agony as his arm was quickly fractured to go around the crowbar's edge._

" _Or this?"_

 _The blow across his face instantly shattered his nose. The tip of his nose was now bent at a complete ninety degree angle. Blood poured from the broken nasal passage at a sickeningly fast pace. All Jason could do in response is moan pitifully._

" _Oh come now, Jason," Joker giggled as he stepped away into the darkness, "Don't pass out one me just yet."_

 _Loud clacks of Joker's shoes hitting the concrete floor echoed across the room. As Joker reappeared from the darkness, an earie red glow shined below his face. To the captive's horror, Joker now held a seething red bran in the shape of a backwards J, "We're just getting started."_

 _Jason was silent, but Shelia was far from that, "No! Please! Dear God no! Have mercy!"_

" _Oh would you shut up!? Jeeze, the boy's taking his beating better than you," Joker shook his head in a manner that suggested that he was disappointed, "How about this. I believe in choices, you see. And while I know what you'll choose, oh lovely bloody Shelia, I have no idea what Robin will choose right now. So how bout it champ? The choice is yours, do I brand your or the mother that sold you out because she doesn't care about you at all?"_

 _Robin looked up defiantly at the Joker, "Go…to…hell…Leave…her…alone…"_

" _HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Joker reeled back his head in laughter, "I can't believe it! After everything this bitch has done to you, you won't take the satisfaction of watching me shove this hot poker down her throat. Or…in a worse place…hehehehehe…"_

 _Jason's gave a blood soaked snarl, "Give me your worst, asshole."_

" _Gladly!" Joker jumped on top off the Boy Wonder, "I just want you to know, I'm doing this out of love. I mean, your mine now. I would hate for you to get lost and not have a mark showing people where to return you. Now, though…"_

 _Joker brought the brand down to Jason's left cheek. The sound of sizzling flesh was quickly drowned out by pure screams of agony._

" _EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT YOU'RE MY BITCH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

 _Things just became a blur for Jason after that. Everything that could feel pain was hurt in some shape or form. The brief moments of reprieve he received were filled with the screams of his mother. Oddly enough, Jason couldn't decide which form of torture was worse. This continued for hours. Each minute was worse than the last. Then, finally, Joker stopped, whether from fatigue or boredom was unclear. All they knew was that it was over._

" _Whelp…" Joker noted as he dropped a pair of pliers clutching a single unrooted tooth onto his pile of bloodied weapons, "I think that's enough. Anymore, and you won't be able to make your next choice."_

 _Reaching into his purple coat, Joker pulled out a knife instead of cutting one of them like they expected, he reached down and cut Jason free. Then, he released Shelia. Tossing the knife away, Joker took a jolly stroll back into the darkness. With a flick of a switch, the light turned in throughout the warehouse that they were behind held captive. What was in the warehouse instantly made their hearts beat faster._

" _Do you like it?" Joker span around gleefully with his hands in the air. He gestured to all the bombs that were scattered across the warehouse, "I placed these all around the city. Batman's been chasing them all night. I took a page out of old Riddler's book and left a trail to lead him here. Don't get any hope, though…"_

 _Pulling out a controller, Joker pressed a button and started a timer on all the bombs counting down from ten minutes._

" _There's no way he'll make it in time to save you," Joker giggled as he made his way to the door, "So this is where the real choice comes in, Robin. Show me what kind of man you REALLY are. If you crawl with all your might, you might just make it to a safe enough distance. But poor Shelia here can't move on the account of she's a GODDAMN PUSSY THAT TAKE A LITTLE PAIN! Woah…sorry about that. Lost my cool for a second there…"_

 _Opening the door, Joker quickly exited the warehouse, "So here we go, Jason. Either save yourself, or die trying to save your mother. Those are you only choices. I wish you luck!"_

" _W-wait…" Robin let out a cough, "Why…why didn't…you ask me…about Batman?"_

 _Joker rolled his eyes, "Really, Robin, Jason, whatever! I don't care who he is! I bet I could find out if I just traced where you've been staying, but that would ruin my fun. And I'm going to have as much fun as I can before the end comes. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

 _Jason spit blood in Joker's direction, "You won't get away with this…"_

" _Oh, I think I will. Not like the big bad Bat's going to kill me. Or any of your little 'family' for that matter."_

" _Not them…My friends…They'll kill you…I promise you…They'll kill you, you bastard!"_

" _Sure kid," Joker shook his head as he stepped away from the door and out of sight, "Whatever you want to say to make your death more meaningfully."_

 _Jason looked at the still open door. Joker was right. If he used every bit of willpower he had, he might get away. It was a long shot, but it was possible. But if he did that…His eyes shifted to his mother. Shelia was lying on her face, loudly wailing about how she didn't want to die and how it wasn't fair._

 _Jason closed his eyes in turmoil, "Damn it…I'm sorry…"_

 _Giving a groan of extreme pain, Jason began to crawl his way to Shelia. Each movement felt like a small death. Almost every part of him wanted to give up and accept the welcoming embrace of death. It surely had to be better than this agony. That wasn't an option, though. Call it pride. Call it stubbornness. Hell, even call it shear rage at the situation, but Jason could not just lie down and die like that. It wasn't in his nature. He'd prefer to go down tearing out Joker's neck, but this would have to do._

 _Once he finally made his way to the woman, Jason tried to move her. That quickly proved to be impossible as even his still unbroken arm was too weak to do anything more than to gently nudge her. From there, he tried pushing her with his feet. That didn't work either. Neither did trying to pull her with his teeth. There was no possible way for him to move her. So, he did the only thing he could._

 _Jason covered her entire body with his own in a desperate attempt to be a body shield for her._

" _What…are you doing?" Shelia questioned softly into his ear._

 _Jason's eyes were locked firmly on the counter. One minute was left, "Being an idiotic goddamn hero, that's what I'm doing. I'm such a dumbass…"_

" _Do you think that I'll thank you?" Shelia hissed in his ear, "It's because of you that I'm here. I hope you rot in hell, little piece of shit. Just like that bastard father of yours."_

 _Jason was not listening to her. Instead, he was picturing happier things. Donna smiled at him, forgiving the dumb thing he said. Bruce gently placed a hand on his shoulder, expressing only pride in his protégé. Richard and Barbara giving him tips on how to hide in the shadows, wanting him to be safe. Cassandra nodding as she listened to his advice about being in the Batfamily, her wanting a steady home with people would support each other. Joel…being there for him in hard time…Dani…Danny…Everyone smiling at him, telling him that he belonged._

 _They were glad that he was alive._

 _Tears ran down his bruised face as Jason watched the clock tick down to zero. Shelia still whispered curses in his ear. She might not love him, but there was more than enough people that really cared about him. That was more than enough to make him content in death._

 _Letting out a small sob, Jason forced a painful smile. Life was good. He would miss it._

 _The bombs went off, and then there was nothing._

* * *

"And that is how it went down," Joker smiled as the end of the gun was pointed right at his forehead. It was different from the other guns he was used to seeing. It didn't use regular bullets. Maybe that was the reason the wound in his leg was deeply burned instead of penetrated, "Any more questions?"

"How did it make you feel?"

"How…did it make you feel? See the smile on my face," Joker's grin threatened to tear his own face off, "This is how it made me feel. Hehehehehe…"

"I see. So is that why you did it? Because you enjoy it?"

"No…No, that's not the only reason," Joker's eyes suddenly became misty, "I'll admit that I've been feeling off for a while now. It's like…chaos and death have been whispering in my ear. You know how those freaks in the tin hats, yes I'm calling them freaks. They're that bad. But I get where they're coming from now. I feel like…the end times are close. And I just…I had to do something big."

"Something big?"

"Oh you know, blow up half the city. Shoot the Commissioner's daughter. Kill Robin. Make the Commissioner just like me. Piss off Batman enough to finally do the deed," Joker listed off nonchalantly, "I was just about to head out to get good old Jim when you found me. But I'm adaptable. After all, I always wanted to get revenge on you."

"So you remember me, huh?"

"Oh! How could I forget!? You broke into my hideout, beat up all my goons, and knocked Harley around. My job by the way," Joker stated, "Then, you give me fake guns and get me captured by the police. Not even Batman, but the POLICE!? I was humiliated! Of course I remember you, bastard!"

"Then how come you never came after me?"

"So many reason. After what happened to the others that went after you, I second guessed it. Even more so when I realized that you weren't actually a person," Joker explained, "And the guy that controls you was in the Hornet's Nest. Not even I am crazy enough to attack that place. It would take an army."

"I see."

"Yeah, you do," Joker noted, "But now, I get my revenge. I may not get to your creator, but I do get to destroy you, Red X. And that's enough."

"Is it?" Red X stepped out of the darkness, "Then let me make it even better." The helmet to the suit opened up to reveal the face of Danny Fenton, "I decided to do this personally, Joker."

"HeheheHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Joker burst out laughing, "And why would you do that, huh?"

"Because I wanted the pleasure of killing you myself."

* * *

 _Batman cursed under his breath as he sped through the streets of Gotham with such reckless speeds and maneuvers that it was a wonder that he hadn't crashed yet. He was willing to risk it, though. Jason. Joker had Jason. Damn it!_

 _Whipping around a corner, Batman hit the gas and sped to the last bomb location. He had been tracking Joker's movements all night. His latest insane plot was even more demented than usual. Batman had just barely been able to stop the bombs that had been set off around the city. He would have requested help from the League, but Joker made it known that it wasn't an option. At the first bomb location, Batman found a picture of the Joker standing over a bound and unconscious Jason. A few simple words were scribbled across the back._

' _If I get one whiff of any of those fellow tights wearing doo gooder League friends of yours in my city, then I slit his throat. Love, Joker. XOXOXOXOX P.S. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!'_

 _As such, calling the League was not an option. Luckily, Joker didn't specify about Nightwing and Black Bat. He managed to get them to help. Their assistance was invaluable. Still, without Barbara…Batgirl…Joker…_

" _Damn it!" Batman floored the gas once more. He rocketed up a hill to a broken down warehouse. With screeching wheels, the Batmobile slammed to a stop just as Batman hit the eject button. He was rocketed towards the warehouse. As soon as he landed and rolled back up to his feet, Batman ran forward in a desperate attempt to—_

 _BOOM!_

 _The surge of flame and debris that followed flung Batman back as though he were weightless. He tumbled back across the ground. His suit singed and his body aching, Batman still pushed himself up to the feet, "JASON!"_

 _In near desperation, Batman nearly flew over to the pile of collapsed rubble. Still crying out his protégé's name, Batman pulled and flung the rubble over his shoulder. After several minutes of searching, Batman finally found his first sign of Robin. With deep snarl on his face, he moved pieces of concrete that were far too heavy for a normal man to lift._

 _When all the rubble was finally moved away, Batman froze when he saw Jason lying over his mother. Carefully moving the broken form of the Boy Wonder, Batman checked for a pulse. Nothing. There was nothing. Jason was dead._

 _A quiet coughing sound revealed that the woman was still alive. Batman instantly knew what happened. Jason used himself as a shield to protect his woman. She was alive, if only barely. Batman would let the approaching ambulances handle that. As for now…_

 _Batman lifted up his protégé. Carrying him in his arm, Batman slowly stepped away from the rubble. Absolute grief covered his face. This was his fault. He was the one that dragged Jason into this life, and Jason had paid the price. Once again, someone he loved was dead because he was too weak to save them._

* * *

"You? Kill me? Ahahahahahaha!" Joker shook his head at the idea, "You're not a murderer, boy."

"I've killed before," Red X's helmet closed to hide Danny's face once more.

Joker nodded, "Considering what town you come from, I don't doubt it. Strange shit goes down in Amity Park, even by Gotham standards. But there's a difference between killing to protect your home and murder. And this…"

Joker looked down at his cuffed hands. Every inch of his body was covered in bruises, especially his broken hand and shot leg. He was defeated and defenseless, "This is murder."

Red X shook his head, "I don't think most people would think that. How many lives would I save by killing you?"

"Oh, hundreds if not thousands," Joker admitted, "But you didn't have to torture me first. You didn't have to capture me and make me defenseless. You wanted to make me suffer first. You wanted me to suffer in my demise. That's revenge not a kill for justice. Don't try to argue with me on murder, kid. I'm the world's greatest expert on it."

Red X leveled his gun at Joker's head, "Fair enough. This is revenge. You shot one of my friends and killed another one. I can't let that go."

"Friends, eh? Do I even want to know how you know them?"

Red responded by kicking Joker across the face.

"Gack…hehehe…" Joker shook his head, "I guess not."

"No, you don't…" Red X continued to point the gun at Joker's head.

"Well?" Joker gave him an amused look, "Come on, brat. I want you to do it. Right in the face. One shot, and it's over. Come! I want you to do it! DO IT!"

Bang!

Joker tumbled back as Red X shot the handcuffs holding him. Rubbing his wrists, Joker looked up and smiled at his captor, "Knew you couldn't do it."

"You're right. I couldn't do it…like that," Red X noted as he put his gun away, "There's no honor in that…There's not honor in killing you like this. I'm taking you to the police. And then, I'm going to lobby for your death. Screw the insanity plea. You're a rabid dog that needs to be put down. You're not going to die by a shot to the head, beaten to death, or even electrocution. I'm going to make sure you're sedated and killed without even a whimper. That's my revenge, Joker. And I'm going to enjoy every second of it."

Joker looked at Red X in horror. He looked to be thinking a mile a minute. Then, before Red X could react, Joker turned and ran away knowing that he couldn't beat the armed Red X in a fight.

This time, it was Red X who laughed, "Go ahead and run, Joker. I'll find you."

* * *

 _Nightwing knelt by the Batcomputer crying. Batman just sent word in about what happened to Jason. It was just too much. First Barbara, and now Jason? What was happening? How could so much go wrong so quickly? Just…Why?_

" _Dick?" Phantom's voice rang out behind Nightwing, causing the young man to instantly snap up and wipe his tears away._

" _Danny," Nightwing coughed to cover his scratched voice, "I thought I sent you a follow-up message about Joker's warning."_

" _Yeah, but I thought I could help from the shadows. You know, I'm a ghost and all. Plus…Looking at how you're dealing with what happened to Barbara, I think you need a bit of help," Phantom gently placed a hand on Nightwing's shoulder._

 _That's right. Danny didn't know. He shouldn't know either. Danny always took the deaths of others even more personally than anyone. If he found out, who know how he would react._

" _It's…" Nightwing quickly got a hold over his voice, "It's okay. The bombs have been stopped. We just need to track the Joker down."_

" _Because he has Robin."_

 _Nightwing's eyes snapped to Phantom, "How did you know that?"_

" _Black Bat said something about it to Dusk before she left the Cave. Dusk told me. He's worried, but is afraid that he'll get Robin killed," Phantom noted, "With the others going to check on Barbara in the hospital, I thought I should do something to try to be productive. Even if it's working information and coms for you."_

 _It was then that Nightwing cursed ever keying in Phantom to the Batcave's Zeta Tube. He did in case of an emergency, but this emergency…tragedy did not need Phantom in it. Nightwing's thoughts raced at a rapid pace. He was actually a great liar, but Danny was one of the few people who could see through his BS. They just knew and worked with each other for too long for it to be any other way. No matter what, though, he had to try._

 _"There's nothing you can do now." Nightwing noted._

 _"What the hell are you saying?" Phantom glared at his long-time friend. "Of course, there's something I can do."_

 _"This is no longer your responsibility." Nightwing explained. "Let me and Batman handle this."_

 _"No." Phantom shook his head. "I can't do that. I can't just abandon a friend. You know that. If I was the kind of person who abandoned the people closest to him, then Young Justice wouldn't even exist anymore. You all would have died a long time ago."_

 _"I know," Nightwing nodded. "But this is now out of your hands. We don't want you to interfere. You might…overact."_

 _"Overact? Are you kidding me? You think I'll kill that psycho, is that it?"_

 _"No…Maybe…I'm not sure."_

" _What the hell is wrong with you?" Phantom shook his head, "I'm pissed about Barbara, but so is everyone else. I'm probably likely to beat the ever living shit out of Joker, but it won't be any worse than what Batman's going to do."_

" _Look. I said no. Either go see Barbara, or go home."_

" _Fine, fine, jeeze, Richard," Phantom sighed and turned to head back to where the Zeta Tube was, "I get that Barbara getting shot hurts, but at least no one died."_

 _There was a silence. That wasn't always unexpected with members of the Batfamily. They tended to hush up really fast in certain moments. This one was different, though. Phantom knew Nightwing more than most people. He recognized the subtle things like when Nightwing suddenly dropped things when confronted with hard facts._

 _Phantom paused, "Did Barbara die? Did I get bad information?"_

" _No!" Nightwing defended himself, "Barbara is still alive."_

" _There was no news of people dying from Joker's bombs. A few injuries, but no deaths."_

" _Yeah...No deaths."_

 _Phantom glared at Nightwing from over his shoulder, "Dick…Did Joker kill Jason?"_

 _Nightwing did not know how to answer that._

" _No…" Phantom hissed out through clenched teeth, "Not again…Not another…"_

" _It was no one's fault. We can't blame ourselves," Nightwing noted._

 _Phantom whirled around, "I don't blame myself! I blame the damn clown! For God's sake, Dick, he just killed Jason! Our friend! Our brother! Doesn't that warrant a full on head hunt for the Joker!"_

" _If we do that, then the others might try to kill him," Nightwing sighed, "And Batman…"_

" _Screw Batman! This isn't about Batman's weird sense of morality! This is about the fact that Jason Todd is dead! Joker killed him, and the damn clown needs to pay!"_

" _He will! We'll make sure that he never gets out of Arkham—"_

" _Arkham? Really? Arkham? The place that he breaks out of on a weekly basis? That Arkham?" Phantom trembled in anger and grief, "Come on, Dick. That hasn't worked. If we keep trying to do the same thing over and over again, and expect results…then we're just as crazy as that clown."_

 _Nightwing frowned, "So what? We should kill him?"_

" _I'm not saying that," Phantom shook his head, "I'm just saying…Why just cripple the man? Make sure he can never walk again? Wouldn't that be more effective?"_

" _That's…that's not how we do things," Nightwing looked conflicted, "Look, this is Gotham. We have to play by Batman's rules no matter what. Trust me, I've had my disagreements with him. That's why I've been thinking of finding a place of my own, but…the Joker's just a sensitive topic with Batman. Let him handle Joker."_

" _Really? You just expect me to ignore this? To let this go?"_

" _Gotham doesn't need Danny Phantom right now, okay," Nightwing tried to reason, "You flying around won't help anything. Joker will hide away before we can blink, and I know you won't just work coms and intel here in the Batcave. So please…just go. Let us handle this."_

" _Dick…"_

" _I'm asking you as a friend," Nightwing pleaded, "Please…I just lost Jason too…And with Barbara in the hospital…Just let us handle it our way…"_

 _Phantom took a deep breath and turned away, "Fine. I get it. No Danny Phantom. I promise. I'll just…head to the hospital."_

" _Thanks," Nodding, Nightwing quickly composed himself and went back to the Batcomputer._

 _Phantom walked into the darkness of the Batcave. When he knew that there was no way that Nightwing could see him, he pulled out a canister that he left in his pocket when he left the lab. Nightwing was right about one thing. This situation did not call for Danny Phantom. But…_

 _Maybe Red X was an entirely different matter altogether._

* * *

Joker burst through doors making a mad break through the abandoned building. He was trying to find the exit, but so many doors were locked. Usually, he'd just break them down. Right now, though, he didn't have the time to break down doors with a broken hand and injured leg. With Red X right on his tail, he had to keep moving.

When he finally found a door that wasn't locked, it turned out to be stairs leading up. A quick look showed that Red X was stalking towards him. If he didn't move, he would get caught. Hissing curses under his breath, Joker rushed up the stairs as quickly as possible with his limp. Each step made him hiss out in pain, but he continued on despite that.

Once he reached the top, Joker burst through the door to reveal the roof of a five story building. Rushing to the center of the roof, Joker looked for a fire escape. There was none, "Damn this city! Why is nothing up to code!?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Red X questioned as he stood at the only door, "I knew there was the chance you would try to run. That's why I made sure there was nowhere to go. And even if you did get out of the building, I'm far faster than you. There was no way you would ever escape."

Turning around, Joker began to back away, "No! I won't go down like this! I'd rather jump and break my neck than be put down like an old dog!"

"Sorry…" Red X disappeared and popped up right in front of him, "But I'd save you. There's no getting out of this."

Cornered, Joker did the only thing he could. He tried to egg Red X on, "Do you really think that a trial for my death will be that clean? Even if you did succeed, it would take years. That would give me a lot of time to break out and blow up a city. And not my city. Amity Park."

Red X paused.

"I will kill everyone you love. Your entire family. And that adopted sister of yours? I'll break her just like I broke Harley—Gack!"

Red X reached out and grabbed Joker by the throat, "Shut up."

"What? Don't like the truth? What I do to her will make what I did to Jason look like a trip through a playhouse," Joker smiled at him, "Not only her, but everyone you ever cared about. Hell, I'll dig up your fiancé's grave and have some fun. I'm not above necrophilia."

"I told you to shut up!" Red X snapped out in anger. He punched Joker across the face. Then, he did it again and again. He sent a blur of punches at Joker's face. All the while, Joker just laughed and laughed. He had won again.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

* * *

" _Come on! Move!" Joker snapped out to his goons as they packed up trucks, "We're working on a limited time schedule! Batman or one of his kiddies could show up at any minute."_

" _Puddin…" Harley looked over to her boyfriend, "Don't you think that we should spread out some of these plans? Going back to back like this…It give me a bad feeling."_

 _Joker smacked Harley away, "Shut up, Harley! I don't care about how you feel about this! We need to do this now, or we won't get to do it."_

" _But, Mista J…"_

 _Joker's glare instantly shut her up._

" _Um…Boss?" One of the thugs slowly walked up to the Joker, "The trucks are ready."_

" _Great!" Joker smiled, "Let's go—"_

 _It was then that the lights went out. Darkness hung over the entire warehouse. Dread instantly fell over the room as they realized what was happening. Everyone had been through this enough to know when the lights went out in Gotham, pain usually followed._

 _Just like they assumed, screams filled the room. Flashed of red blared all around the warehouse. Most of the thugs began to panic. The fired guns wildly into the air, but the screams did not stop. For a full minute, this continued until finally all the noise stopped. Then, the lights came back on blinding the Joker._

 _Blinking to regain his vision, Joker looked around the warehouse. All of the thugs were beaten, electrocuted, and trapped by giant red x's. Wait…None of Batman's group did that. Red x's belonged to someone from another city._

 _Turning around, Joker was met with the sight of Red X. That sight lasted only a single second as Red X hit Joker with a punch that floored Joker. As he flopped onto the ground, Joker felt blood run down his face from the cut that was tore open from Red X's blow._

" _Mista J!" Harley rushed to Red X, "You monster!"_

 _Red X smacked Harley away flooring her as well. Rushing forward, before the Joker could recover, he quickly tied the clown up and lifted him over his shoulder. Before Harley could recover and say something, Red X dropped smoke pellets and disappeared into the night._

 _He had work to do._

* * *

After finally stopping his punches, Joker's face was a bloody mess. Red X let out pants and large breaths as he held up the clown up by his collar. He looked down in horror at the blood covered his hands.

"Hahaha…I was wrong…" Joker noted through broken teeth, "You really are…a murderer…I wish…I could see the monster…you'll become…"

"No, I won't," Red X pulled Joker up to his eye level.

"What? Are you…pussing out…on me?"

"No. I'm going to kill you. But I will never be a monster. I won't let myself be that," Red X noted.

"Hahahahahahaha! What?! Do you think I intended to be like this?" Joker giggled. He gave a wide smile that showed that he was missing several teeth, "No. I had a bad day. Just like you're having a bad day right now. I always wanted this to be with Batman, but I'm okay with it being you…"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Red X shook his head.

"Disappoint me? Please…" Joker looked incredibly pleased, "I get it now. The feeling I had. It was about you. You're going to make this world burn. The destruction you'll cause will put everything I did to absolute shame. I only wish I could see it."

"I always knew you were nuts, but I figured that you would make at least a little sense with your last words," Red X shook his head.

"No…this is the most sane I've ever been…" Joker's eyes glazed over once again, "Earth's Blackest Night is almost here. And that…will be a very bad day for everyone…"

With that, Joker pushed away from Red X. This caused the mercenary to let go of the Clown Prince of Crime. Said clown then stumbled back and fell off the edge of the roof. Looking over the edge, Red X watched as Joker fell. He could have saved the villain. It would have been easy. Yet he couldn't bring himself to do it. Joker had to die.

So he watched as Joker landed right on the back of his head and broke his neck. Yet even that didn't stop the Joker from laughing out in the utmost joy.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahaha…hehehe…"

The laughter finally died down. Nevertheless, Joker's smile never fell. Even as the life faded from his body, he still took joy in his own madness. Red X stood at the edge of the roof looking down at Joker's now cooling body. After a solid minute of looking down at the corpse, Red X turned and walked away. It was over, and he just wanted to go home.

Yet, despite knowing that Joker was gone, he couldn't help but hear the laughter of the Joker ringing through his mind.

* * *

Dani sat on a rather hard chair in the waiting area of Gotham Central Hospital. It was rather far away from Barbara's home, but apparently there were bomb threats at several other hospitals across the city. Another sick ploy by the Joker to be sure. Dani tightened her fists as she thought of that clown. If she ever got her hands on him…

The opening of the emergency surgery door opened to reveal a graying man in his midlife. He looked completely exhausted, and his suit looked absolutely disheveled. The man tiredly rubbed his wrinkled temple as his mustache covered lips dipped downward.

"Mr. Gordon," Dani stood along with the other members of Young Justice in the room.

Commissioner James Gordon looked at the teens, "Oh…You must be Barbara's friends from her…job."

"Yeah," Victor gently placed his arm around Dani to help comfort her, "We came as soon as we heard."

Tired eyes glancing around the room, Jim nodded, "Thank you. It's good to know that she has such good friends. Well, I always knew that. She talked about you all a lot. Probably to make me feel better about what she did. Always thought that was the biggest danger in her life, not…just staying in the apartment…"

"We…We kind of heard it," Zatanna noted sad.

"Yes, thank you for calling it in," Jim smiled at them, "You saved her life."

"So Barbara will be okay?" M'gann, appearing with Caucasian skin, questioned.

"She…She'll live," Jim sighed, "As for okay…Well, that's a different matter. I doubt she'll be okay with what happened. And what she has to deal with now."

Raquel frowned, "What do you mean?"

"The bullet was lodged in her spine. There was a lot of damage. She's not in life threatening danger," Jim explained, "But…the damage is too severe. There's a very high probability that she'll never be able to walk again."

Gasps spread throughout the room. Several of the teens broke out into tears. Others merely stood there numbly. As for Dani, she managed to hold back her own tears. Still, she embraced Victor tightly like a lifeline. Glancing at Jim, she nodded in both sympathy and regret. On Jim's part, he glanced down to Dani's leg and noticed the bit of metal shining where her ankle used to be. Usually, she did a better job of hiding it in public, but the situation caused her to rush through it.

Sucking in a deep breath, Jim nodded back at her and Victor in understanding. This had happened before and would happen again in this line of work. It was inevitable. At the same time, though, they wished that there was a greater meaning to all it. Barbara didn't sacrifice herself for anything. There was no heroics involved in this. She was just one of the many victims of a madman. It had nothing to do with her place in the Batfamily or Young Justice.

It was just…madness and chaos. And that's what hurt the most about the entire situation.

* * *

Joel stood in the Batcave. He had been granted access by Nightwing as a guest. The older member of Young Justice had called him first. Confused, Joel had made his way through the Zeta Tube to be immediately greeted by Nightwing. His words came in small whispers and warnings.

He was Jason's best friend.

Dear God no…

He would handle this the best.

Please. Not Jason. Not like this...

Nightwing would have to prep Donna more. That would give him time alone to say what he wanted.

This can't be happening.

Yet it was. Standing in front of the medial center of the Batcave, Joel felt complete numbness. On top of a metal table, a single white sheet covered the unmoving body of Jason Todd. The silence physically hurt the halfa. Jason was not this quiet, even during stealth missions. Out of everyone in the Batfamily, he was the loudest. Now, though, he was completely silent. It was sickening.

"Jason," Joel lightly whispered.

He received no response.

"Come on man, please tell me this is a joke."

Jason did not sit up and yell gotcha like this was all a cruel joke.

"Please…"

Slowly, Joel reached out. He gently pulled the sheet over Jason's head. Through all the burns and bruises that marred the now lifeless face, Joel could still recognized Jason. Part of Joel expected Jason to have one of his famous sly smirks on his face. Yet, Jason just lied there like he was in a deep sleep. He looked so calm and peaceful in death, even with the mass J branded onto the left side of his face. Joel hated it. He always thought that Jason would go down fighting and spitting. Not…not like this…

Joel blinked as he suddenly realized that he was on his knees. Tears were running down his face. Opening his mouth to say something to the now deceased Jason, Joel were surprised when his words were drowned out by a sob. Then, he wheezed. Suddenly, he was having a complete breakdown. His eyes never left Jason's unmoving face as he sobbed onto the table. He desperately tried to stop his tears, but that only made him cry even harder.

"No!" Donna rushed into Joel's vision at the other side of the table. With tears running down her own cheeks, she shakily brushed her fingers along Jason's bruised cheek, "Oh, Jason…Athena have mercy…"

Joel watched as Donna knelt down and gently kissed Jason's forehead. Her tears dropped down on Jason's cold face as she lifted her head back up and moved down to his chest. Burying her face in his chest, Donna began to sob uncontrollably hugging the corpse as tightly as she could.

Together, the two heroes knelt by the body of their friends. Loud sobs and cries of despair echoed through the Batcave. Neither noticed as Cassandra stood in the shadows, silently crying over the loss of another person in her life. In that moment, things changed for all of them. Suddenly, hero work didn't seem so heroic.

* * *

Danny sat slumped his personal lab below Fenton Works. His swivel chair was pointed right at a desk where the Red X suit lie unpacked from its container. With tired and guild ridden eyes, Danny looked all across the suit. He always loved that invention. It was the first true invention he ever came up with on his own. There was pride in it.

Yet, there was something else. It brought something out in him. The cruelest side of his humanity always seemed to creep out when he wore that suit. That was why he usually let J.A.Z.Z. control the suit. Because no matter what he said, he always loved when he was Red X. It gave him a freedom that none of his personas had. There were no expectations for Red X. He didn't need to be the perfect protégé or the infallible hero. He could be the mercenary that would do anything for the mission. Even kill. And he enjoyed doing it.

That terrified him more than anything else. While there was always a reminder of the darkness in his ghost half in the form of Dark Dan, there had never really been too much opportunity for the worst part of his humanity to show. Now, though, he realized that Red X was that darkness, the darkest parts of his humanity brought to life.

Danny rubbed his face tiredly. Damn it. He knew this was coming. He had to deal with this…

The sudden sound of opening metal doors signaled the arrival of someone into the lab. There was no sounds after that, though. No footsteps or sound of movement met Danny's ears. For someone that dealt with floating ghosts all the time, that was not something that was new. This wasn't a ghost, though. His ghost sense would have told if it were. Considering what happened today, it could only really be one person.

"Batman," Danny noted as the Dark Knight's image flooded into his vision.

Batman reached forward and grabbed the collar of Danny's lab coat, "What did you do?"

"What do you think I did?"

Batman snarled in Danny's face, "Don't play games with me. Joker has been found dead!"

"Really? That's great. Guess karma finally caught up to him."

"Stop. Playing. Dumb."

"Playing dumb?" Danny raised an eyebrow, "I don't know what you mean."

Batman pulled Danny up so they were both standing, "I examined Joker's body myself. He was tortured. His fingers were broken. Several bones were shattered. Burns were across his body with the exact markings found when someone is hit by one of your weapons. And your Red X suit is out right there for me to see. I know you killed him."

Danny's eyes lazily looked away, "I didn't plan to…I hesitated, but he threatened my family...He promised to do unspeakable things if I let him live..."

"And that makes it so much better," Batman's grip tightened, "How could you? I thought that you understood why we were above this. I thought that justice mattered to you. Not this petty revenge."

"How could I? Bruce…" Danny glared at Batman, "Joker shot Barbara. I've seen the reports. I know that it's like that she's paralyzed from the waist down. And…he killed Jason. He KILLED Jason. Your protégé. My friend. A member of our family. How could I not do something?"

"That's no excuse. You crossed a line. You know you did," Batman hissed, "You intended to kill Joker. And he did die. There's no coming back from that."

"Yes there is," Danny shrugged, "I just did it."

"No. You're wrong. You're a killer now. A murderer. Nothing will ever change that."

"I've killed before, Bruce," Danny argued, "Back in the Ghoul Project, I thought I killed Agent Z. Then, I killed the Spectre."

"Those times were different, and you know it."

"I don't really," Danny shook his head, "I did what I had to then. I did what I had to now. Joker's bullshit had been going on for too long. How many people has he killed? How many people was he going to kill? It's insane that we've just…let him go every time."

"It's not for us to decide. You know that."

"Really? Do you think that the cops will even look for Joker's killer? Do you think that a judge and jury would ever willingly convict me? Because I don't. When people find out, they'll rejoice all around the world. A monster has been slain, and he'll never kill again," Danny noted, "That's what really bothers you, isn't it? Because if you were just willing to take one life…Make one exception, then Jason would still be alive."

"RAW!" Batman punched Danny across the jaw and sent him flying back into his chair, "That's not the point and you know it!"

Danny rubbed his sore jaw, "We're not talking about Two Face or Penguin. We're talking about one person. The Joker. Just the Joker...because he took Jason from us. He had to go, so I made a judgment call. Humanity will be better off for it."

Batman shook his head disappointingly, "I thought I knew you. I thought we were the same, but I was wrong. I know now…You're destined to end up just like that alternate version of yourself. A mass murderer. And I won't have you anywhere near the Team anymore. Consider yourself off of Young Justice."

"Off of Young Justice?" Danny snorted, "Idiot. That won't work. I'm the core of Young Justice."

"And your role will be replaced," Batman argued, "Nightwing and Aqualad can lead."

"Really?" Danny gained an amused look, "Because I know that Aqualad is stressed enough as it is with Aquaman in the brink. And Nightwing has been thinking for years that Joker should be the exception to the rule. With what just happened to Barbara and Jason, neither of them will be willing to take my spot out from under me."

"There are others."

"Really? Superboy, one of my best friends? Miss Martian, the girl that's idolized me for years? Artemis or Wally? Really? They'd follow me until the ends of the earth," Danny laughed, "And who else? I can go on. Zatanna, Rocket, Spirit, Dusk, Troia, Black Bat, any of the Atlantians…You think that they'll just accept my being kicked off the team? No, that won't happen."

Batman was silent.

"If you kick me off the Team, then that's the end of Young Justice," Danny argued, "Not only that…it's an entire generation of heroes that will no longer follow your rules. The Justice League will bleed away. And you won't have any protégés to keep up your war when you're gone, because Dick and Cassandra…They'll chose me over you if you do this. You know it."

"I don't understand…" Batman gave a frown, "When did you become like this? When did you…"

"Become cunning? Controlling? Demanding? Like you?" Danny smiled, "Do you think after years of working with you, Vlad, and Vision that I wouldn't pick up on your tricks. I haven't been a piece on the chess board for a long time, Bruce. I'm a chess master, and right now, I have you in check. Your move. Will you lose all of your pieces by trying to fight on, or will you save what you have left by surrendering."

Batman was silent for a moment. Hardened eyes stared at Danny for a long time. Then, the turned away and made his way back to the door. Before he left, he spoke one final sentence, "This isn't over."

Danny shook his head and turned back to the Red X suit, "You're wrong. It's been over for a long time."

* * *

 _"Danny..."_

Danny ignored the voice and continued to look at the Red X suit.

" _Will you not even look at me? I've never known you to be so rude."_

"I'd prefer not to see your disappointed look, Death."

From her spot at the side of Danny's chair, Death shook her head, " _I'm not disappointed in you, Danny. I'm just surprised. It's not in your nature to be so unforgiving or uncaring. Even when faced with an enemy that has wronged you, you've always held at least a little compassion in your heart."_

Danny's eyes finally snapped over to her, "So you think the Joker deserved compassion?"

 _"Not really. He created more work for me than any man should,_ " Death tilted her head to the side as she examined Danny's angry and passionate eyes, " _Every crime must be met with equal punishment, and his sins were many. If I had my way, I would have taken him a long time ago. I might have made him suffer even more. But you are not me, Danny. My element does not give second chances. Yours does, though."_

"And what is this element?"

" _Hope. You've always been Hope, Danny,_ " Death gave him a fond smile, " _Look at who you've inspired, who you have built up. It is through you that Jason Todd became the person he was. Without your influence on him and the people around him, he would never have really understood what it meant to be a hero. That only happened because you gave him hope."_

"A lot of good that did him," Danny grumbled, "It got him killed."

Death's face fell a bit, " _Do you really think that dying is so bad? Do you resent me like everyone else, Danny? For taking your loved ones?"_

"No!" Danny gave her a desperate look, "I don't resent you, Death. You're only doing what your job. I resent the fact that I can't save anyone. I always do my best, but it never seems to be enough to save everyone. But at least this time, I know I saved people by killing the Joker. He will never hurt anyone again."

Death nodded, " _I agree, but it doesn't change your nature, Danny Phantom. You are the living embodiment of the line between life and death. Tonight, you relied too much on the living side...on your human side. You killed him not out of justice, but out of anger and hatred. Don't think that Dark Dan is the only dark path you can take. He is the example of when your ghost side is taken too far. And tonight shows what happens when your human side is taken too far. You have done the right thing for the wrong reasons."_

Danny's eyes suddenly seemed very hollow, "You...I know...Damn it...I still hear him, Death. I still hear the Joker laughing in my head. Please, help me fix this. Tell me, how do I stop the laughter? How do I get back the balance between life and death?"

" _The answer is simple, Danny,_ " Death's form began to disappear, " _You must remove the weight giving your human side the edge._ "

Danny's eyes turned back to the Red X suit. For the first time in hours, Danny stood. He knew what he had to do.

* * *

The sound of metal dragging against tile sounded throughout the lab. Danny stalked slowly across the lab. At his side, a large sledgehammer hung all the way to the floor. The metal of the hammer gently met the floor below, causing the noise that sounded all around Danny. If he weren't so dead brained, he would have noticed how eerie the noise was.

Making his way to the table which held his beloved Red X suit, Danny eyed the invention that he held so dear in his heart. The events of the night surged through his mind. Every step he made and every blow he delivered to his enemies popped up once again before his eyes. He had enjoyed it so much. Just like he enjoyed outmaneuvering Batman. It filled him with a pleasure that he had only ever received in the embrace of a lover.

It was a dark pleasure. Something that Danny always knew existed but had never allowed himself to enjoy. It was the pleasure of outright sin. He did terrible things tonight, and they rewarded him with pleasure and satisfaction. The temptation to do it again rang in his mind. Being Red X felt a lot more rewarding in the short term compared to being Danny Phantom.

" _..I know now…You're destined to end up just like that alternate version of yourself. A mass murderer…"_

He was like Dark Dan tonight. Suddenly, the sound of Joker's laughter sounded through his ears.

Anger surged through him like never before. With a scream of rage, Danny brought the sledge hammer up above his head. Then, the brought it down and smashed the chest of the Red X suit. He did this again. Then again. And a fourth time.

The room was filled with the sound of his wails of rage and the sound of the Red X suit being smashed to pieces. Yet all that was lost on Danny. All he could hear was the demented laughter of the deceased Clown Prince of Crime. It mocked him, telling him that he had indeed crossed a line. It felt like the madness had been passed on through death, and Danny was determined to destroy it.

With one final roar of rage, Danny brought his sledge hammer down right at the helmet of the Red X suit. It crushed before his mighty swing. Pieces of metal and glass scattered everywhere. Danny noted that some of the glass had cut him, but he didn't care.

Looking down at the destroyed suit, Danny allowed his weapon to slip from his fingers. It clattered to the floor with a loud ringing noise. After a few seconds, the sound died down, leaving only Danny's labored breath to push away the silence. With tears running down his face, Danny collapsed to the ground. His eyes still firmly locked onto the pieces of metal that had once been his favorite invention.

"Never again. I'll never put that suit on again."

With that, the Joker's laughter died away in his mind never to return again.

* * *

 **End Part 3 of 4**

 **Next update: "Wedding" June 20, 2016**

 **This chapter takes inspiration from Death in the Family, the Killing Joke, The Dark Knight, and Under the Red Hood storylines.**

 **Foreshadowing and secrets** **for the events of this arc: David Cain's death was foreshadowed in his original introduction...Doctor Fate's outcome was hinted at during his time controlling Danny and when he first learned the truth about Raven...All of Trigon's major injuries during the final battle reflect the permanent scars that cover the halfa's bodies (Dusk's face, Spirit's leg, and Phantom's abdomen)...Jason Blood/Etrigan's demise was planned since the Absolution chapter "Demons"...Agent Z's final moments with his kids have been hinted at since his first death in Absolution...Barbara getting shot was foreshadowed back in the Obsession chapter "Gotham" and in the Conviction chapter "Chaos" when the name Oracle was brought up...It would be easier to point out the scenes with Jason Todd that didn't foreshadow his death...And Joker's death was first hinted at when he interacted with Red X in the Obsession chapter "Gotham."**

 **Muhammad Ali died...I was never a huge boxing fan, but that's one of the best and most influential in the world...So many heroes in the sports world seem to leaving us. RIP Muhammad Ali. Your legacy will continue through the rest of human history.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	24. Wedding

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other."

Mario Puzo

* * *

Chapter 24: "Wedding"

(Saturday-May 17, 2014)

Dani stood in a light blue dress that went past her knees but shill showed her mechanical leg. Her hair was pulled up into a long pony tail so that her slender neck and bare shoulders, "You look beautiful, Mom."

Vision looked through the mirror in her changing room to her daughter. Her feminine frame was covered by a beautiful wedding dress. The smile she gave was as pure white as her dress. Her voice came out teasingly, "I know."

Dani hid her giggle behind her hand, "I've been a bad influence on you."

Vision turned around to face her, "The worst. But I love you anyway."

"Love you too," Dani pulled her adopted mother into her arms, "I can't believe today is actually happening."

"Neither can I."

"No, really. I mean, you've delayed this like a dozen times."

Vision's smile fell.

"I mean, some of the reasons were legit, but a lot of them were just so stupid. You had this completely planned out for years, but you just had to get everything perfect."

Vision released the hug, but Dani just held on like nothing was wrong.

"My bet was that you were never going to get married. You'd just keep postponing it forever. I always hoped I was wrong, of course. But you're such a control freak, Mom, that no one even criticized me for making that bet."

"Alright," Vision pulled back and gave her daughter an annoyed look, "I get it."

To Vision's shock, Dani wasn't grinning like a mad person. No. Instead, tears were streaming down her face.

"Gah…I…I looked at the charts," Dani's lips trembled as she spoke, "Wulf would have won the bet."

Vision's expression dropped.

"And…And if you waited another two months, Greta would have won…" Dani sniffed, "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't be bringing up sad things like that on your wedding day. But…I wish they could be here to see it."

"I do too dear, but I'm sure they're looking on happily from the other side," Vision gently squeezed the halfa's left hand as she used her other hand to wipe away the tears.

Dani nodded, "As they should. Not like the marriage is needed at all. It won't change anything. We're still all be living like a family."

"Yes, I suppose being married to your father won't really change our day to day lives," Vision admitted, "But I supposed even I dreamed of getting married as a little girl. That seems so long ago now. My father…my birth human father always said that I'd marry a prince. Considering Vlad's wealth, I think he would quality to those standards back then."

"Would that make me a princess?" Despite her puffy eyes, Dani did her best to give a charming face.

"That's how Vlad sees you. And how Victor does as well," Vision noted, "Granted, you're more violent than the average princess, but that adds to your charm."

"Yeah, it does," Dani laughed, "You know…One thing will change after today."

"What's that?"

"You and Dad can work on making me a little sister without those out-of-marriage restraints you held before."

"Dani!"

"You do know that you could have started earlier? No one would have judged."

"That's…That's just not how I do things."

"I know," Dani grinned, "But I had to use that card before the day was up. Cassandra said it was hilarious and that her…that her mom always fell for that one too."

"Hmm…" Vision looked away mischievously, "Well, just for that, I won't let you help pick out names when the time comes."

"What? No!"

* * *

"Well, don't you look dashing?" A familiar voice caused Joel look up from fixing his tie. Standing outside the entrance to the cathedral, the youngest halfa had been watching the many guests of the wedding slowly pile through the entrance.

Joel smiled at his friends, "Dashing, eh? That's a strong word to describe it. I don't think I look that way at all."

"The man makes the clothes, right?" Mary noted with twinkle in her eyes as she stepped forward to help Joel with his tie.

"Don't argue with her, please," Freddy pleaded with a dread-filled look, "I really don't want to deal with her trying to convince you about this all day."

"I wasn't planning on it," Joel chuckled, "Thanks, Mary."

"No problem," Mary stepped back and glanced at her boyfriend, "Deal with me, eh?"

"God…" Freddy face palmed, "I just can't win."

"Don't worry," Mary giggled in amusement, "I'll let it drop, sweetie."

"I'm glad you two could make it," Joel shook his head at their familiar antics. He missed this, "How have you two been?"

"Normal. Average. Boring," Freddy stated, "And that's not even counting the BS around Jason's death. So overall…"

"Pretty sucky," Mary finished.

Joel nodded, "Yeah…Jeeze, everything's been a blur since the funeral. It seems like it was yesterday. Have you managed to get Donna to talk at all?"

"Talk? No. Cry into a gallon of ice scream? Yes," Mary's usual upbeat expression was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, that's something at least," Joel sighed.

"Hey, let's not dwell on that, alright?" Freddy interjected, "Jason wouldn't want us to be sad during a wedding. He'd want us to sneak in some booze and get wasted."

Joel snorted, "Remind me how you were pure enough of heart to get the powers of Shazam again?"

"Purity is relative," Freddy joked, "Which is fitting considering the people in this wedding."

"Speaking of which," Mary grabbed Freddy's arm and began to pull him into the cathedral, "Let's head inside before it starts. I want to meet up with our friends and get some good seats."

"Right, right," Freddy glanced back at Joel, "You coming?"

"In a minute," Joel eyes some late arrivals stepping up to the entrance, "I've got something I need to do first."

Stepping forward, Joel moved to meet the newest arrival halfway. He then gave a small bow, "Your majesties."

"Joel," Aquaman smiled at the young hero, "It's good to see you. Please stand, you don't have to treat me like a king on land. We're comrades here. Not only that, I'm your guest in this dimension."

"I have to disagree," Joel stood up from his bow, "A king's a king no matter what…You know what, I think the Fright Knight has been influencing me too much."

Aquaman chuckled, "I have heard that knight speak. You do sound like him."

"That doesn't make me feel better…" Joel's eyes drifted to the women that stood by Aquaman's side, "Queen Mera, how have you been?"

Mera just continued to look forward with a dead look in her eyes.

Aquaman sighed, "The same. I thought that this wedding might bring some light back in her eyes."

"I'm surprised that Kaldur, Tula, Garth, or La'gaan aren't escorting you," Joel's eyes snapped to the hook that now replaced Aquaman's missing hand, "Not that you need protection. It's just that they're very loyal."

"I ordered them ahead," Aquaman noted, "They should enjoy this time with their friends and their youth. Both can be very fleeting. The gods only know what I would give to spend more time with my son…"

Joel gained a guilty look.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up," Aquaman rubbed his face with his still intact hand, "Let's stay focused on the joy of today."

"How is Lady Vision doing?" Mera suddenly spoke up. Both men's eyes snapped to the woman. Her eyes hadn't changed, but there was no questioning that she spoke.

"Good…" Joel answered, "She's been ready for this day for a while.

Mera's next words came out as a small whisper, "I remember my wedding day…I was so happy…She should hold onto this as long as she can. Soon, the happiness will fade away into nothingness."

* * *

Danny's eyes swept across the crowd of people. His comrades and friends filled the pews in the rather large cathedral. He stood at the forefront of the church, right beside a rather nervous Vlad. The different members of the ceremony were making their way down the aisle. Leaning in to the older halfa, the best man whispered, "Calm down. Everything's going to be fine."

"That's what you say when something's about to go horribly wrong," Vlad hissed back.

"Only during battle, Vlad."

"This is an internal battle, Daniel."

"One that you have no choice but to win. Because if I can't force you to stay put, then Vision will have to track you down and bring you back. And that will make things a hundred times worse," Danny noted with amusement in his voice.

"Right," Vlad mentally pictured the version of this wedding where he was tied up and had a shotgun pointed at his head, "Good point. You better stop me from running then."

"Don't worry. I got the shotgun ready."

Before Vlad could respond, music blared from the organ. Danny gave a small glance to see that Ember winked at him as he gave a silent thank you for signaling the beginning of the ceremony. Signaled by the organ music, everyone stood and turned to the entrance. Slowly, Vision stepped out for everyone to see. Colossus was squatting down and trying to make himself as small as possible in order to allow Vision to hold onto his arm as they made their way down the aisle.

As they carefully making their way down the aisle, everyone took in the sight of Vision's beauty. She almost glowed, which wasn't all that strange considering her ghostly nature. This glow, though, was different. It was a glow of pure joy radiating off of her.

When they reached the alter, Colossus smiled down at Vision. Before he could speak, Vision spoke, "If you say that you never thought this day would happen, I will throw you out of my wedding."

Colossus was silent.

"Thank you, Uncle Col," Vision floated up and kissed Colossus on the cheek.

"You're welcome, Little Vision," Colossus gave a small chuckle as he stepped away from Vision and made his way to the large spot reserved for him off to the side, right next to the equally giant Pandora.

Stepping up to Vlad, Vision smiled and allowed him to reach up and lift her veil. Vlad gave her an equally bright, if not a bit shaky, smile. Together, they turned to the marriage officiant Frostbite. As the leader of his own village and a well-known figurehead in the Ghost Zone, he was one of the few ghosts that had gone out of his way to be ordained to conduct weddings.

Having spent over a month recovering from his fight with Gluttony, Frostbite had regained a thinner version of his ice arm in addition to regaining some of the muscle mass he lost. Luckily, he now looked healthy instead of being a thin fury, even if he wasn't the wall of muscle he was before the fight. Smiling brightly at Vision and Vlad, he began to speak, "Dearly beloved…"

The ceremony passed in a blur for the participants. This was especially true for Vlad. Even though Frostbite spoke for several minutes, it only seemed like few seconds. He was only rocked out of his daze when Frostbite reached the end of his speech and the rings were placed on their fingers.

"I believe that you two have your own vows?"

"Yes," Vlad reached into his suit to pull out his prepared speech. He paused though and left it in his pocket. No, this had to be done from the heart, "Vision…Until the day I met you, I never thought that I would ever be in a relationship that completed me so much. You challenge me mentally and emotionally to be the best I can be. For years, I wanted no needed a family to help drag me out of my darkness. You did that and then some. I have no idea how I can ever repay you for all you've done for me, but I'm willing to spend the rest of my life trying to."

Vision just smiled, "Vlad, you don't have to repay me for everything. Despite my aversion to people pointing it out, for most of my life, I never thought this day would happen. Very few people were ever willing to question me and try to walk on equal ground as me. You were the only one to even try, and now I wake up every day knowing that I'm not alone in my path. Through everything that's happened, you've been there to be my rock, and I can only strive to be the same for you. I love you, Vlad."

"I love you too, Vision."

Frostbite coughed, "No kissing yet, you two. There's one last thing. Do you, Vladimir Masters, taken Vision to be your as your wife, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

"I do."

"And do you, Vision—"

"I do."

"Um…I didn't finish—"

"I do. I think we're all tired of waiting for the end."

"O-okay then. I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now—"

Vision grabbed Vlad and pulled him into a searing kiss.

"Okay I give up. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Masters…who are still kissing."

Everyone stood up and started clapping. Still, the newlywed couple continued to kiss.

Dani, the maid of honor, leaned in and whispered, "Pst, Mom. I know I joked about you working on making me a sibling, but can you wait until you're behind closed doors?"

* * *

Hours later, the wedding reception was in full effect. The entire ball room was packed full of tables and people. Despite the large amounts of chatting going on throughout the room, the music was still loud enough for everyone to hear. From the stage, Ember and her band were playing music that Vision has specifically picked out. Not even the free-spirited Ember had the guts to deviate from the list on Vision's wedding day. That was basically asking for an ass kicking.

Despite all the celebrating throughout the room, though, there was a bit of discourse. Roy Harper, or at least the clone of Roy Harper, stood in front of Danny. His eyes were still covered to protect his identity, but Danny still knew who it was.

Danny sighed, "Jeeze, Roy, can't you just enjoy the day? It's the wedding of two important family members to me, and despite what you think, I'm not doing Godfather favors for people."

"I've enjoyed enough days," Roy noted, "While the original Roy Harper has been locked away. I can't stand it anymore. I need to find him yesterday."

"Still…" Danny looked across the room, "Can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"No," Roy hissed, "It can't."

"Fine, fine, ruining today for me like an asshole," Danny gave Roy a deadpanned look, "I still don't have any info."

"You're lying!" Roy snapped.

"Stay quiet, idiot," Danny noticed as a few eyes were drawn to them, "And I'm not lying. The Light hasn't made any moves since the Sorcerer Initiative, and you know it. And I used up all the spies and secrets I had in the Light to stop that Initiative. So no, Roy, I'm not lying. There's literally no info for me to get."

"I know that you've still been communicating with them," Roy stated.

"Yeah, I have to keep up appearances with them," Danny explained, "And I can't do that by outright asking, 'Hey, is the original Roy Harper alive? And if so, where are you keeping him?' Yeah, that'd go over so well."

Roy looked over his shoulder to the table that he interrupted Danny from getting to, "And what about her?"

"She doesn't know," Danny quickly defended his girlfriend.

"Really? The person closest to Vandal Savage doesn't know where his most secretive projects are?" Roy's voice was laced with skepticism.

"No, she doesn't. I've asked, and I trust her," Danny felt the annoyance growing in the back of his mind.

"Well, you're the only one," Roy's eyes widened when Danny grabbed him by the collar.

Danny's eyes had a hardened look, "Be careful what you say. I would trust her with my life."

"Well, maybe your life doesn't mean as much as you think," Roy glared, "You're risking more than yourself by trusting her."

"And you're risking more than yourself with your obsessive quest to find a person that's probably dead. And after today, I may rethink my position of supporting it. I've funded your little game for years, provided you with all the information I can, and defended you when others criticized you because I understand the sensitivity when it comes to clones, but…" Danny got right in front of Roy's face, "You still don't have an ounce of real gratitude in your body. You still can't give me a break and always question my methods when it doesn't immediately get you what you want. Well, guess what. You're on your own now. Here."

Danny pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket and shoved it into Roy's chest, "That's this?"

"The last lead I've got right now. I was going to follow up on it starting tomorrow, but now it's your problem. I'm washing my hands of it," Danny growled.

Roy opened the piece of paper, "What's this? Cheshire? You expect me to work with her?"

"Like I said, it was only a lead. I wanted to get some more spies, but now she's your problem. Who knows, maybe she'll pull that pole out of your ass, and you'll actually get laid," Danny quickly brushed by Roy and made his way to his original destination, "Lord knows you need it."

As Danny slid into a seat next to Jenifer. Said woman gave him a questioning look, "What was that?"

"That was Roy being a little bastard as always, and me finally getting sick of it," Danny rubbed his temples to calm himself, "I'm done with it for now. Let's just enjoy ourselves while we can."

"While we can, huh?" Jenifer leaned her chin onto her palm and leaned forward onto the table. Her purple dress moving with her to emphasis the delicate frame of her body, "Happiness is fleeting. Today won't last forever...But we can extend it. Let's take a vacation."

"A vacation?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Jenifer smiled, "We both have been working too hard. Let's just tell everything to shove off for a week and go to a beach for a week."

"As tempting as that sounds, I don't think that will happen," Danny noted, "Even if Fenton could get away with that, Phantom couldn't. I have to help everyone deal with the Black Lanterns."

"Please, Vision and Vlad are going on their honeymoon for a week. Batman and the League is still pissed at you. The Green Lanterns and the Light won't be ready for a while. So why not? Let's take a week for ourselves and enjoy life."

Danny's face twisted in thought, "Hmm…A week to ourselves…You put up some good arguments. Alright, let's do it."

Jenifer giggled and leaned into Danny to enjoy their closeness, "I knew I could talk you into it."

"You are good at that," Danny noted, "I'm glad you came. Considering that this is Vlad's wedding…"

"I don't care about that," Jenifer noted, "I'm here because of you. Even if he's my birth father, that doesn't matter to me at all. And don't try to convince me otherwise."

"I don't plan to," Danny noted, "I just want to enjoy today."

"Good," Jen sighted in satisfaction. She then gasped as she felt Danny hand gently squeeze her thigh, "Oh…That kind of enjoyment."

"Yeah," Danny's smirk mirrored Jenifer's own signature mischievous smirk, "You know…The tablecloth does hide a lot…"

* * *

Joel silently slid into the seat next to Donna, ignoring the pained knowledge that the seat had been reserved for Jason, "Hey."

The Amazon looked over to the halfa. Heavy bags hug under her eyes giving her an exhausted look, even though her makeup and black dress made her look like the demi-goddess that she was, "Hello, Joel. How art thou doing this day?"

"As good as I can get, but I think I should be the one asking you that," Joel noted calmly.

Donna shook her head, "I have been trying to enjoy the festivities. This is the first wedding I have ever experienced after all, but all the romance in the air…it makes me long for Jason."

Joel silently nodded.

"Not that he was ever good at romance. He always was so awkward with expressing his feelings, but he did so in such an earnest way that I found it so endearing," Donna gave a fond smile at the memory, but it quickly faded, "Today, I'm sure that he would be trying to drag me out to the dance floor to show me his 'awesome dance moves' while constantly whispering how he would make the wedding even better."

"He might have even popped the question as a joke," Joel noted.

Donna hid a laugh, "Yes, then I would accept, and we would be engaged to his complete shock. My sister would have a heart attack, and my mother…Athena knows what my mother would do."

"I imagine that Jason would be trying to protect his manhood from her," Joel chuckled.

Donna nodded, "Indeed."

A silence fell between the two heroes, well as much silence that could occur at a wedding reception. Still, both of them remained quiet as the outside noise flooded around them. They allowed their memories of their fallen comrade to fill their thoughts.

"Tell me," Donna suddenly spoke, "How long does it take for the pain to fade? Losing someone thou loves like this with so much potential for the future…How long will this feeling last?"

Joel reached into his pocket to pull out Greta's silver necklace, "It's a slowly but surely thing. Eventually, the pain will recede into a fondness of their memory. But in the end, I still miss her every day. Just like I do Cujo and Jason. Just in a different way."

Donna slowly nodded, "So much death…Part of me expected it. As an Amazon, war and death has been preached to me like a near religion. But I find all this…as just too much. We are fighting a never ending war, and we keep losing our soldiers. And those are the best case scenarios. I mean, what purpose did Jason's death fulfill? There was no great sacrifice. It was all just chaos and madness."

"Some would argue that's life in a nutshell," Joel noted.

"That wasn't what I was led to believe," Donna's expression dropped forward, "And what makes it worse is the circumstance around it. He was betrayed by his _mother_. What absurdity. I was always taught that in Man's World's greatest corrupting factor was man, but the women seem to be just as cruel."

"Such is gender equality," Joel noted bitterly, "We're all equally terrible."

Donna just shook her head bitterly, "Man's…Human's World is such a frightening place. I know that's why we work to make it better, but the weight really gets to thee."

"It does," Joel's eyes dimmed in thought.

"I've…I've been thinking of returning to Themyscira. At least for a time," Donna mentioned, "I need to straighten things out in my head with some time off. I know people might call me a coward for abandoning the fight, but I need to find some part of myself that I'm missing. Get back to my roots and mature a bit if you will."

"I don't think it's cowardly. We all have a choice in this, Donna," Joel gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "If we keep fighting in this type of work simply out of obligation, we're likely to get ourselves killed."

"Then why do you keep doing this?" Joel and Donna's eyes snapped across the table to see that Cassandra had silently slid into her seat during the conversation.

"Excuse me?"

"You keep fighting, even though you detest violence? Why do you tempt yourself to lose yourself to the killer instinct? Why do you fight when the only thing you have to fight for is obligation?" Cassandra questioned.

"I…want to help bring peace…" Joel noted meekly.

"Peace is the time after war to prepare for the next one," Cassandra gave him a hard look, "Tell me, has any of this ever made you happy in the end? Do you feel like you're at peace with yourself?"

Joel slowly shook his head.

"I thought so. Look, this type of business was made for people like me," Cassandra looked to both of her friends, "But it's not for everyone. You know that. You just said it after all. Then why aren't you following your own advice?"

"My…my family needs my help," Joel said tersely, "Sure, I'd like to just get up and leave. Part of always wanted to travel the world, but they need me."

"So it is obligation," Cassandra shrugged, "That's fine, but I don't think that's the way for anyone to be happy, Joel. I don't think that's what anyone…your mother, Greta, Cujo, Jason…would want."

* * *

"Come on!" Dani giggled as she dragged Victor onto the dance floor. Said mechanical man looked reluctant to do so to the point that he nearly tugged his collar off in nervousness.

"I, um, I'm not the best dancer, Dani," Victor stated even as he gently laid his metal hands on her delicate hips.

"Don't worry," Dani gave a mischievous smile, "I got some tough toes."

With that, she used her considerable strength to begin to move the larger man. Despite Victor's nervousness and tendency to look down at his feet, he quickly got used to the beat of the song that was ringing out through the room. The two of them smiled as they swiftly moved across the dance floor. Victor's smile fell, though, when his metal foot stepped onto Dani's own artificial limb causing a large clang of metal meeting metal to sound out.

"Oh, damn, I'm sorry," Victor immediately apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Dani's grin never dropped, "Not like I felt it."

Victor's face twisted into a strange conflicted look, "Does it ever bother you?"

"Sometimes, I do miss feeling the grass between my toes," Dani admitted, still forcing Victor to move to the song, "But I don't regret what I gave it up for. Does it bother you?"

"No, of course not," Victor sighed even as he continued to spin gently with the music, "But that part of you that's missing…That's most of me you know. I just…It doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to. But I'm worried. I'm not fully a man. I don't know…"

"Let me stop you there," Dani gently interrupted the man, "Victor, you have stuck by my family before you could even fought. And the moment you could make a difference, you plunged headfirst into our complicated shit. Without you, hundreds of more ghosts would have died from Morgan le Fey's attack. If you weren't there, Nyx might not have been saved. When I was taken by Brother Blood, you took charge and helped save me. In my opinion, Vic, you're all man."

Victor's face lit up with a light blush, "Geeze, do you have to say it like that…"

"Hahahaha!" Dani laughed at his bashfulness, "You're such a boy scout. I'm surprised that Nyx has never pointed that out when she learned that we were dating."

"I'm sure she thought it," Victor mentioned.

"Yeah," Dani looked across the room to her friends all sitting at the same table, "It's been a wild ride. But we're all together again, aren't we? Just like the old days."

Victor looked to them as well, "Yeah. Damn, who would have thought that things would have gone this way four years ago? We went from being a couple of kids playing in the park to some of the best superheroes around."

"That's the way to think," Dani encouraged, "We're the best. Nothing can stop us now."

"It does feel that way, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Dani gave the most serene smile of her life, "My friends all back together. I'm so happy. I'll remember this forever."

* * *

"Torch! Torch, please!" Dora blushed as Torch tried to persuade her to dance, "You know that I only know how to dance classically."

"Torch knows…" Torch grinned as the music suddenly slowed down to a more formal version of music, "And Torch knows the song schedule."

Dora hid a giggle behind her hand, "The perks of having your sister as the head musician, no?"

"Indeed," Torch guided her away from the table and began to guide her into a waltz.

Dora blinked as they smoothly glided across the dancefloor, "I didn't know you could dance so well."

"Torch can't," Torch winked over to Ember who returned the gesture, "Luckily, Ellie's powers let her control Torch's movements to the beat of the song."

"That's quite handy," Dora gave him a pleased look, "I'm happy that you and your sister have managed to work things out."

"Torch is too. He missed having her around," Torch chuckled, "We were inseparable as kids, you know. Thick as thieves in life. Not so much in death. Things have changed, though. With Dad finally dealt with once and for all, Torch can finally stop worrying about keeping his family secrets."

This caused Dora's expression to drop, "Yes, the death of a complicated and burdensome family member does make things easier."

"Ah, Torch almost forgot," Torch nodded slowly, "Your brother. With you being Doctor Fate and all, you really never had the chance to get closure with him."

Dora sighed, "Indeed. I don't regret my time with Nabu. I experienced many things that have broadened my horizons, but still…my brother was always in the back of my mind."

"Family tends to linger in our minds," Torch noted, "Torch is willing to help you the best he can."

"I know, but let's think about that later. We will have to deal with the Black Lanterns soon enough. Let us enjoy the moment where Torch can actually dance."

"No arguments from Torch's end."

* * *

Tula gave a small smile as she saw her friend approach the table. Despite Nightwing's pep talk the minute before, she still felt the nervousness flutter through her stomach, "H-Hi, Barbara. How are you—Stupid question…"

Barbara shook her head. She used her strong arms to maneuver her wheelchair to the open spot at the table, "You don't need to be nervous, Tula. It's still me."

"I-I know, but I am not used to dry land customs for addressing such situations," Tula rubbed her hands together nervously.

"Most people try to dance around the topic, but I'd prefer if we just got it out of the way," Barbara's eyes swept across the table where the more senior members of Young Justice looked on, "I'm crippled. No more walking. End of story. Let's move on."

Miss Martian was frowning, "But can't we use magic to help you heal?"

Barbara shook her head, "Trust me, I've looked into it for a month straight. Besides for some sacrifice rituals involving trading my soul or some virgins, and I'm sure as hell not doing that, there's nothing. And before anyone asks, I've also been talking about it for a month, so I need a change in topic. So please, let's talk about anything else. Conner, how are Wolf and Sphere doing?"

Conner coughed into his hand, "They, um, are fine now. Wolf's injuries are all healed up, and whatever Trigon's presence did to Sphere's circuitry seems to have cleared up."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table. Everyone just looked straight ahead until Raquel spoke up, "Hey, Barb, I don't think you met Noble. Say hi, Noble."

Said man quickly jolted out of his stupor. He was a rather thin man with squared glasses. The chocolate skin of his brow seemed marred from worry of things that extended far past Barbara's new crippled state, "Hello, It's nice to meet you, Batgirl…err, Barbara. Which one would you prefer?"

"I think we all should get used to calling me Barbara instead of Batgirl," Barbara bit her lip at the thought.

"Oh, yes, I…I didn't consider…" Noble's eyes drifted across the table, "So, Raquel has told me a lot about you all. Kryptonian. Martian. Atlantian. So many different cultures. What are those like?"

Superboy snorted, "Krypton was gone long before I was around. Kal El has taught me some things from his space archive, but I'm not the best person to explain it."

"And I haven't been back to Mars in years," M'gann said not wanting to drift into the topic of how she was often discriminated against on her own planet for being a White Martian, "But what about you three? How is Atlantis doing?"

"Everything is stable," Garth stated immediately, "With the help of the yeti ghosts, our border is secure, and our people are quickly recovering from the Sorcerer Initiative."

Nightwing tried to ignore the odd quickness to the response, "That's good. And how is Aquaman doing? Tula, you were in charge of his healing and rehab, right?"

"Yes," Tula nodded, "He has recovered back to near perfect health—"

"With a still missing hand, of course."

Everyone's eyes snapped to the new voice. The Atlantians quickly stood, "Your majesty."

Aquaman quickly waved them down, but Kaldur still continued, "We are sorry to be talking about you behind your back. They were just curious about your health."

"I understand. Do not worry, I am not angry," Aquaman gave a tired smile, "I just came by because I wanted to have a word with Kaldur if I may."

"Of course, my king," Kaldur quickly moved to follow his king. As he moved away, he heard Conner mention that they couldn't get away from they just couldn't get away from the awkwardness. The Atlantian found himself agreeing with the clone.

Kaldur followed his king out of the reception and into the hallway. Once they moved far enough away that they could only barely hear the music, Aquaman stopped his walk. Stopping as well, Kaldur stood patiently for the older Atlantian to say something.

"Kaldur…" Aquaman did not turn, "The reason I wanted to talk to you is a personal one, and I do not know how to address it?"

"Is it about the Queen, sir?" Kaldur questioned, "Has the wedding not cheered her up as you had hoped?"

"Unfortunately not," Aquaman let out a sigh, "She started talking again. That is something at the very least, but that is not what I felt the need to address."

"You do not have to force yourself, my king," Kaldur saluted the Leaguer, "We can postpone this if you wish."

"No, no, I have postponed this for far too long," Aquaman turned to give Kaldur the most despair filled look that he had ever see the king make, "With everything going the way it has, I will need to rely on you more than ever. I trust you with everything…except one truth. And it is not fair for me to hide this anymore. Perhaps this would have been better with your parents around, but I need to do this know before my courage slips once more."

"My king, I do not understand," Kaldur's eyebrows arched down in confusion.

"I do not wish to break the trust that you have given me for so long, but it must be done for the sake of Atlantis," Aquaman took a deep breath, "Kaldur…For all your life, we have lied to you about your lineage."

"W-what?"

"You…you are adopted," Aquaman took in Kaldur's shocked expression, "Your real parents…well…Your father is…Black Manta."

It was at that moment that Kaldur's entire world shattered before him.

* * *

"I see…" Zatanna noted as she frowned down at her hands on the lap beneath the table. Her hands clenched at her silver dress, "That's…that's a lot to take in."

"Considering that I know your secret, I thought it would be best if I didn't lie to you," Youngblood responded.

"I…Thank you for trusting me like this," Zatanna was incredibly pale, "I know that it was wrong of me to ask—"

"No, I brought it up first back at Brother Blood's church anyway. Besides…" Youngblood quickly interrupted her, "I've kept this a secret for so long…it feels good to tell someone the full truth for once."

"Rack!" Polly cried from the ghost's shoulder, "This is a make, and you know it."

"Someone has to know," Youngblood hissed over at him, "If we're forced to break the seal one last time, someone has to be able to warn our friends. Especially Dani. If Mom ever found out about her…"

Polly was silent at that.

"That…That kind of blows my secret out of the water," Zatanna chuckled, "At the least…it does make me feel better about my life."

"It should," Youngblood agreed, "You can't let what Klarion did to you stop you from doing what you want with your life. Unlike me, you're free to choose whatever you want. If you eventually do want kids, there are other ways to make it happen. Hell, technology might even advance enough to help heal what you lost. You have a bright future. Don't forget that."

"I won't," Zatanna nodded, "And if…if worst comes to worst, I'll make sure to warn everyone. Thorn will be dealt with before she can go on her rampage."

"Thank you," Youngblood smiled at her, "And possibly goodbye, miss magician. I'm glad I could meet someone that kept onto the joy of childhood for so long. I'll let you get back to your date."

"Yeah," Zatanna looked over to see Constantine at the bar, "He's likely to get a buzz going and embarrass himself if I don't stop him."

"We wouldn't want that," Youngblood chuckled as he turned to float away. The thoughts of the burly Brit drunkenly doing magic pallor tricks greatly amused him.

"Before you go," Zatanna stopped him before he flew too far way, "As a piece of advice in case the Black Lantern thing does force you to break the seal again, I would suggest not ripping up that letter in your coat. Give it to her. At least you'll get closure, then."

"Closure…" Youngblood nodded and began to float back to his table once more, "That sounds nice."

As he floated back to his table, Youngblood was immediately addressed by Nyx, "What'd Sabrina want with ya?"

"It had to do with what happen with Brother Blood and Lust," Youngblood slid into his seat, "It's a personal thing."

Nyx nodded at that. Her more biting side wanted to press forward, but considering her own situation with brain control, she decided against it, "Yeah, I hear ya. That reminds me, though, how are your brothers doing, Gloom and Doom? Last I heard, they were being observed at a hospital."

Rachel gave a small smile, "They're doing well. In fact, it seems like Father influenced them more than we thought. They don't remember anything. With Trigon's sins removed, they're surprisingly normal people."

"So…They don't remember anything they did?" Youngblood blinked at her.

"No. Everything's a big blur to them. They don't have a trace of demon in them anymore and don't even remember who Trigon was. They were probably some of his biggest victims in all this."

"So, you going to stay in touch?" Nyx leaned in to question the demi-demon.

"No, they don't even know that I'm their sister," Rachel's expression fell a bit, "Hanging around them…telling them what happened would devastate them. I don't want to put that guilt on them. Better just to let them normal lives."

"Can you live with that? I mean, they are your family," Youngblood noted.

"Yeah, but I have to do what's best for them. Not what's best for me," Rachel explained.

Nyx and Youngblood both nodded at that. Both were very aware of the danger of burdening family like that. Deciding to let the topic drop, they all turned back to watch the scene that they had been looking at before Zatanna approached the table. Dani and Victor were still moving joyfully across the dance floor. They seemed really happy.

All three of the friends smiled at the scene, happy for their friends. Youngblood's smile quickly dropped, however. He looked over to Nyx, then out to Dani. His chest tightened as he looked at her, knowing how blissfully ignorant she was to the feelings of those watching her dance with her boyfriend. Slipping his one real hand into his pocket, Youngblood fingered the letter that seemed to weigh him down even more now that Zatanna had spoken with him.

Slowly, he removed his hand from his pocket and left the letter where it rested. This was best for Dani, even if it burdened Youngblood even more than he was before he met the female halfa. Ignorance was bliss, and he couldn't take that bliss away from Dani.

* * *

Colossus reared his head back in laughter. Unlike the other people in the room, he had forgone a chair and was instead sitting on the floor. Even then, he still towered over everyone else, "AHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't remember the last time we had a celebration like this!"

"That's because you got drunk off your ass," Pandora noted as she took a sip of her class of wine.

"Oh, right! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Colossus brought up a jug of whiskey and began to take deep gulps.

Frostbite shook his head, but he had a small smile on his face, "You never change old friend. At least we have that to rely on. Especially in these last few years of rapid change. Who would have thought that all this would happen? I know that Scribe…"

The table went silent for a moment but the bride herself would not allow that, "None of that now. The Ghost Writer would not have wanted us to mourn him anymore. Instead, let's remember him for the good times."

"You mean the times were we tried to drag him out of his library so he could actually do something," The Fright Knight's gruff voice came out in a drawl snicker.

"Hmm…" Colossus stroked his chin in thought, "He never did fight with me. That's something he passed onto his apprentice. I'm surprised you didn't invite the boy, Vision."

Vlad, who had remained silent as the others remembered their old friend, decided to speak up, "We tried, but it seems as though Poindexter has disappeared completely."

Pandora shrugged, "Scribe did that from time to time as well. I'm sure that he'll show up again."

"Do you think it has anything to do with Jester's mirror?" Frostbite questioned, "From what I heard from the Superboy, the voice and powers that came from the mirror was a lot like Jester himself."

"Jester…what was he like exactly?" Vlad questioned, "You hardly speak of him."

"He was our brother in everything. Out of all of us, he was the only one ever filled with joy. He delighted in making others happy. Perhaps that's the reason he's the only one that's ascended out of all of us," Fright Knight suggest, "But despite his namesake, he was no fool. Perhaps he did place a bit of himself into the Mirror of Memories and hid that bit away until it was needed."

Pandora nodded, "That's as sound of an argument as any. Perhaps that's why he hid the mirror in the first place."

"Damn, I just realized that I outlived both Scribe and Jester," Colossus's brow raised in shock, "I never really thought about it until now. I was sure that I'd be the first to go. I was always aged the oldest, and nowadays, I need a nap after every fight."

"And it was those two. The most peaceful out of all of us," Frostbite mentioned, "Whoever would have thought."

"I do wish they could have been to the wedding," Vision let out a small sigh, "Jester would have put on such a show, and the Ghost Writer would have described the event with such elegancy.'

"Don't fret, my dear," Vlad gently held his new bride, "I'm sure that their memory and the memory of this day will be remembered for a long time. And I might not have known one of them, but from I've heard, they would have loved this event."

"Here, here," The Fright Knight slammed a fist on the table in agreement.

"Let us drink," Pandora raised her class, "To Jester. To Scribe. And especially to the newlywed couple. May your love burn forever."

"I'll drink to that!" Colossus raised his jug again and poured the liquid down his throat.

"Colossus! Go easy on that!" Frostbite warned, "We want you to have some memory of this day."

"No, let him drink," Vision's eyes twinkled, "Perhaps if he gets drunk enough, we could get him to dance."

"My lovely Vision, I do believe you have had enough champagne," Vlad teased, "You know that if Colossus tried that, the entire place would come down."

"That's why we'll save for when we're about to leave," Vision smiled, "We'll end the reception with a bang. After all, my wedding day can't finish without something getting destroyed. It's just not in our ghostly nature."

As the table was filled with laughter, all the ghosts lifted up their drinks and drank in both celebration and remembrance. The only exception was the Fright Knight, who prided himself on staying on constant alert. As such, he was the only one to notice when Joel slipped away from his own table and out the door.

* * *

"My apologies, but I'm not sure I understand the technicalities of it all. It goes over my head…" Amorpho calmly floated next to a table. His shade covered eyes took in sight of what was perhaps the most 'normal' group at the wedding.

Silas chuckled, "I suppose it would I barely understand it myself. But after the le Fey attack, we were pressured to start developing a way to prevent unsanctioned travel between the human world and Ghost Zone. The Dimensional Stabalizer does that. It basically sows the random portals that pop up between our worlds shut."

Amorpho gave a displeased grunt, "I don't know if I like the idea of my movements being limited and monitored like that."

"We only plan to use it for emergencies like with le Fey and Trigon," Nicolai noted, "But if people like G. Gordon Godfrey had their way, we would make it permanent."

"I see…"

"Please, boys," Elinore sighed as her eyes drifted away from her son dancing with his girlfriend to the men at their table, "Do we absolutely need to talk about work today?"

"Especially for the people at this table who don't particularly care about your projects," Harriet lifted her glass of champagne to her lips, "Can we talk about anything else?"

Damon chuckled with an amused tone, "And what exactly would we talk about at a wedding for two ghosts?"

Harriet blinked and chugged her glass of champagne, "I have absolutely no idea. God, when did my life become consumed by this stuff? I used to live a normal life."

"Normal is boring," Amorpho argued, "If you ever tried to leave this type of life, you would realize how much you missed the extraordinary. Trust me on that."

* * *

Artemis and Wally slid into the seats across from Jenifer. Said woman was slowly dipping strawberries into chocolate she collected from the buffet's chocolate fountain. Each bite she took, she gave a small squeak of satisfaction.

"Hey, Jinx…Jenifer," Artemis corrected herself, "Have you seen Danny? We need to talk with him."

"He went to the bathroom," Jenifer noted. A small blush covered her features.

"Oh," Wally nodded, "Well, we can wait."

"It might be a while," Jenifer savored the taste of sweetness in her mouth.

"Well…It would give us time to apologize. Yes, us, Kid Mouth," Artemis elbowed her boyfriend before he could speak up, "We didn't exactly treat you right during the whole Trigon thing."

"Hmm…" Jenifer had a blissful look on her face.

"Sorry for not trusting you," Wally let out a sigh, "We know that at the very least, you care about Danny. That's something obvious to even me."

"It's, uh…It's okay…" Jenifer bit her lip.

"No, it's not," Artemis shook her head, "I should know better. With my family, I shouldn't be judging anyone. If you want to be with Danny, we're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. You won't willingly hurt him."

"T-thanks…" Jenifer's face was even redder now.

"Of course, we might have to work on things to trust you on missions or things like that, but we're willing to try," Wally smiled at her.

"Y-yeah that would be…" Jenifer trembled, "That would be, oh God…awesome."

To Artemis and Wally's confusion, Jenifer stopped shaking and took a deep breath. They shared a look and were about to ask what was wrong when Danny slid into his seat. To their shock, though, he didn't come from the bathroom. No, he slid up from beneath the tablecloth. Both of Artemis and Wally instantly became a shade paler.

Danny licked his lips, "Thanks you two. I was really worried that you would never trust Jen at all. Good to see you coming around."

Wally let out a snort, "Really, Bro? You have to word it like that?"

Danny's grin was obviously the answer.

Artemis coughed, "Well, uh…Turnaround's fair play I guess. You have covered for us before…or a lot. Can we consider everything even?"

"Totally…" Jenifer leaned back in her chair. A satisfied smile graced her lips as she turned to Danny, "You were right. Chocolate does make everything better."

Danny's grin only grew. He looked to Wally, "So what you'd want to talk about?"

"What I wanted to…Oh!" Wally nodded, "It was about the Speed Force. I was hoping that we could talk about running more tests so I could try to get it working again. If I could get it going again at will, we'd have a huge one up on the enemy."

"Yeah, we'll work on it," Danny agreed, "But let's worry about that later. Right now, I really just want to enjoy the day."

"We can tell," Artemis rolled her eyes. She stood and moved to pull Wally up as well, "Come on, Wally. After this, I need my vibrator."

Danny scoffed, "I could have lived a happy life never knowing that."

"Well that's what you get~" Artemis gave him a sly look as they walked away, "Next time, you should find some place at least a little private like us."

When they were gone, Jenifer turned to Danny, "I feel bad for them. Looking down on us…They'll never know that rush…" Jenifer paused. As her high began to come down, her mind suddenly realized something was missing. She suddenly moved her hips a bit, "Hey, did you steal my panties?"

"Yep."

"Idiot, I'm wearing a dress. What if something happens and my skirt comes up."

"I thought you liked the rush of being caught doing something wrong."

"That's not the point."

"Oh, Jen, don't lie," Danny smiled, "That's always been the point."

* * *

The Fright Knight took audible steps as he made his way to Joel who stood at the side of the building. Said halfa was leaning against the building staring into the swirling void that was the Ghost Zone. Fright Knight called out to the teen to get his attention, "Joel."

Joel's sharp eyes snapped to full ghost, "Fright Knight, what are you doing out here?"

"I thought that I could use some air," Fright Knight explained as he stepped beside the halfa, "What about you? What has you so upset?"

"I'm not upset," Joel sighed and turned back the swirling void, "I'm just thinking, you know, about everything. Why I keep fighting when I don't really want to. Even after all this time...All the people that we lost even if I fought my hardest…It's disheartening. I don't know if I can keep doing it."

"Then perhaps you should take a break," Fright Knight suggested, "I know that Lord Phantom and Lady Spirit would support it. After everything you've gone through, a few months of clearing your head might do you some good."

"I want to, but…I don't feel like I can yet," Joel noted, "Something in my gut says that I need to harden my heart for just a bit more. Besides, I can't just walk away. If I'm not around to get my ecto boosts to keep me stable, I'll dissolve in a few days."

Fright Knight fingered the blade that he still had hanging by his side, "Perhaps there will be a way soon enough. You never know what the king is working on. Perhaps he will find a way to stabilize you for good."

"Maybe," Joel agreed, "But I don't think I should get my hopes up. Doing that always leads to disappointment…"

Out of the corner of his eye, the Fright Knight saw a few of the young people on his king's Team walking around the building, "Perhaps we should take a walk and continue this talk, young knight. You can tell me more of your perspective on these matters, and how you are dealing with the Boy Wonder's passing."

Also seeing Mal and Karin nearby, Joel nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that."

As they moved away, Mal and Karin continued the conversation they were having, not even noticing as the ghosts went in the opposite direction. The anger flashing on Karin's face made drew both of their focus away from everything else, "Mal, you need to tell me what's wrong. You've barely been talking to me for a month."

Mal rubbed the back of his head, "Babe, I'm sorry…I've just been thinking."

"About what?" Worry flashed through Karin's chest, "About us? Do you want to…break up?"

Mal's eyes widened, "What? No. I love you. It has nothing to do our relationship. I guess I'm just not used to being so useless."

"Useless? You're not useless," Karin argued.

"Really? I seemed pretty useless when you were captured by a crazy cult," Mal shook his head, "I couldn't do anything, and it sucks."

"Everything worked out," Karin said with a terse tone, "We all contribute in different ways, Mal. I mean, my suit lets me shrink. I wasn't able to do anything against Trigon, but that didn't stop me from contributing in a different way."

"But I feel like I should have a different role than I do," Mal rubbed his temple to prevent a headache, "I feel like I need to do something…more. I don't know what, but there's something. I just need some time to find it. To think. Can you give me that?"

Karin sighed, "Fine. Take all the time you need to…think. I'm just going to go back inside and enjoy some of the buffet."

"Are you mad?" Mal questioned.

Karin glared at him, "I'm not mad."

"You look mad."

"I'm not mad," Karin hissed. She took a calming breath, "I'm just not used to you acting so wishy washy. Come find me when you're willing to talk instead of think."

Giving Mal one last look, Karin turned and walked away. Mal watched her go feeling a large pit in his stomach. He had really been ignoring Karin for the past month. It wasn't done out of malice. No, he was just distracted by his growing insecurities and the possibility of change brought by the book left to him from Poindexter.

Reaching into his jacket, Mal pulled out the book and a pen. Opening it, he began to write, 'I'm tired of this. You need to tell me about the horn now.'

Mal had to wait a minute before he got his response.

 _Yes. You're right. I'm sorry for postponing this for so long, but I had to wait for the right time._

'Right time for what?'

 _For you to see the greater picture. With the end near, I don't have the time to teach you anymore. Are you ready?_

'Yes. I'm ready.'

 _Are you sure? There's no going back from this._

'I'm sure. Tell me the truth.'

 _There is no tell. I can only show._

To Mal's shock, a hand popped out from the book. It grabbed him by the face and pulled him into the book. In a blast of light, Mal's massive form was pulled straight through the pages. Then, the book seemed to collapse into itself, leaving no trace of anything behind and no witnesses who saw what happened.

* * *

Mary bowed her head to the Box Ghost, "I-I don't think that we've properly met. I'm Mary, and I…I kind of knocked your eye out…"

"I'll take my part of the blame," Freddy grimaced and looked away, "We were really inexperience in our powers…which we don't have anymore, so beating us up would be like kicking a three legged puppy."

Box Ghost chuckled. He held a fidgety Box Lunch in his arm. Said little girl was trying to reach out to play with the food on the table but was held back because her father didn't want her to get her white dress dirty, "Don't worry. I'm glad that you stopped me. Who knows what would have happened if you heroes hadn't been there to stop me and save my family. That reminds me, we should go thank Zatanna again…Dear?"

"Look at that…" Lunch Lady was glaring at the buffet table, "All the fruits and vegetables…not enough meat…"

"Cheese cubes!" Box Lunch giggled as she pointed down at the plate in front of her.

Box Ghost sighed, "On second thought about saving the family things…Kidding, kidding."

Freddy gave a small smile, "Well, I'm glad you're so cool about it. Considering the stories I've heard…"

"Being a dad changes you, kid," Box Ghost laughed, "I don't go around telling people to 'beware' anymore."

"Beware!" Box Lunch clapped her hands, "I love bewares! Do it again, daddy!"

Box Ghost got right up to her, "Beware."

"Yeah!"

From across the table, Johnny smiled at the scene. It was oddly uplifting to him for some reason, even if his chest felt tighter. Beside him, Kitty's fingers began to twitch. She leaned into to whisper in his ear, "That seems…familiar."

"Really? I don't think so. It's sweet and makes me feel…" Johnny paused as he assessed the feelings in his chest, "Wanting? Is that a feeling? Like I'm missing something…"

Kitty nodded as she watched the little girl play with her father. No noticed as her hands slid beneath the table, and she began to clench and unclench her hands. Oddly enough, the wood above her fingers gained small gashes every time her fingers twitched.

* * *

Jenifer hummed as she exited her bathroom stall and made her way to the sink. She kept her satisfied smile firmly in place as she began to lather her hands, "No use hiding. I know you're there."

Ember stepped around the corner leading to the door and leaned against the wall, "Hey there, Jenifer. Long time no argue."

"Shouldn't you be on stage, pop star?" Jenifer still hadn't looked up. Her eyes were focused solely on rinsing the soap off her hands.

"Even rock stars need bathroom breaks," Ember's eyes never left Jenifer's smiling face.

Jennifer giggled and turned off the water, "Oh? And do they also wait until their old flame's current girlfriend's alone to decide to take their bathroom breaks?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Ember's words came out as dull droll.

"I'm sure," Jenifer happily dried her hands, "What did you want exactly? I don't think Vision would appreciate you starting a fight today."

"Trust me, I know," Ember examined her nails, "That's why I won't fight you today. I'm here to give you a warning."

"Again? How many people do I have to get warnings from," Jenifer shook her head in amusement. Turning to the ghost, she placed a hand on her hip and smiled, "Danny's a big boy. He can make his own decisions. And trust me, he's made his decision already today."

Ember examined the satisfaction in Jenifer's eyes, "I can see that. But I'm not warning you to not hurt Danny. I already did that with Valerie a long time ago. That's because I saw her as someone that Danny could be with for the rest of their lives. Danny would grow more and more attached to her over time. You, though, I don't believe that for a second."

Suddenly, Jenifer's expression, "Excuse me?"

"You and Danny have a shelf life," Ember's eyes shined with amusement, "It's common sense. That's why everyone's giving you warnings. That ship has already sailed though. You are going to cause Danny pain, because I can see it in your eyes. You're a person that delights in evil, and if that hasn't died down after knowing Danny for years, then it won't ever change. And when either Danny or you finally admit it, which will be soon, then it will be over. Love between justice and evil doesn't work."

A sudden twist in Jinx's expression made Ember blink, "Oh my God…Pshhahahahahahahaa! You…you actually believe that you can drag Danny down to your level, don't you? Your mission hasn't change in all the years you've known him. Oh, oh Lord, that's hilarious…I can't breathe…"

Jenifer got right in Ember's face, "Shut your mouth."

"Girl, you are really deluded," Ember shook her head, "Don't worry, I won't talk to Danny or anyone about this at all. I know how it will look. Me being his ex after all. Instead, I'll just watch you crash and burn."

"Then why did you say that this was a warning?" Jenifer questioned.

"Easy," Ember pushed Jenifer back and made her way back to the door. Looking back she flashed one large smile, "I plan to make a move when you ultimately break up. I thought I'd be polite and give you a heads up."

"You broke up years ago. Danny moved on. Why haven't you?" Accusation dripped from Jenifer's voice.

"I did because my obsession was set. Now, though…things have changed. I learned about my past and kept my sanity. That means I'm now one of the few ghosts strong enough to change what I want," Now it was Ember's turn to look satisfied, "If Val was still alive, I never would have thought about going back to Danny, cause she made him happy. But if he's going to be single soon…Well, we were a good match before. We supported each other. The only thing that separated us was our obsessions. With that problem out of the way...why not have my cake and eat it too?"

* * *

Danny silently stood. Seeing that Jenifer had returned from the bathroom and Ember was still taking a break, it was as good as a time of any for this. Raising his glass, he loudly tapped it with a spoon to get everyone to turn their attention to him, "Alright. As best man, it's my job to give a toast, isn't it? Don't worry, Vlad. I'll only embarrass you a little bit."

Chuckles spread through the room.

"When I first met Vlad, he was a fruit loop—"

"You said only a little bit, Daniel."

"Don't worry. I won't go into the details," Danny waved him off, "We were enemies and fought a lot. Things change, though, and now we're good friends. We've both evolved from who we were, and I think that's the whole point. Who we are now is not exactly who we were before because we all help make each other better. And no two people make each other better than Vlad and Vision."

Said newlywed couple reached over and clutched each other's hands.

"You two are both controlling, manipulative, and a bit too proud for your own good, but you keep each other in check," Danny's grin grew, "Hell, you make the other actually tolerable people, and that's saying something."

Another round of chuckles sounded out through the room.

"Joking aside, though," Danny stated when the chuckles died down, "Vlad, Vision, I love the both of you, and I'm happy that you met each other. I've never met people who naturally clicked like you. I wish only happiness for the two of you," Danny raised his glass, "To Vlad and Vision!"

Everyone cheered and raised their classes as well. For the happy couple, the day had been perfect. Surrounded by friends and family they never thought they'd have, the two of them felt like the future was incredibly bright.

* * *

 _Everything about that day was just perfect for me. After so much suffering, that was my reprieve. Even as we remembered who was lost in that past year, we looked forward toward the possibility of the future. Life seemed to be filled everywhere, and the possibilities were so bright that we were blinded to the darkness that creeped right at our feet._

 _Such day of joy…The last day of joy…God, how often have I relived that day in my head? I lost count over the years. It's one of the few things that kept me going through the years. Mom…Dad…I love you both so much…I miss you…_

 _No. Not just them. Everyone. I remember all of their faces. My family and friends. That was the last time we were all together, wasn't it? It was the last day any bit of my childhood and cheer was still alive, because the worst event in human history was waiting on the doorstep of the very next day._

 _The End…The final chapter of the Phantom Family…Earth's Blackest Night…It was finally there. Nekron was ready to move, but he gave that last day of great joy just so that he could steal that joy away. Personally, I don't know just how much he planned ahead, but in the end, it seemed like he knew everything that would happen, because…_

 _The destruction of Hope, Cheer, and Endurance was all signaled at the end of that wedding. It had nothing to do with what any of my family or even Nekron did. No, the signal was caused by another outside force._

 _The opening of two sleeping eyes._

-From the personal memoirs of Danielle Masters

* * *

Deep within the Ghost Zone's medical facility, various robed ghosts were moving around checking the various machines and charts. Everything was calm as they moved around the various medical tubes that contained different ghosts. Oddly enough, though, the ghosts seemed to be slowing down. None of them noticed as their movements became more and more sluggish until they were all frozen.

Not only were the ghosts influenced by this strange phenomenon, the machines were affected as well. The sound was silenced as the machine's reading froze in place. Even the liquid inside the tubes holding the injured ghosts became completely immobile. It was almost like someone pressed the pause button on life.

Suddenly, one of the tubes shattered. Glass scattered across the room. The liquid in the healing tube spilled out and onto the floor. Nevertheless, the being inside the tube did not fall. He continued to float calmly in the now broken move. Like the other ghosts, he remained completely immobile like he was effected by the pause button as well. All that changed, though, when deep crimson eyes snapped open.

Clockwork was finally awake once more.

* * *

 **Next update: "Clockwork" on July 4, 2016**

 **Yes, welcome to the story's final arc where every cliffhanger is worse than the last. You probably thought I forgot about Clockwork, didn't you? Well guess what, I don't forget about any of my characters. Never...Except Sphere and Wolf. I realized that I didn't give them a role during the Trigon arc so I added an explanation in this chapter that they were hurt. I blame the lack of dialogue.**

 **My nickname for this arc is, "Dear God, why did I have to create so many subplots? This is going to kill me!" Seriously, when I first planned out this arc, I realized that this will be twice the length of all the other arcs. Maybe closer to three times as long...I'm not kidding. Four years of planning. Two and three fourths stories of buildup. Fourteen total subplots. One giant conclusion for almost everything I've set up since the start of Obsession. Buckle up, this is going to be an experience. Hopefully a good one, but I've never tried anything close to as ambitious as this one arc.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	25. Clockwork

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"I too often see people killing caterpillars and then complaining there are not enough butterflies."

Unknown

* * *

Chapter 25: "Clockwork"

(Sunday-May 18, 2014)

Clockwork groaned as he stumbled out of the medical tube. He crashed onto the ground causing a splash of the medical liquid. With a grunt, he shakily floated up and looked around to the frozen ghosts in the medical facility. He then closed his eyes and forced himself to remember what had happened. Why was he here…

Oh right. Nekron was attacking. He freed Dark Dan. Then there was darkness. What happened in the time of his sleep? Using his ability to read time, Clockwork took in the information of what had occurred in the eight months that he had been under. He saw le Fey's attack, the Sorcerer Initiative, Trigon's invasion, and everything that happened in between those events.

"It's worse than I thought it would be…" Clockwork mumbled as he gently rubbed his temples in order to lessen the headache that now plagued him.

"Of course it is," A rip in the space in front of Clockwork opened to allow Poindexter to step back into reality, "Did you really think that releasing Dark Dan would fix everything?"

"No, but I thought he would do more…" Clockwork eyed Poindexter, "It's good to see that you've stepped up in my absence."

"Someone had to. But I made sure to keep an eye on you so you can take the place back. I hate it," Poindexter let out a sigh, "But considering the coincidence of the timing, I'm guessing that I won't be able to step into the background any time soon."

"And you call completely disappearing after the Sorcerer Initiative being in the spotlight?" Clockwork gained an amused look.

"I was prepared to step in if necessary. Luckily, Trigon's invasion went without any big casualties that could have been avoided," Poindexter gained a sad look, "As for Robin and Joker…It's cruel of me to say, but it wasn't big enough to justify revealing myself to Nekron's wrath."

"Such is the burden of power and knowledge. Some sacrifices are meant to happen," Clockwork paused, "If it does cheer you up, I do believe that some bit of good will come out of the death of Robin. Two heroes can possibly rise from those ashes."

"I know, but that's in another timeline," Poindexter fixed his classes, "We must focus on this one. Neither of those heroes can rise if Nekron gets his way. Because I cannot not see the possible branching storylines anymore."

"Neither can I," Clockwork nodded, "That means that either our ends are near or the end of everything is near."

"Or both," Poindexter's voice was filled with anything but hope.

"Indeed," Clockwork's adult image shifted for the first time since he was awoken. He now appeared as a young child, "But do not despair, young scholar. We still have one last ace. Danny Phantom has been made into the key to saving everything. But he won't be able to do it alone."

"I have taken the methods needed to get some help that Nekron won't be expecting…but it may take some time that we don't have," Poindexter looked Clockwork over as he reached into his pocket and gently gripped the mirror of memories, "You were in the coma for so long because Nekron had a hold on you. Why let go now?"

"I…I don't know…" Clockwork's face scrunched up in thought, "All I remember is releasing Daniel. Then, there's nothing. Even reading the timeline proves useless. The time between the darkness and my body being found is a dead space."

"He wants you to interfere," Poindexter noted, "Perhaps the best course of action for us would be to stay out of this."

"If we do that, then we know everyone will die. The end will happen regardless. The only possibility for change lies in what we do now," Clockwork argued.

"Fair enough, but what if Nekron somehow influenced your decisions about what to do?" Poindexter questioned, "We can't chance the possibility of just doing what he wants us to do."

"I'm glad you thought of that. It justifies my decision to put you in charge of our mission."

"Say what now?"

"You have studied these people. You know them and the best course of action it will be to take with them. I trust your judgement."

Poindexter gave Clockwork an exasperated look, "You might change your mind when I tell you what first comes to mind."

"Try me."

* * *

 _(Monday-April 24, 1995)_

 _Clockwork floated above the simple crib that held a rather silent and exhausted babe. Even though the baby was now in a lot better shape than it had been a few hours ago, he was still being watched closely to make sure that nothing else went wrong. By the crib, two new parents slept. The mother lie in a simple cot while the father sat rather awkwardly on a chair. Their obvious love and care for the child warmed Clockwork's heart and reminded him why he still believed so strongly in the good of humanity._

 _Looking back to the babe, Clockwork still amazed about how small and weak it looked. The small tuff of black hair on top of its head held a deep contrast of his nearly deathly pale skin. If it weren't for the small movements of the baby's chest, Clockwork would have sworn that he was looking at a corpse._

 _It was so strange that such a weak baby would grow into one of the most powerful beings to ever live. Whether that power would be used for good or evil was still up for debate. Hell, there was even the possibility that he would refuse to use his powers at all. Such was the babe's greatest strength. The power to change fate…_

" _Does it have to be this way?" Clockwork questioned to seemingly no one. What he was actually addressing quickly revealed itself. In the space next to the ghost, an elderly man in a dark cloak took the place of the nothingness that one existed in that spot. The giant book in his hand showed that the new figure respected knowledge, but the obvious blindness of his unfocused eyes revealed that he would never be able to gaze upon the content of any book._

" _In a world without the Phantom, no," Destiny mentioned to his favored ghost, "But the First Prophecy exists. The universe knows of his coming. He will be necessary."_

 _Clockwork's eyes snapped to the ghost, "We were the one that created the Phantom in the first place."_

" _If I recalled correctly, you had once readily agreed with the decision to go back in time and place that false prophecy," Destiny stroked his beard, "What has caused you to change your mind?"_

" _Look," Clockwork peered down at the sleeping babe, "That is the face of innocence. Of potential. Of pure love. Why must we cause so much pain to someone so naturally filled with good. If we leave him be…If don't alter the machine to put that button on the inside…He will live a normal life."_

" _He can never live a normal life," Destiny argued, "He has been touched by both the Life Entity and my sister Death. He is the physical embodiment of the balance between those two forces. No matter what he does, he will be drawn to the conflict between the living and dead in some capacity. We can only provide him with the right tools to do so."_

" _You only can say that so easily because you won't have to face him when he suffers. You won't have to see his eyes as he accuses me of the wrong doing that I have done. His family…the ones that guard over him as we speak and the ones he will protect in the future…" Clockwork clenched his fists, "He will lose so much and gain nothing. In the end, he's just another sacrifice so that this universe can keep living on."_

" _Clockwork…" Destiny shook his head, "That's what we all are in the end."_

" _But we had a choice," Clockwork looked incredibly guilty, "Daniel never had a choice. That damned prophecy lied. It is not his choices that will shape things. It was ours."_

" _Now, you're underestimating him," Destiny noted, "In the end, he has the power to change everything. We cannot control him from now on."_

" _But I will need to prevent that dark future."_

" _That you will. And that won't be the only future that will need to be changed," Destiny stated, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have siblings to calm down. They are quite upset that Death and I have chosens when they do not. I must prevent their jealousy from causing them to pick people who will not fit their domains. Goodbye, Clockwork."_

" _Goodbye, Destiny."_

 _With Destiny now completely gone, Clockwork just silently watched as young Daniel continued to sleep. Truth be told, it was probably just the raw innocence in front of him that caused him to waiver. The child will grow up. Perhaps then, it will be easier to face him. Right now, though…_

 _Clockwork reached down to gently pat the baby's head, "I'm so sorry, young one. For your suffering. For loss. For your future…and for your death."_

* * *

Clockwork floated on the abandoned ground of the Sorcerer Initiative. Much of the area and rubble of the buildings was not starting to get overgrown by the grass and weeds popping up from the rubble. Oddly enough, a small bit of land was well kept with flowers planted on the bit of land. The ghost of time recognized the area as the spot where Cujo had passed. It seemed like someone returned to show respect.

As Clockwork stared at the small pack of flowers, a portal opened up behind him. The magical rift in reality shifted and allowed a single figure to step out the open area. The space around them immediately became tense and heavy.

"So, Clockwork, you're finally awake," Dark Dan crossed his arms and stared at the Master of Time, "About damn time."

"Yes, my coma lasted longer than it should have, but I'm just grateful to still be alive," Clockwork turned to address the other ghost, "Thank you for coming, Daniel. I hoped that your standing as a being out of time would allow you to sense the time fluctuations I've been using."

"Yeah, felt it as soon as you woke up. There was no way I was going to the Ghost Zone, though. If Nekron didn't immediately come after me, then my alternate self would," Dark Dan noted.

"Indeed. Speaking of which, we should probably keep this as short as possible," Clockwork suggested, "Nekron's forces are probably scattered, but he won't want either of us interacting like this. He'll send a group to come kill us. I can only shield our location for a few minutes."

"That should be enough," Dark Dan uncrossed his arms and gave Clockwork a steady look, "It's not like I'm going to question why you let me out. That's obvious at this point. I'm sure you have a complaint or two, though."

"Yes, I did expect you to do more," Clockwork frowned.

"It wasn't like I could fight beside the heroes. That would only divide their attention and get more of the dumbasses killed," Dark Dan explained, "I did try to give a subtle warning to the youngest half-ghost. Subtle enough so that Nekron wouldn't outright kill the kid, but heavy enough to get his attention. Little shit didn't do anything after le Fey's attack, though. He even killed Klarion's stupid cat."

"You placed a heavy burden on a child."

"Oh, like you're one to talk."

Clockwork nodded, "Yes…I have placed more on this timeline's Daniel than I should have. That is something that I will regret forever. But any apologies I might give won't go to you. Now tell me, besides the stunt with Dusk, did you get anything accomplished?"

"I did. I found a way to fight Nekron. I got it at a time when everyone was blind to the picture except for Trigon, but he was a little preoccupied at the time," Dark Dan gained a massive grin, "Do you want to know what it is."

Dark Dan told Clockwork causing the Master of Time to gain wide eyed look, "No…you can't…"

"I can," Dark Dan's grin never left, "As of right now, I think I can fight Nekron evenly, but I'd be stupid to just rush in. He does have those Black Lanterns of his."

"Indeed," Clockwork nodded, "That's why I have a plan."

"Oh?"

Clockwork revealed the plan.

Dark Dan didn't look convinced, "Really? Do you think anyone would go for that?"

"No. But it was not my plan. It came from Poindexter," Clockwork explained, "He, like his master, loves a good plot twist. It may seem like it is an impossible plan to pull off, but think about it. If it works for even a few minutes, Nekron wouldn't stand a chance. In fact, no one in this universe would stand a chance."

"Well…" Dark Dan stroked his chin, "I'd be willing to go for it just because I want Nekron out of the way. As for my other self, though, I don't think that will work. He doesn't know Nekron well enough to let the fear overtake his pride."

"Don't worry. I will convince him."

"You?"

"Yes," Clockwork nodded. His childlike appearance shifted for the second time that day. He was now in his adult form, "Besides, I need to tell him everything. He deserves to know the whole truth."

"The whole truth?"

"Yes, now go get ready. Rendezvous when you convince le Fey that the investment is worth the entertainment," Clockwork ordered, "By that time, Danny Phantom will be ready to fulfill the destiny we have set up for him."

* * *

 _(Thursday-November 5, 2009)_

 _Clockwork floated over a scene frozen in time. He stared at a horror stricken Danny Fenton. The fourteen year old boy lie exhausted and beaten on the asphalt. The boy was reaching out screaming out a loud no as the Nasty Burger's core overheated to extreme proportions and was about to explode. That wasn't what was causing the boy's massive amounts of panic and despair. No, it was the people who were about to be consumed by the explosion that was causing the halfa's breakdown._

 _For the first time since the boy's birth, Clockwork felt guilt. Even when he watched the boy's accident, these feelings of guilt didn't pop up at all. If anyone deserved the power of half-ghost, it was Danny Phantom. This, though, was entirely different. People were about to die, and he couldn't do anything to save them._

 _His ability to manipulate the time stream had long since stretched too far. The little tweaks he changed were one thing, but this…securing the change from Dark Dan into the Catalyst for the Life Entity? It was the maximum amount he ever could do without the certainty of a paradox and the time stream rebelling to set everything back the way it was before his manipulation._

 _As such, these people were now meant to die. Such was the price for securing the future of everything. Sometimes the few had to suffer. It was a bitter but very real truth. One that Danny would learn unfortunately._

 _Staring at the crying boy, Clockwork felt his own eyes mist up as well. Oh, what he wouldn't give to just save Daniel's family. Daniel had learned his lesson. Undoing this wouldn't lead to trouble. In fact, he would still do good deeds in this world. He would never reach his full potential, but he would live a far happier life._

 _In another world, perhaps that would have been the case. If Daniel lived in a world where meta-humans were rare, then this would be a completely different story. Unfortunately, this world…this universe needed Danny Phantom in the spotlight. Not just for his power, but for those that he would inspire and build up. If Danny Phantom did not go down the path that would allow him to reach his full potential, then the world would lose some of its greatest protectors._

 _Dani would always be in the background trying to keep herself from dying._

 _Joel would waste away beneath the weight of the League of Shadows._

 _Vlad would forever remain in his darkness and corruption._

 _Vision, Colossus, and Torch would never gain their spotlight._

 _Nyx…Raven…Youngblood…And many more youngsters would never reach their potential._

 _So many ghosts would just waste away._

 _The Phantom Family would never be created._

 _And the girl…The one Destiny spoke of…The one that existed beyond even his sight…Luna Fenton. She would never exist._

 _He couldn't let that happen. The universe needed them, and for the universe to receive them, this tragedy must occur. There was no question about it. This was necessary. Why did it have to hurt so much, though? He was about to cause the boy so much pain._

" _I'm sorry, Daniel," Clockwork whipped his misty eyes, "You are going to suffer a lot in the next year and a half. I could have stopped it, but the future needs you to become the person that can change fate. Not just for Nekron…For so much more. Please forgive me."_

 _Clockwork gave the boy one last look of pity before turning away and disappearing._

" _Time in."_

 _The explosion continued unchanged. Six people were consumed by the flames, and one boy's future was forever altered._

* * *

Clockwork floated in a giant white hallway. Different paintings hang from the wall. The people in those paintings were also currently sitting around the large round at the center of the hall. All the people at the table were staring right at the ghost. Even with all of his power and knowledge, Clockwork had to fight not to falter under their gaze. This strange group of people were beyond even him.

"Clockwork, old friend, please sit," Destiny gestured to the open chair at the end of the table.

"Thank you," Clockwork slid into the seat.

A pale, tired looking man with dark ring rings around his eyes and hair that could only be described as what a person would have after just waking up eyed the ghost, "Another visitor? Jeeze, we've been getting a lot of them lately."

"Please, Dream," The palest woman Clockwork had ever seen spoke. She had her black hair pulled up into a pony tail. Her red lips and eyes basically jumped out at him in contrast to her flawless pale skin. Her beauty and body were something that men fantasized about and woman envied, "Danny Phantom was here years ago. That's a pretty decent gap."

"Considering that we usually only have a visitor once every couple of centuries, this is pretty often, Desire," Dream argued.

A rather chubby woman with a thick face and dark eyes let out a laugh. Oddly enough, this woman had red tattoos running all along her body, "He's got you there, Desire."

Desire glared at the larger woman, "Shut it, Despair. No one asked you."

"Oh, God," Destruction rubbed his forehead tiredly, "Do we have to go through this again? Jesus…"

"Destruction has a point," Death nodded. A calm smile covered her features, "We shouldn't argue right now. This should be serious."

"We're always serious, but none of us are constellations!" Delirium giggled, "Our seriousness is because the stars are in so much danger. If Earth's life sun goes out, then all the stars blink out."

Dream gave Delirium a confused look, "What?"

"Just go with it, Dream. Her words are far truer than any of you realize," Destiny noted, "After all, Nekron's overall target has been obvious from the start. He is obsessed with death. To him, everyone must die, and what's the fastest way to do that?"

"Kill the Life Entity," Death answered calmly.

"Indeed," Destiny nodded, "Not even we would survive that."

Despair seemed to revel in that realization, "Oh goodness…The thought of that hopelessness…It's glorious."

"Temptation always sounds good when you hear it," Desire argued, "But that doesn't mean that it will be good for you."

"I know, but the thought of it gives me a high alone. If it actually happened…"

"It won't," Death gained a conflicted look, "The Life Entity made sure of it. Danny has already been made into the Catalyst."

"So that was what that whole conversation was about…" Dream tiredly rubbed his eyes, "I could barely hear it when the kid was asleep. And if I had trouble, then he probably doesn't remember a thing of it."

"And that is the greatest down side," Clockwork spoke up again, "He was never given the choice."

"Considering what's at stake, it's not like the Entity could just ask," Destruction rolled his eyes.

"Danny would have accepted," Death glared at him, "Don't take anything away from him like that. He's proven himself."

"You let your affection for the boy cloud your judgement."

"Oh, like you're one to talk. Did you have to visit Joel? And did Delirium need to watch over Dani? You both get the chance to see them, and you can't contain yourselves. So don't you criticize me," Death looked borderline angry. This caused all the sane members at the table to shift uncomfortably. Death rarely got angry. When she did, no sane person wanted to get in her way.

No one ever called Delirium sane, though, "Maybe we can. You've met with our chosen as well. You treated Joel like the mother he lost, and Dani like the older sister she always wanted. Can you blame us for wanting to be something more than unknown sponsors in their lives when you already played pretend with them?"

"I only met with them when it involved my element," Death argued, "You two just abused the weakened dimensional barrier. You can't compare those instances."

"I think we can. Because we just have an interest in them. You, however, love him,"

"Excuse me?"

"Not as a lover…or a mother…or a sibling…" Delirium tapped her finger to her lips in thought, "But it is love. Perhaps it's because he's the only one that both denies and accepts you. I can't think of anything to compare it too, though. Maybe…self-love?"

Death's face was completely blank, "Perhaps…I have grown too attached to him. I argued his life over the lives of an entire universe. That is something he would do…"

"He influences those around him," Clockwork nodded, "That's what he does."

"In both a good and bad way," Destiny noted, "He has indeed softened you both over time. Remember our duties are not to him."

"But it won't make this easier," Clockwork mentioned, "I should go to him now. Seeing as you are all here, I'm guessing that you are prepared for your part as well?"

"We are."

"Good," Clockwork rose from his chair, "That was all I needed."

"Yeah, it should have only took like five minutes but you all wouldn't shut up," Destruction grunted.

"I will take my leave," Clockwork's form began to disappear, "Goodbye, Destiny."

"Goodbye, my old friend. Thank you."

When he was gone, the Endless fell into silence once more. None of them felt like talking. Especially considering how upset Death looked in that moment. Delirium once again found herself the only exception to the silence.

"Death…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No. You were right. I've done my job wrong again. Letting my personal feelings influence how I care for the dead is unfair. I have grown to love him. The comparison you were looking for was pretty simple, though. I love him like that of my favorite character in a story. One who I don't want to die no matter what. And that is very selfish of me. Sometimes for the story to continue, a character must die, even the fan favorites."

* * *

 _(Wednesday-May 26, 2010)_

 _Clockwork stood in his domain. His largest clock showed the images of Danny Phantom and Agent Z fighting. That battle had happened several hours ago, yet Clockwork had replayed it over one hundred times by now. It never ceased to amaze him. Danny Phantom never ceased to amaze him._

 _Even though he knew it would happen…It was just awe inspiring. For once in a long time, Clockwork felt justified in the pat they were taking. They had given the power of godhood to a fifteen year old boy, and he had moved past his own problems to let it go. Part of Clockwork felt that he wouldn't have even been able to do that._

 _Despite the greatness of the conclusion of the war between the Guys in White and the ghosts, Clockwork felt the worry return with a vengeance as the high eventually died down. Unfortunately, things were only going to get harder for the half-ghost. With the Light and Freakshow now free to run wild, who knew what Danny would do? Clockwork could predict all the possible outcomes, but that didn't mean that he knew for certain. With every choice Danny Phantom made, his vision of the future became dimmer and dimmer. Most likely, everything would accumulate into Freakshow's final breakdown of reality. There was a high chance based on what he saw from alternate worlds._

 _In the end, he believed that story would end fine. The next one, though…That was what troubled him most of all. By that time, his entire vision of the future would fade to black. There were be nothing left besides what Destiny had hinted at in their talks. Nekron. The Endless. The Entity. Dark future._

 _Legacy._

 _That was the thing that had drawn most of Clockwork's attention. What was this Legacy that he and Danny Phantom would leave behind?_

* * *

Danny let out a sigh of content as he stepped out of the beach house onto the patio. The gentle breeze brushed up against his skin and drifted a bit of the sand across the beach. Leaning his shirtless form onto the railing of the patio, he watched as the sun began to rise over the ocean. It was such a beautiful sight. He was so glad that he agreed to come here with Jen. This was the most relaxed he felt in a long time.

"Danny."

Danny's eyes widened at the familiar voice. He instantly turned around to see Clockwork staring at him, "Clockwork?"

"You've grown, Danny Phantom. It's good to see you."

"You're awake?" Danny reached into his pocket and checked on his phone, "But no one notified me…"

"No one knows. I froze the ghosts that had been taking care of me. They will be fine. I made sure that they're safe. Safer than most of us actually," Clockwork noted.

"Jeeze…" Danny gave Clockwork a fond smile, "I still don't understand anything you say, but it's damn good to feel confused by you again. We should head back to Amity Park. I'm sure that everyone will want to see you."

"No. You can't go back there. Nekron has set a trap there."

Danny's eyebrows shot up, "Excuse me?"

"Sorry. That was a bit too abrupt," Clockwork apologized, "I meant to say that Nekron reconstructed a body a long time ago, he's created an army, and he's now ready to destroy the world."

Danny gave Clockwork a steady look before turning back to the ocean and sighing, "Damn it. Can't I get one damn month without this type of shit happening. Alright, so Amity Park is out. I'll call the people there, and we'll meet up at the Cave."

"No, you don't understand. Nekron is already prepared to attack everywhere."

"Oh for the love of…" Danny face palmed, "I am way too used to these kinds of situations. What do we need to do?"

"I need you to wake Jenifer and get her prepped for battle," Clockwork noted, "I have already assembled a team. Wait here for them to arrive, and they will tell you everything."

"Really? You still have to do this vague talk? I'm not fourteen years old anymore, Clockwork," Danny gained an annoyed look, "Could you please treat me like an adult?"

Clock's face twisted with guilt, "It's not that Daniel. I just…It's more guilt than anything."

"Guilt?" Danny shook his head, "Clockwork, I get that you're limited in what you can do. I don't blame you for anything anymore."

"You should," Clockwork clenched his staff. His adult form shifted for the final time that day into that of an old man, "I am to blame for so much."

"Excuse me?"

"Everything that has happened occurred because of the little things that I've done through your life. Your birth. Your childhood. Your transformation. Your alternate self. Your struggles to find yourself. You should blame them all on me. I set you on this long path," Clockwork suddenly looked incredibly tired for a person that had just woken up.

"Clockwork…" Danny scoffed, "You only directly interfered twice in my life. You shouldn't—"

"Was it really only two?" Clockwork questioned, "Who was it that went back to establish the First Prophecy?"

Danny was silent.

"Do you really think that brilliant inventors would place the on button to their interdimensional portal on the inside?"

Danny was still silent.

"And the situation around your birth…Do you really think that it all happened on coincidence?"

"Alright, so maybe you did a few more things, but my choices are my choices," Danny argued, "You can't take them from me."

"True. Every choice was your own. But I did set up the circumstances where you needed to make choices. Destiny and I tried to manipulate everything for the best possible outcome. Especially when we directed so many young heroes to your city. It was all for the greater good. Never once was it for your best as an individual," Clockwork argued back, "And for that…for that…"

"What, Clock—" Danny paused his sentence for a moment when Clockwork pulled him into a hug, "Work?"

"I'm deeply sorry, Danny. For everything," Clockwork pulled back, "I just want you to know that I've always believed in you. Now get ready. The final battle approaches."

"Wait," Danny reached out as Clockwork drifted away, "I don't understand."

"You will soon. Goodbye, Danny Phantom, it was an honor to know you," Clockwork's form drifted away leaving Danny to ponder the conversation that just transpired.

* * *

 _(Friday-January 7, 2011)_

 _It was over. That was Clockwork realized as he cleaned up his table. The Light was pushed back, and Freakshow was defeated. Danny Phantom had found himself at last, and peace was finally attained for the Phantom Family. For once, things seemed to be bright, but Clockwork knew better. Darkness was hiding in the horizon._

 _Danny Phantom had just left after their conversation about the events of the past few days involving the Light, Freakshow, and the Endless. Through it all, Clockwork tried to tell as much of the truth as he could, but he couldn't reveal what the next trial would be. Not that he even really knew. His sight to the future had reached its limit. There was no way of predicting the future at this point._

 _That meant only one thing for him. His end was imminent. Clockwork had long since pondered what death would be like for him. After all, he had never really been alive in the first place. Could ghosts that were created by ideas even go into the afterlife? Clockwork wasn't sure. Oddly enough, though, he wasn't scared. He was more fascinated by the thought of going into a situation with no knowledge of what happened._

 _It would be almost like he actually was human. That was a nice thought._

 _Still, part of him wished that he would be able to see the end of everything. If they actually managed to survive Nekron, there were still cogs in the machine still plotting in the background. He had to wonder how they would be dealt with if what Destiny had hinted at came true._

 _The Light. The Reach. Apocalypse. The different Lanterns. The Tameranean Empire. Brainiac. Zod. Starbreaker. And…_

… _Dark Dan…_

 _It always came down to Dark Dan. All roads always ended with him as the Ultimate Enemy, and if there was no Danny Phantom to fight the darker Phantom, then there would only be destruction. It was for that reason that Clockwork was reluctant to release Dark Dan. In the end, though, if he didn't release Dark Dan then life wouldn't continue for that problem to even arise._

 _Pausing in his work, Clockwork looked up and sighed, "I hope you enjoy these next few years, Danny Phantom. Treasure them, because the peace will end soon enough, and the empire you have built up will fall leaving behind only a single Legacy to fix things. I wonder what type of person this Legacy will be."_

* * *

Clockwork floated at the end of a large hall with torches lining both sides providing light to the dark hall. Different weapons hang from the walls giving the room a more medieval look. At the end of the hall where Clockwork floated there were a few steps leading up to where a throne should be. Instead of a throne, though, there was a large coffin with a keyhole at the chest.

It had been such a long time since he had last been in the throne room of the Ghost King. So many memories rushed through him as the stared the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. He remembered everything from his creation to his previous conversation with Danny Phantom. Part of him felt filled with comfort by the memories while the other part was filled with dread.

So it was true. One's life does flash before someone's eyes as death approaches.

" **Hello, Clockwork,** " Nekron spoke as he strode into the room. Black smoke rolled off the skeleton as he stepped towards the Master of Time, " **I hope you enjoyed your rest.** "

"It was actually quite peaceful until I woke up," Clockwork turned to face the other ghost, "Part of me wishes I was still asleep. The land of dreams seems a lot better than having to look at you."

" **Yet you still come to block my way,** " Nekron noted, " **I won't even ask how you knew that I would come for the Ghost King first. It was obvious that the ones that defeated be before would be my first targets.** "

"So you admit that you're after the King's Council as well," Clockwork gripped his staff tightly.

" **There would be no point in denying it. The way I see it, you won't run off to warn everyone because that would let me kill the Ghost King. So, I'll just kill you and be done with it,** " Nekron let out a chuckle.

"You act like you've already won," Clockwork snarled.

Nekron just grinned, " **Death…is the single most powerful force there is. Not even time can compete with it. Your powers will do nothing against me. Besides, I've been watching you, Clockwork. You have already dealt with the loose threads you left behind during your sleep. You already know that I'm going to kill you. Your form gives it away.** "

Clockwork denied nothing. His form had remained that of an old man for the entire conversation. He couldn't change even if he wanted to at this point.

" **So…** " Black energy poured from Nekron's hands to form a large scythe, " **Are you ready to die, older brother?** "

"Just because I formed right before you doesn't make us siblings," Clockwork readied his time staff.

" **I'll take that as a yes. Don't worry, you won't be alone in death. I'll be sending a lot more with you.** "

Clockwork gained a smug look, "That's assuming that you can get past Danny Phantom. He is your greatest enemy in all this you and your Lanterns only increase his power. There is no way you can kill him."

Nekron tilted his head to the side, " **HeheheheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So I was right! Not even you and Destiny know the truth! HAHAHAHA! That's hilarious! I don't want to kill Danny Phantom!** "

"What?"

Nekron rushed forward with his scythe raised high, " **I HAVE SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING PLANNED THAN THAT!** "

* * *

 _(Friday-September 13, 2013)_

 _The shaking continued to the point that the various clocks and mirrors began to crack and fall. Dark energy began to surge all around Clockwork and the ghost contained in the Thermos. With a wave of his hand, the Master of Time created a shield around them. The green energy bubble stopped the dark energy from getting to them, but explosions began to push against the shield. Their protection would quickly fall against the force of the blows._

 _"_ _Answer me, Clockwork!"_ _The voice shouted. "_ _What is happening?!"_

 _"Remember, Daniel, your existence is in the balance as well." Clockwork grabbed the thermos and lifted it up._

 _"_ _My existence?_ _"_

 _"I can only hope that I'm not creating an even bigger threat…" Clockwork mentioned. "If this fails…"_

 _"_ _Clockwork!"_

 _"Goodbye, Daniel. It is time." Clockwork raised his heads and looked at the explosions that were all around him. They had come for him. If he waited too long, then he would never have a chance. "And it begins…Beware the Phantom…"_

 _With that, Clockwork removed the cap from the thermos and pressed the release button to free one of the most dangerous ghosts in existence._

 _Dark Dan burst from the Thermos. He had a look with a strange combination of angry and confused. Just as he was about to demand more answers, the shield around them shattered. Black energy slammed into them, forcing them down. With a spark of rage, Dark Dan shot his head up and unleashed a Ghostly Wail. The sound of death carried through the hall as the physical sound waves pushed the black energy back and burned it away._

 _Once the wave of black energy was gone, Dark Dan stood back up and looked around Clockwork's domain. He recognized the three ghosts around them, "Nocturne and Aragon. You're still alive in this timeline? The alternate me must have a lot more patience than I do. You two annoyed me so much that I had to kill you right off the bat. The rants about nightmares and divine royalty gave me such a bad headache."_

 _The three Black Lanterns just calmly looked down on him._

" _And Hotep Ra. I remember you too. You swore loyalty to me. Of course, you tried to betray me once, so I tore off your arm and beat you with it for a few hours. Good times," Dark Dan's sharp grin, "How about we repeat those parts of my timeline right now?"_

" _Idiot," Clockwork hissed at Dan, "Run. You have to run. Why else would I say goodbye?"_

" _Please. The two of us can take them," Dark Dan noted, "Then, I'll beat the answers out of you."_

" _They aren't why you should run…" Clockwork looked to a hole in the wall. He couldn't see through the darkness beyond the hole, but he knew what was there, "He is."_

 _A dark presence fell over them. For the first time in years, Dark Dan felt fear creep up his spin. This Haunting Aura was insane. It was like death was holding a knife to his neck. Now sweating from the pressure, Dark Dan watched as a skeletal figure stepped into the barely still standing hall._

" _ **Hello, Clockwork, Dan Phantom,**_ _" The skeleton gave a smile that made Dark Dan even more fearful, "_ _ **My name is Nekron, and I have a proposition that you can't refuse.**_ _"_

" _Oh?" Dark Dan tried to put on a brave front, "And what's that?"_

 _Nekron chuckled, "_ _ **It's simple really. Serve me or die.**_ _"_

 _For some reason, Dark Dan felt like those really were the only options he had at the moment. If he tried to move, he would die. His instincts were screaming that at him. Before he could think of what he should do, a single note of paper appeared in front of the alternate Phantom._

" _That is all the knowledge I have of his plans," Clockwork noted, "Use that the best way you can. Remember that he's the real enemy. If you let him take Earth, then you will die to. You must find a way to combat him. Now go!"_

 _Clockwork stabbed his staff into the ground. Green energy blasted out in a massive wave all around him. The Black Lanterns and Nekron quickly blocked it with shield of dark energy, but it did not protect them. While his power to stop time would be useless against users of death energy, he could slow them down. Literally._

 _Dark Dan watched as they moved in slow motion. Their shields slowly dropping as they realized what had happened. His first thought was to try to kill Nekron while he was slowed down, but his gut told him that was a bad idea._

" _Run!" Clockwork ordered, "Nekron cannot get you under his control! You may not have Life within you like your alternate version, but you're still too powerful for Nekron to have. Go now!"_

 _For once, Dan decided to obey. Turning, he rocketed out of the area. None of the enemy had been near fast enough to stop him thanks to Clockwork. Even as Dark Dan disappeared, though, Clockwork held the slow down as long as he could until finally, he had to let go out of exhaustion. In a mere second, Nekron was in front of the sweating and exhausted Clockwork._

" _ **Little pest,**_ _" Nekron grabbed Clockwork by the neck, "_ _ **In the end, he might not have the key to Life like I thought he would, but that doesn't mean you can interfere.**_ _"_

" _Master," Nocturne looked to the ghost of death, "Should we go after the alternate Phantom?"_

" _ **No. That would draw too much attention. Besides, he's probably gone by now,**_ _" Nekron let out a sigh, "_ _ **Oh well. There will be others.**_ _"_

" _What do you want us do?" Aragon questioned._

" _ **Head back to my domain. I will finish up here,"**_ _Nekron ordered. Bowing, the three ghosts disappeared in a blast of black energy leaving Nekron and Clockwork alone, "_ _ **Now…what to do with you? I still need you alive for now, but I can't leave you unpunished.**_ _"_

" _Alive? Why…Why keep me alive?" Clockwork clawed at the hand holding his throat._

 _Nekron smiled, "_ _ **That would be telling. Don't you want at least one surprise in your life? And what a surprise it will be. It will be a while, though. We still have so much to go through. Morgan le Fey…the Light…Trigon…I will let them hold the spotlight for now. When they're inevitably defeated, then I'll step in.**_ _"_

 _Clockwork just glared at Nekron._

" _ **Don't worry, though. You won't have to wait for the finale**_ _," Nekron formed a massive ball of black energy in his free hand, "_ _ **To you, it will be just like skipping to the climax. Your awakening will signal the beginning of the end.**_ _"_

 _The giant ball of death exploded in a massive blast of black energy. Clockwork's entire domain fell beneath the force of the attack. Everything Clockwork owned and used to manipulate time was destroyed. As for the ghost himself, he slipped out of the land of consciousness and into a blissful rest beneath the rubble of his home._

 _Nekron calmly floated up from the wreckage and smiled, "_ _ **Because you, Clockwork, will be the first person to die by my hand since my defeat at the hands of the Ghost King.**_ _"_

* * *

Clockwork decided to try his most use power to try and get an edge for a few seconds. Pressing the timer on top of his staff, Clockwork shouted, "Time out!"

" **That won't work on me!** " Nekron brought his scythe down in an attempt to cut Clockwork into two separate pieces.

Cursing, Clockwork brought his staff up to stop the blade of the skeletal scythe from cutting him. While his block did manage to protect himself from damage, it didn't completely stop Nekron's power. Black energy poured from the weapon, around the Master of Time, and to the floor where it immediately began to decay to ground beneath Clockwork, showing that death and decay had influence over even the stone.

Laughing at Clockwork's failure to stop time, Nekron brought his leg up from his robe to reveal a skeletal foot. He smashed his leg into Clockwork's side sending the time ghost flying into the far wall. As soon as he made contact, Clockwork was forced to lunge to the side to avoid a black ball of energy from hitting him. He was instantly grateful that he did so. The black ball of death didn't explode when it made contact. Instead, it sunk further into the stone and continued forward as if the stone wasn't even then.

Frowning, Clockwork watched as the stone continued to decay away even as the ball had long since dug deep through the wall. That would have definitely killed him. It would be best to not let Nekron's energy touch him.

With that in mind, Clockwork flung himself up just in time to avoid Nekron's next attack. With his scythe raised above his head, the ghost of death swung his weapon around rapidly between his fingers. As the scythe spun, black energy extended from the blade to create a trail of energy that followed the weapon. Said trail managed to cut deeply through the stone wall leaving a continuous mark of destruction. This path only became wilder as Nekron twisted the path of his weapon.

By the time that the attack ceased, almost every piece of the wall was carved up except for the pieces of wall behind the Ghost King's coffin. Clockwork had managed to avoid the attack but was now sweating from the constant movement. He wasn't going to let that stop him from using the opening that Nekron's attack created. With a swing of his staff, Clockwork created a massive arc of ectoplasm that expanded to the size of the hall leaving Nekron no room to dodge.

Nekron didn't seem to care about that, though. With his free hand, he grabbed onto the arc of ectoplasm. He held the energy attack firmly in place while pumping it full of his own energy. Black threads spread through the arc. When the threads spread all the way through the arc, the attack shattered like a class plate.

Clockwork knew that type of attack wouldn't work, though. That was why he used it only as a distraction. While Nekron dealt with the arc of ectoplasm, Clockwork spread out his energy to create alternate versions of himself. He used his power of the timeline to create as many alternate versions of himself that he could. These different versions of Clockwork ranged from cavemen to space adventurers and everything in between, and Nekron could only look on in amusement at all the different cosplay Clockworks that filled the room.

With a shout of battle, each Clockwork aimed his staff at Nekron and fired a large beam of energy at the ghost of death. Once again, Nekron didn't even try to move. His energy seeped out of his body and shrouded him in a dark halo shield. Unfortunately for Clockwork, this was not a normal shield. Like all of the energy that came straight from Nekron, it was filled with energy that brought decay to everything it touched. As soon as the beams touched the shield, they were too weak to do anything but tickled the Reaper.

As Nekron calmly endured the attacks, black hands popped out from the halo around him and began to skater around the room. As soon as the hands made contact with the alternate Clockworks, the different Masters of Time from realms that could have been began to disappear into the nothingness in which they were created. This continued until only one Clockwork remained.

The original Clockwork groaned as he felt his body try to give into the fatigue. The coma and his elderly from had severely drained his reserves. There was no way he could keep this up. Nekron had all the energy he could ever want. Trying to outlast him was stupid, but he had to stall for as much time as possible. Unfortunately, it seemed like every one of his bigger moves could be stopped by the Reaper. Perhaps death really did trump time in power…but…

…But even death could be slowed down…

Filled with a new determination of what he had to do, Clockwork rushed forward to Nekron. With a massive battle cry, the Master of Time swung his staff towards his enemy. Still laughing, Nekron swung his own weapon to meet the staff. This time, though, black energy extended from the blade like when the Reaper swung his staff around like a pencil.

As the two weapons swung towards each other, Clockwork smiled, "Slow motion!"

A bubble of warped time burst from Clockwork and around the Reaper. This bubble was not meant to freeze death like Clockwork's previous endears. After all, trying to completely freeze death was impossible. Instead, he decided to slow it down as much as possible. In what could only be described as a slow motion replay, the two ghosts continued to swing their weapons at each other.

To the ghosts, the attacks were going at a completely normal pace. Everyone outside the bubble, though, would see that the attacks were only crawling to each other. In the space of a few hours, the two weapons had inched close enough to make contact. Clockwork's staff was instantly cut into two, sending the top of the staff slowly flying away. Nekron's scythe then continued until it made contact with Clockwork. As soon as the hit touched Clockwork, time returned to normal.

"GAH!" Clockwork shouted out in agony. Green blood sprayed from the open wound on his chest. Nekron's blade hat cut deep into his body, nearly cleaving it in two. To prevent himself from falling apart, Clockwork dropped his staff and used his now free hands to try and hold his body together.

" **Nope. I want to see you bleed**." Throwing his weapon into the far wall, Nekron reached down and grabbed Clockwork by his shoulders. His skeletal hands instantly tore through the skin and the bone. Once again, Clockwork screamed in agony. Luckily, Nekron's decay powers had closed the wounds on his shoulders but that didn't stop the pain of losing both of his arms in a single motion.

Clockwork could only watch in horror as Nekron held his now dismembered arms in front of his face. Black energy soon covered the limbs. The energy of death quickly ate away at the masses of flesh. Soon all that was left of Clockwork's arms was ash, and that quickly disappeared as well.

With no arms to hold himself together, Clockwork collapsed forward onto the ground. He met the crumbling stone with a sickening splat that only served to open his wound even more to the point that he was only being held together by his spine. Now laying in a pile of his own blood and innards, Clockwork knew for certain that his time was officially up.

* * *

" _ **Well, that's it then, isn't it**_ _?" Nekron peered down at his defeated foe, "_ _ **I'm officially the oldest ghost in exist. Strange, because I've never felt better. I could probably fight like that a few hundred times and not get tired. I guess I just aged more gracefully than you.**_ _"_

" _B-bastard…" Clockwork coughed out. Blood trickled out of his mouth and onto the ever growing puddle of ooze below him._

 _Nekron let out a dark chuckle, "_ _ **Don't be so petty, older brother. Can't you take your loss without such venom?**_ _"_

" _You…think you won?" Clockwork grinned, "Wrong."_

 _Nekron paused as the building began to shake, "_ _ **What?**_ _"_

" _I…put us…in a time bubble…Hours passed…during that last attack…" Clockwork felt incredibly satisfied with himself, "I couldn't win…so I delayed you…unto someone that could…showed up."_

 _Nekron tilted his head, "_ _ **At the cost of your own life? As a creature with life, shouldn't you want to live?**_ _"_

" _My era…has come and gone…" Clockwork wheezed, "I was…on borrowed time…anyway…At least now…I can…go to death…knowing that I beat you."_

" _ **I see…**_ _" Nekron reached down and gently patted Clockwork's head, "_ _ **Thank you.**_ _"_

" _W-what?"_

" _ **I was just going to stand here and wait for them to show up. You just saved me a lot of waiting, so thank you, older brother,**_ _" Nekron's grin stretched wide to the point that his jaw twisted at a weird angle, "_ _ **After all, I think I've waited long enough to fulfill my obsession.**_ _"_

" _He…will stop…you…" Clockwork hissed._

" _ **Oh I'm counting on it. You see…**_ _" Nekron whispered directly into Clockwork's ear. A look of pure terror stretched across the Master of Time's face._

" _N-no!"_

" _ **Yes. You see, le Fey's attack and the Sorcerer Initiative released more than enough energy for me to prepare for my attack. So why did I let Trigon attack? Why did I have Walker pump Etrigan full of magical power so he could be the final catalyst for the Banishing Box the Black Hand told me about. The reason is simple. I needed more energy for this exact moment. For the moment that I met Danny Phantom.**_ _"_

" _D-Danny...I-I didn't know…" Clockwork groaned out, "I…I'm so sorry…"_

" _ **You should be**_ _," Nekron raised a hand. Black energy covered the appendage and then fire down at the form of Clockwork. The blaze of darkness immediately disintegrated the Master of Time leaving no evidence that he ever existed in the first place, "_ _ **You and Destiny doomed the entire universe from the start.**_ _"_

* * *

Nekron stood after watching the last bit of Clockwork disappear. With a wave of his hand, he summoned his scythe back to him. The weapon immediately jumped from the stone it was imbedded in and sailing lovingly into its master's hands. With his weapon now back in his possession, the Reaper tapped the blunt end of the weapon onto the ground, " **To me, my Lanterns**."

Seven holograms popped up in a large circle around the massive skeleton. They were all bowing to show respect to their master. Nekron could only smile at this seven followers. Seven was one of the most significant numbers in existence. Whether it be by coincidence or some divine understanding of the universe, seven was an agreed upon number to dictate life itself.

Seven days in a week.

Seven deadly sins.

Seven directions one could go.

Seven colors in a spectrum.

Seven advisers to the Ghost King.

Many considered the number lucky. The religious considered it holy. Even those without beliefs would recognize it as the number in the first ten that was the most prime. Without a doubt, seven was the number of nature and life. And it would be his seven followers that brought an end to it all. Seven would be the number of the beginning, and it would be the number of the end.

" **It is time,** " Nekron spoke to them, " **Go. I will signal you when to start.**

"Yes, Master Nekron!" They all shouted and disappeared.

With his minions gone, Nekron turned his attention to the only thing left untouched in the room. He silently strode up to the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. The Reaper reached out almost lovingly with his free hand and stoked the coffin, " **Hello, little brother. I want to thank you too. If you never defeated me, then I would have never learned about the only way to really kill the Life Entity. To show my gratitude, I should let you live until the end…But we both know that I'm not so kind or generous.** "

Reaching his hand to the key hole onto the chest of the coffin, Nekron began to pour energy out of his palm right into the coffin's only opening. For a solid minute, Nekron continued to pump energy out of his hand. He only stopped when the black energy overflowed the sarcophagus and caused the edges of it to pop free.

Stepping back, the Reaper allowed the front of the coffin to fall forward and slid down the steps leading to the broken floor of the hall. A figure soon stepped after the lid. He was a massive man covered in black armor with a green sash and belt which held a giant green broadsword. His ashen face was a deep contrast to his wild green hair. The ghost's single eye that was not covered by an eye patched drifted over to the Reaper before the Ghost King collapsed onto his hands and knees.

"You…" Pariah Dark gasped as his body began to disintegrate.

" **Hello, Pariah. I'm glad to see that you woke up before you died,** " Nekron reached down to the Ghost King's waist and unsheathed his broadsword, " **I believe that when you 'killed' me, you stabbed your sword through my skull, no?** "

"Wait…" Pariah groaned as his form began to fade into a black abyss of darkness.

" **First, I corrupted you,** " Nekron taunted, " **I turned your followers against you by infusing my ectoplasm into your crown and ring. The more you used the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage, the more like me you became, ensuring that even the people that loved you most wouldn't be able to justify your actions. They locked you away for the rest of your life.** "

"No…"

" **And now the second part of my revenge…** " Nekron raised Pariah's blade and pointed it down at the Ghost King's head, " **Your jail sentence is over. Welcome to the electric chair, Pariah!"**

"Plea—"

Pariah Dark never got to finish that sentence.

Stepping away from what was now a puddle of ectoplasm, Nekron made his way to the center of the room. The shaking had increased. It seemed like whoever was coming had managed to fight through most of the monsters he left behind to guard the entrance.

" **Come, Danny Phantom. Your true destiny awaits.** "

* * *

(A few hours earlier…)

Phantom stood directly beside Jinx outside the beach house. Neither of them looked happy. Jinx was most upset that her vacation time was being cut short. Phantom, though, was more upset over the person who stood before him, "You have to be kidding me. You? Clockwork wants me to work with you?"

Dark Dan did not look pleased by the idea either, "It seems so."

"Oh my…" Morgaine le Fey had to cover her mouth to hide her amusement, "This is amazingly entertaining. This is worth all the trouble you've been over the months, Dan."

Phantom's eyes snapped to the witch, "So that's how you've been hiding from us so easily. Have you been working with her since your escape?"

"No. I managed to get to her right before the Sorcerer Initiative," Dark Dan admitted, "Before that, I just kept moving."

Jinx suddenly nudged Phantom before he could speak again, "Danny, why is the knight with them?"

"It is not by my wishes," Fright Knight grumbled as he stepped out from le Fey's portal, "The witch dragged me in."

"Same here, mate," Constantine hopped out of the portal as well, "Bloody witch popped out of nowhere and dragged us here."

"Why them?" Jinx questioned.

"They were the only ones not under surveillance," Morgan le Fey had a light smile gracing her lips, "Have you ever heard the expression, 'Party's over. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here'? Well, these two are the ones that actually decided to go home after the little wedding."

"She means that we went to Masters Mansion," Fright Knight clarified, "I went because I had nowhere else to really be, and I dragged him along because he was drunk off his ass and making a fool of himself."

"Still got a f'n hangover the size of Big Ben," Constantine groaned as he massaged his temples, "Oi! Please tell me that Zatanna didn't dump me for the boozing, yeah?"

"She seemed distracted by something, so I wouldn't think so."

"Good…"

"So everyone else…" Phantom's eyes narrowed.

"Yep~" le Fey sang out, "Under the watching eye of Nekron's forces. We go to them, everything goes to hell and Nekron disappears before we can get to him. Only reason we even got to these two is because of how much your presence has influenced that mansion from years of sleeping in it. No Black Lantern can get close~"

"What does that—"

"So to actually save your precious little family, you have to stop Nekron directly," Dark Dan interrupted, "And to do that, you'll need a team. This is the best you got."

"Well, I'm fine with three of them," Phantom clenched his fists in anger, "But you and le Fey? I don't think so."

"Don't be stupid," Dark Dan snarled, "I've seen Nekron personally. He's not an enemy that you can beat without being willing to break some of your principle. You want an example? I haven't killed a single person since I got free."

"It's true," Morgan le Fey giggled, "He's been so antsy about it too."

"So we all have to make sacrifices. I'm not asking you to be my friend, associate, or ally. I'm the enemy of your biggest enemy right now. If we want to live to accomplish any of our goals, we have to work together. Then, after that, we can have our fight to death. Until then, though…" Dark Dan held out a hand.

Phantom stared at the hand. He didn't move to shake it.

"My Liege," Fright Knight spoke up, "I hate to say this, but your alternate self might be right. If Clockwork told you the truth, and Nekron is back, we will need help. Trust me, Lord Phantom. I have fought Nekron before."

Phantom turned his attention to Fright Knight, "I can't trust him."

"Then don't. Trust Clockwork," The Fright Knight, "And trust me, my Liege."

"I…I trust you, Fright Knight," Phantom reached out and shook Dark Dan's hand, "Alright, Dan. I'll team up with you this one time. But after this, I'm taking care of you personally. No more running."

Dark Dan grinned, "Agreed."

* * *

 **Next update: "King" on July 18, 2016**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	26. King

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

* * *

Chapter 26: "King"

(Sunday-May 18, 2014)

Phantom frowned as he looked through the magical portal to see the massive structure that was the Ghost King's castle. The large towering castle still looked strong despite the hundreds of years that it had been standing. Its red glow still gave the halfa feelings of nervousness even years after he last been here to combat the Ghost King himself. Despite this and the swirling green Ghost Zone around the castle, everything looked calm and normal.

"I still don't like this," Phantom mentioned with crossed arms. He was not very comfortable standing in le Fey's pocket dimension, "If Nekron really is in there, then I would prefer to have my entire Team here to help fight him."

"I understand how you feel," Morgaine le Fey stepped beside the halfa to look through the portal, "But that is not a possibility," With a wave of her hands, le Fey created dozens of more portals showing the various members of Phantom's family and friend group. The windows then moved to show the figures watching them, "As you can see, Nekron is ready for his next move. If you want to win, you have to strike first."

Phantom did not look pleased, "And why should I trust you on this? You already admitted that you worked for Nekron before."

Now it was le Fey's turn to look displeased, "I do not work for anyone, boy. I did what I did because it was amusing."

"Hey!" Dark Dan snapped at them, "Now is not the time to get into an argument. You think that I wouldn't collect everyone that I could? I have your and Vlad's intelligence, remember?"

"Yes, but I don't trust you either," Phantom argued.

"My Lord, I trust neither of them as well, but we both know that they are telling the truth," Fright Knight spoke respectfully, "There is too much fear in the fallen one's eyes for him to be lying."

"I'm not afraid," Dark Dan hissed.

"If you say so," Fright Knight brushed off Dark Dan's anger, "I know that you are worried about betrayal, but Constantine and I will be watching your back the entire time."

"Yeah, mate," Constantine was glaring at le Fey, "I've been keeping an eye on le Fey's magic. She's not altering the windows at all. All that shite is happening live. Those blokes are in danger."

"Alright…" Phantom nodded, "I trust you two. We'll move forward as planned."

Jinx stepped beside her lover to peer into the window, "Any chance of us getting an inside view?"

"No," Morgaine shook her head, "Nekron's powers are interfering. This is as far as I can get. But I can tell you that Clockwork is in there as well. His power is being used prominently as we speak."

Phantom stroked his chin in thought, "Then we have to move quickly to give him support and take advantage of the distraction. We'll need to be careful, though. Nekron probably set all kinds of traps."

"I can deal with them," Jinx let out a smirk and raised up glowing pink fingers, "A little bad luck and any traps he set will collapse in on themselves."

"Nekron is aware of your powers, though," Dark Dan argued, "He'll have people guarding the entrance. We'll have to push through them."

Constantine snorted, "Like that will be a problem. This group is just full of some of the heaviest hitters I've ever seen."

Phantom couldn't argue with that, "We should still keep our eyes peeled for trouble, though. If even half the stories I've heard are true, then Nekron isn't dumb enough to not put a few surprises in his wake."

* * *

Youngblood sat on the roof's edge of an apartment building in the center of Amity Park. The city below him was buzzing with activity while the sky above held a deep contrast of tranquility. Despite the calmness of the heavens above, the ghost's eyes were still locked on the busy lives occurring below him. He looked on fondly as new parents pushed a stroller along the sidewalk.

"Hey, Chuck!" Spirit called out as she landed behind the ghost. She was quickly followed by Cyborg.

Youngblood turned and smiled at them, "Hey."

"You rushed off after the toast yesterday," Spirit took a seat by her friend, "Something wrong?"

"No…no…" Youngblood turned his attention back down below. The new parents had disappeared, "I just wanted some time to think."

"What about?" Cyborg decided to remain standing.

"Just…What would it be like to grow up," Youngblood noted.

Spirit frowned, "Isn't that dangerous for you?"

"Not just for me," Youngblood said without thinking.

Cyborg raised his one remaining eyebrow, "What does that mean?"

Youngblood paused for a second and then sighed. It was time to tell them, "Do you remember when I told you about my mom?"

Spirit blinked, "Yeah, that was a long time ago, though."

"Well, you see, my mom…she kind of had a few mental issues. It wasn't genetic or anything, but she kind of had multiple personalities. Most were perfectly fine, but one of them was extremely violent and psychotic. Her name was Thorn, and she was a minor celebrity in Metropolis. When she fell in love with my dad and had me, though, that personality was suppressed."

"Okay," Spirit tilted her head to the side in confusion, "What does that have to do with you growing up? I thought your obsession to stay young was because of a promise you made to your mom, how does this Thorn personality influence you wanting to grow up?"

"It has everything to do with it," Youngblood explained, "You see. I realized that there comes a time when you stop caring so much about what your parents want and focus on what you want. And eventually every kid…wants…Oh my God."

Spirit watched as Youngblood's face twisted with shock, "What?"

Youngblood stood and pointed off to the side from what pulled his attention away from the conversation. The other two people on the roof followed his line of vision and were also shocked by what they saw. Cyborg's jaw dropped. Spirit followed the full ghost's lead and stood up as well. All three of their sights were locked solely on a figure that was standing on a rooftop that was a few blocks away from their current position. Said figure was staring right at them with accusing eyes.

Spirit's words came out in a stunned whisper, "Wulf?"

* * *

Dusk frowned as he circled around the church for what seemed like the hundredth time. He knelt down and examined the dirt another time. This was the last place his target had been seen, but there was no hint of him leaving the area.

Bumblebee, at bug size, flew down from above and landed on his shoulder, "Did you find anything?"

"No. There's nothing here," Dusk's eyes narrowed as he looked around once more, "Donna, did you find anything?"

Troia shook her head as she flew down as well and landed next to the half, "Nothing. No sign of a struggle."

"I can't find anything either. It's like Mal just disappeared," Dusk noted, "Maybe we should have contacted Cassandra? She's probably the best tracker we know."

"She's good," Troia admitted, "But if we can't find anything together, then I don't think she would either."

"Let's just keep looking, please," Bumblebee's voice was full of worry, "He couldn't have just vanished into thin air."

"Maybe he did," Dusk suggested, "I was kidnapped through a Boom Tube once. The Fright Knight said that there was no trace of me. The same think could have happened to Mal."

"Boom Tubes are pretty noticeable," Troia argued, "I think someone inside during the reception would have noticed. Perhaps another form of teleportation, though?"

"So my boyfriend was kidnapped through a portal?" Bumblebee didn't look pleased by the thought. She had searched for Mal for a solid hour after the reception before going back inside the church to ask for help. Only Dusk and Troia remained behind at that point, though. Luckily, they were willing to help her search. One long night later, Bumblebee was left with one sour attitude and no results.

"We should contact Raven or Zatanna and try to look for an energy signal," Dusk suggested.

"I've been trying to contact the others for hours," Bumblebee grumbled, "My coms aren't working."

Troia raised her hand to press her own ear piece. She winced when she was met with static.

Frowning, Dusk pulled out his phone only to see that his communication device wasn't work as well, "Damn it. This might be a trap. We should—"

Dusk's words were completely drowned out when a dragon's roar sounded through the area. Looking up at the source of the noise, the three heroes were shocked to see Aragon in dragon form rapidly approaching them. Opening his snout, Aragon let out a stream of fire that burned as hot as the flames of hell.

* * *

As soon as the unlikely group of allies landed on the path leading up to the looming castle of the Ghost King, they were instantly met with an attack. They were expecting a Black Lantern to block their path, but to their surprise, something different got in their way. Black inky monsters rose up from the darkness in front of the castle. Their bodies were constantly shifting like giant oozing globs. The only two things that remained completely consistent about them were their eyes of crimson blood and the daggers that seemed to take the place of their teeth.

Despite the strange appearance of the monsters, no one in the group of six hesitated. They instantly rushed forward and began to tear through the creatures. With the combined force of six major powerhouses, they easily destroyed the inky monsters. Things were never completely simple, though. Their combined power proved too much for the masses of Nekron's creations, but the numbers of the creatures continued to grow by the second. An entire army stood before them, and to their exasperation, the creatures they destroyed seemed to be regenerating.

After a full minute of cutting through the creatures, Fright Knight paused when he notices that Phantom was holding one of the creatures by what could be described as its neck. The halfa gave the monster a long, hard stared. He seemed to be confused by it. His face was one of remembrance.

"Lord Phantom!" Fright Knight shouted out.

Phantom blinked and destroyed the beast with a blast of ectoplasm, "Right, sorry."

"Keep fighting, brat," Dark Dan hissed out. Despite his body naturally taking over with his instinct to tear his enemies apart, his mind was thinking about the long term of the battle. It would take a long time for any of them to be tired with this type of fighting, but this was time consuming. Getting to the castle could take hours. His first instinct was to use his Ghostly Wail, but he never worked on controlling that power's strength. It would at the very least hurt his allies, and he still needed them to fight. He had to think of a way past the beasts quickly and safely.

His answer came from the women of the group. Morgaine le Fey raised her hand into the air and conjured a concentrated cloud of lighting. The electricity struck down at the very end of the sea of monster, right at the entrance of the castle. This created a large opening right at their intended goal. Jinx quickly acted on this opening. Raising her arms into the air, Jinx created swirling pink portals around her allies and teleported them all to the entrance of the castle.

Sweating and panting from the strain of teleporting such a large group of people, Jinx turned her attention back to the monsters that had followed their movements. Without missing a beat, she sent several hex bolts to keep the creatures from getting close, "Go! The old hag and I will hold them back!"

Morgaine pouted, but this didn't stop her from waving a hand and controlling the ground below the creatures to consume them beneath the magically rich earth, "Old hag…be careful, little girl. You don't want to make an enemy out of me."

Seeing that the two women were handling the situation just fine, the four men turned and rushed into the castle. This was fine with Morgaine. She didn't want to face Nekron. After all, she had met with Nekron multiple times. He was even stronger and more cunning than Dark Dan gave him credit. Truth be told, she had no idea what would happen as a result of this plan, but that didn't matter to her.

No matter what, she would get her entertainment.

* * *

Miss Martian hummed as she stepped through the halls of Mount Justice. Covered only in a bathrobe, the alien made her way to the kitchen. Once she turned the corner, she was surprised to see Zatanna sitting at the kitchen table. The magician was staring down at her steaming cup of coffee while absentmindedly petting the green cat lying on the table.

"Gar," M'gann spoke out dutifully, "Off the table."

Meowing in annoyance, the green cat jumped into an open chair. He then shifted back into his normal form, "I was just getting comfortable."

"Well, you shouldn't have been trying to get comfortable up there in the first place," M'gann's chastising came out in a more teasing manner as she made her way to the counter, "And you shouldn't just let him do what he wants, Zatanna. Give an inch and they'll take a mile."

"Oh…" Zatanna's eyes drifted up from her cup, "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," M'gann poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down across from her friend, "Good morning by the way. I'm surprised you're here so early. Late night?"

"Something like that," Zatanna stared at M'gann.

"Hmm…" M'gann sipped her coffee, "I'm guessing by the lack of sirens that Zatara knows that you're here."

"Yeah, I told him. Force of habit and all that," Zatanna let out a sigh, "I don't want him to worry. He's been such a good dad to me, even when I was acting like a brat."

M'gann raised an eyebrow, "Okay, tell me what's wrong. You're acting weird."

"Have you ever thought about having kids?"

Whatever M'gann was expecting, it certainly wasn't anything like that. She choked on her drink and was forced to cough to clear her throat. Garfield just tilted his head in confusion at the question. His eyes drifted back and forth from his adopted sister to his magician friend.

After finally clearing her throat, M'gann gave Zatanna a concerned look, "Where did that come from?"

"Nowhere…It's just…" Zatanna bit her lip, "I was wondering if anyone else realized that we're getting closer and closer to the age where we'll have kids of our own."

M'gann's eyes widened, "You and John? Are you…"

"No! No, of course not," Zatanna shook her head, "I've just been thinking about it. Maybe it's cliché of the women to be thinking about it so young, but…It's kind of the reality, right? Kids grow up and have kids of their own. Have you ever thought about what it would be like?"

"Yeah!" Beast Boy let out a massive grin, "What's the chances of me becoming an uncle?"

M'gann gained an embarrassed look, "Well…Conner and I did discuss it once or twice. Nothing serious. We just wondered if we're even genetically compatible. But considering that I'm still pretty young by Martian standards, and Conner really hasn't been alive for that long, we just let it drop."

"I see," Zatanna nodded.

"If you really want to talk to someone wondering about kids, you should probably talk with Danny. He and Val used to talk about their future a lot," M'gann gained a misty look at the memory, "From what I remembered, they were concerned about genetics, their hero work, and just the stress of dealing with the new responsibility."

"Well, I thought I'd ask you because you're so good with Gar," Zatanna smiled, "I think that you'll make a great mom."

M'gann blushed, "W-well, thank you."

"I think you'll be a good mom too, Zatanna," Beast Boy spoke cheerfully, "You're really nice and funny. Maybe not on the strict side yet, but my Mom used to say…that she wasn't strict…before me…"

Garfield's expression deflated. M'gann and Zatanna shared a worried look. The magician reached out and patted him on the head, "Sorry, Gar. I didn't think about that when I brought it up."

"It's fine," Beast Boy stated hoarsely, "Better to remember her than let her memory fade, right?"

"Yeah," M'gann smiled, "Maybe we can watch some of your mom's old show tapes today? Superboy's working with Superman today, so he won't get annoyed at us watching them for the hundredth time."

"Cool!" Garfield seemed to be pleased with that idea.

Zatanna suddenly gained an amused look, "Maybe that's where you mom tendencies come from, Megan. Cheesy nineties sitcom parenting."

"Where else would I get it from? My Uncle J'onn?"

All three of them burst out laughing. To their surprise, though, the Cave's power surged at the exact same time. All of the lights went out leaving the trio in the dark. The laughter instantly died away.

"Really? Doesn't this place have enough power to light a city?" Zatanna questioned.

M'gann nodded, not that either of her two companions could see it, "Yep."

"Great. Please tell me one of you know how to fix the batteries to this place."

"That would be a no."

"The League usually handles it."

"Greeeeaaaat. Like we weren't being cliché enough," Zatanna noted, "Two women talking about having kids only for the lights to go out and neither of us knowing how to fix it. It's like straight out of a bad horror film. What's next? Some monster going to pop out and make us scream."

A light growling sounded through the room.

"Gar, please tell me that's you."

"Um…no…"

"Damn it."

* * *

Richard Grayson and Cassandra Cain stood behind the towering building that was Wayne Manor. Neither of them were looking at their home, though. Instead, their focus was on graves that stood as a monument mocking the many loses of those in the Batfamily. Primarily, both of their focuses were on the grave marked 'Jason Todd.' Cassandra's eyes also drifted to the two graves dedicated to her parents, though.

"So you don't think Danny was justified in killing the Joker?" Cassandra's hands drifted into her jean pockets.

Richard gained a conflicted look, "I just wished that he kept his promise to not interfere. Things would be less complicated if he did."

"He promised that Phantom wouldn't interfere. Danny Phantom did not interfere at all," Cassandra noted in an amused voice, "Next time, you should check the wording."

Richard sighed, "Why are you defending him anyway? I would have thought that you would blame him too much for what happened."

Cassandra's eyes were filled with confliction, "I'm not sure how I feel. Part of me blames him, while another part of me still respects him. It's a strange scenario after all. He was about to pull Mom out of the mission after all. But he did basically sacrifice her to save the world. Did he ever really care about her? After all, he was willing to let the entire world burn for Raven."

Richard reached up to scratch his cheek, "Danny…Danny's a complicated guy. Trust me on this. I've been in his head. Literally. He takes being in charge very seriously. Maybe a bit too much."

"I know," Cassandra noted, "That's why he did what he had to with Joker."

"That's…that's not what I meant…"

"I know, I'm just teasing," Cassandra stared at her parent's graves, "Truth be told, I can't bring myself to blame Danny all that much. Maybe it's our history. Maybe it's the way he charges in first to try and save as many people as he can. But I don't blame him. I blame Ra's Al Ghul and the Shadows."

Richard frowned at her words, "Cass…"

"If Dad didn't do what he did, I would have," Cassandra noted, "But I won't disrespect him by rushing to my death. Instead, I'm going to wait for the right time. Then, I'll make Ra's pay for killing my parents."

"You parents wouldn't want you to do that."

"Yes they would. As long as I could get away with it."

"Batman won't tolerate that line of thinking," Richard argued.

"Then maybe I shouldn't stay here," Cassandra argued, "Dad left me a lot of money and a lot of safe houses."

"Please, Cass. Think about…" Richard paused and tensed. Cassandra did the exact same thing. They both flipped away from the graved just in time to avoid the sneak attack that was aimed at them. Two figures crashed down right on the two graves reading Sandra Wu-San Cain and David Cain. The figures then rushed towards the two members of the Batfamily. Richard blocked the blows from his attacker, but Cassandra flinched when she saw the identity of her attacker.

"Mom?!"

Then, things went dark when Lady Shiva struck her daughter in the face.

* * *

It didn't take all that long after the assault group made their way into the Ghost King's castle for something else to go wrong. As they rushed through the torch lit halls of the castle, they were soon separated by a large wall of black energy. The Fright Knight and Constantine slammed into the wall and bounced back. Before they could recover, spikes popped out from the wall and tried to stab the knight and the exorcist. Luckily for the duo, the two Phantoms reacted quickly enough to stop the spikes by shattering the wall of black energy.

"Hello," Hotep Ra rounded the corner in front of the group of four, "I apologize, but I cannot allow all of you to pass."

"Just one of you?" Dark Dan raised an eyebrow, "Look who you're up against. You really think that you stand even a little bit of a chance."

"No, but fighting you is not my intention," Hotep Ra noted, "I'm just here to divide you. That's why I made this copy to distract you."

The Hotep Ra in front of them burst in an explosion of black energy. Dark Dan and Phantom created shields to stop the explosion from getting to them, but this prevented them from acting at was happening behind them though. The real Hotep Ra appeared behind them and used his Black Lantern ring to grab Fright Knight and Constantine in a bubble of black energy and throw them threw the side wall.

Both of the different versions of Phantom turned to see the hole in the wall. Fright Knight and Constantine were surrounded by different Black Ring duplicates. The knight and the exorcist immediately went on the offensive to fight against the mummy ghosts.

"Keep going, my Liege!" Fright Knight shouted as he sliced a mummy in half, "We will handle the Black Lantern!"

"Isn't the first time, I dealt with a demonic mummy and probably won't be the last," Constantine added while sending out a blast of fire from the end of his cane.

Phantom looked conflicted. He trust Jinx to handle the weaker monsters, but leaving his friends to fight a Black Lantern was different. The danger level was drastically different.

Dark Dan grabbed Phantom and pulled him forward, "Come on, you sentimental fool. They can hold of the Black Lantern while we deal with Nekron."

Phantom nodded and followed his alternate self. He trusted in his friend's abilities. Still, he couldn't stop himself from looking back. For some reason, he felt like this was the last time he was going to see them.

* * *

Kid Flash adjusted his goggles and looked over to his companions, "You ready?"

Raven held her hands out to keep the magical portals in front of and behind of the speedster steady, "Yeah."

Rocket's equipment sparked to life, "I'm good."

"Alright…" Kid Flash took a ready stance. The desert wind around him picked up and drifted sand across the abandoned area. They had come out for safety. Not only for civilians, but also for Wally, "Ready…set…go!"

In a blur of yellow, Kid Flash started his run. He raced forward and through the black portal in front of him. He immediately appeared from the other portal and rushed forward to the first portal once again. This continued as he began to pick up speed. Electricity sparked through him, filling him with more energy to run. Eventually, he just became a constant line to the people watching him move.

Things broke down after that. The same energy that had been empowering Wally suddenly turned against him. In a blast of light, Kid Flash was thrown off his path and flung high into the air. Before he could get too far, a kinetic bubble popped up around him, absorbing his momentum and keeping him from harm.

Rocket gently lowered him to the ground, "Well, that worked out great."

Artemis rushed forward and checked up on her boyfriend. As soon as the kinetic bubble around him dropped, she gave him a shoulder to lean on, "You okay?"

"Yeah…I was closer that time…" Wally noted. He focused on the archer's feature in an attempt to stop his head from spinning anymore, "Almost…I'm just missing something small…I need to try it again to figure it out…"

"You do realize that doing the same thing and expecting change is pretty dumb, right?" Raven questioned.

"I'm not trying to change anything. I'm just trying to understand the power," Wally argued and tried to walk onto his own.

"Babe, maybe we should wait for Danny…" Artemis suggested.

"No, he's going to be gone for a while, and I don't want to wait," Wally shook his head, "That's why I asked these two to help me. I'll be safe if they stay."

Rocket shrugged, "I'm okay with staying here."

Raven nodded, "The amusement of seeing you fail hasn't faded yet."

"Gee thanks for the encouragement…" Wally's eyebrow twitched.

"If you wanted encouragement, you should have brought some other people."

"Fair enough," Kid Flash moved back between the portals, "Let's do it again."

"Wally…" Artemis gave him a worried look, "You don't have to do this, you know."

"Yes, I do," Kid Flash gave her a determined look, "This is the first time that I've ever had anything that only I can achieve…besides ruining moments with stupid remarks. But with science and speed…there's always been someone better. Now, though, I can achieve something that no one else can, and I'm not willing to let that go."

"I…I didn't know you felt that way."

"I never said anything about it because it was silly. Especially to you. Everything you have is earned through training. I'd feel like a douche complaining about something so petty with you," Wally noted, "But now I have the chance to gain something with training on my own. Will you let me?"

"Of course."

Kid Flash stared at her, "Wow…That actually worked? Huh. I never knew I was such a good actor."

Artemis's face flushed, "You…"

"Told you, I'm the best at ruining the moment," With that, Kid Flash began to run. Artemis's cute blush and the other girl's laughter were on the front of his mind. All of them were too caught up in the moment to notice the dark clouds rolling above their heads or the familiar figure of a certain cult leader heading in their direction.

* * *

Colossus snored as he lay on his massive bed. His home was a building surrounded by giant pillars with engravings. The pillars held up a giant stone roof that lie parallel to the swirling green sky. Inside the building were simple furniture. Several engravings were spread across the room written in a language that had long since been forgotten by almost everyone.

The massive ghost slept on his back with his limbs spread wide in an odd show of vulnerability. His dreams drifted off into memories of past battles and battles he hoped to come in the future. He dreamed of one fight in particular. It would be both his last and his greatest bout. Colossus and one other figure would battle it out in an honorable, fair fight that shook the Ghost Zone to its very core.

It was a good dream, but it was one that Colossus was afraid that he would never get close to achieving. He was feeling his age more and more every day. Even celebrating Little Vision's wedding had worn him out. At this rate, he wouldn't make until that ultimate opponent appeared. If only Phantom would—

Boom!

Colossus's entire home crumbled beneath the force of a massive wave of green ectoplasm. The rubble tumbled on top of the giant ghost, burying him in his own bed. Still completely unharmed, though, Colossus blasted off the rubble with a wave of shockwave and freed himself from the darkness.

Colossus took a deep breath, "Normally, I'd take this with a grain of salt. Right now, though, I'm tired, a little upset, and dealing with a hurt back. Plus, this is the second time in a decade someone else destroyed my home. That's my job! No whoever it was better come out now and take your punishment like a real warrior!"

Two figures floated into Colossus's line of sight. The red giant's dark eyebrows shifted downward, "You two, eh…Hey, aren't one of you dead and the other locked up?"

Their response was to attack. Colossus just grinned as he met the attack with one of his own. This would be a good fight, but the two-on-one stipulation wasn't very honorable. The one of his dreams still seemed better. He could only hope that he would live to see it.

* * *

As soon as Dark Dan and Danny Phantom entered the king's chamber, they were struck with just how destroyed the room was. The walls and ground were completely destroyed and basically rubble. Pariah Dark's coffin was wide open with no sign of the Ghost King at all. Oddly enough, though, Nekron wasn't there like they were expecting.

"Damn it!" Dark Dan hissed, "Are we too late? Did Nekron run?"

"I don't know, but…" Phantom frowned, "Something's off. If anyone died, I should be able to feel the energy of it. But there's nothing. Maybe Clockwork teleported them away somewhere?"

"Away from us? Clockwork's entire plan was for us to work together," Dark Dan turned away from his alternate self to look for any hidden evidence, "Something's up. It must be a trick. Nekron's trying to get us to drop our guards. Check your little death sense again. Maybe Nekron's powers are messing with yours."

Phantom was silent.

"Hey, brat," Dark Dan whirled around in anger, "Don't ignore me…Oh shit…"

Phantom stood staring at a figure that was walking into the room. It was not the evil skeleton they were expecting. No, the figure was far too feminine and alive looking to be Nekron. The younger ghost look extremely rattled by the newest person in the room.

"Val?"

Valerie Gray smiled at her ex-fiancé, "Hi, Danny."

"You're dead…" Tears began to leak from the side of the halfa's eyes as he slowly reached out to the woman, "I felt you die."

Dark Dan instantly tried to intervene. Oddly enough, though, he found that he couldn't. His body froze up against his own will. Crimson eyes snapped down to his chest to see dark energy flooding from the upper portion of his torso. He knew what this was. Did Nekron know about his plan all along?

"No, Danny. You thought that I died. It was a test, and you failed. You just moved on and started to sleep with the pink slut," Val eyed him sadly, "Just like I knew you always wanted to."

"No! No, Val, it wasn't like that," Reason left Phantom as he saw Valerie's disappointed face, "It was so hard to get over you. I still think about you. I do, but I needed to force myself to move on. Yes, I always cared for Jen, but if I knew that you were alive, I never would have touched her."

"But you did, and you've grown to love her," Valerie noted.

"I…Yes, I love her now. But that's…It's complicated, Val."

"Would you chose her over me?" Valerie questioned, "That's all I need to know. If I was willing to take you back, would you choose me?"

"I…" Phantom reached to gently cup her cheek, "I do love you. So much. That's never wavered, but I love Jen too."

"So you want us both?"

"No! You know that I'm not like that! I thought you were dead!" Phantom shouted, "I just…I don't know what to think."

"Well, I know what I think. I think that you're a pathetic little boy that can't save anyone and can't remain loyal to someone you claimed to love."

"Val…" Phantom's heart shattered, "Please…I'm sorry."

"It's too late for sorry. You're dead to me," To Phantom's horror, Valerie's body began to twist and morph into the broken shape she was in at the time of her death. Then, her skin and muscles began to melt into a black goop leaving her skeleton to stare emptily into Phantom's eyes. Then, the bones crumbled just like Phantom's heart had just done.

" **Hahahahahahahahaha!"** Nekron roared out in laughter as he appeared in a swirl of black energy, " **The look on your face is so pathetic!** "

Phantom stood facing away from the ghost of death. A truly horrified look was set right across his face.

" **That was even better than I imagined!** " Pointing a hand at Dark Dan, Nekron created an arm of energy to grab the alternate Phantom. He then shoved the only remnant of Danny's dark future into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. The skeleton completed Dark Dan's defeat by slamming the coffin shut, " **You acted just like I thought you would. And when Dark Dan realized that his attempts to make himself stronger backfired...Ah, I can see why le Fey loves her entertainment so much.** "

Phantom's face twisted with anger. He turned and gave a look that would make most people piss themselves in fear.

" **There we go. That's what I wanted. Get mad,** " Nekron pointed his scythe at the halfa, " **That will only make this easier.** "

* * *

Kaldur leaned against the railing of Atlantis's royal palace. His eyes were focused downward at the sight of Tula and Garth working with some of the younger kids in the Atlantis's sorcery study. While still sloppy and undisciplined, the next generation showed a lot of potential. That was why La'gaan had brought Queen Mera out of the castle and seated her down in a comfortable chair at the sidelines. Everyone agreed that is would be best to show the Queen that the future was still waiting to grow up and that not all hope was lost.

"Something on your mind?"

Kaldur looked over to see that Frostbite had floated over to him. He hadn't even noticed, "I do not wish to talk about it."

"Ah..." Frostbite leaned against the railing and looked down at the courtyard as well, "In my experience, when people say that, then that's when they need to talk the most. But they don't know how best to word their worries."

Kaldur was silent.

"Don't worry. I won't press the matter," Frostbite spoke gently, "But do take note that I'm here if you change your mind."

"I...I..." Kaldur was silent for a moment before speaking again, "The king revealed something to me. Something that he kept hidden all of my life. He...he lied to me through everything we've been through together."

"I see," Frostbite nodded, "You feel betrayed."

"That and confused," Kaldur gripped the railing tightly, "My father is Black Manta, one of Aquaman's greatest enemies. The king took me into the kingdom out of pity, and then he took me as his protégé to keep an eye on me so that I would not follow in my father's footsteps."

"Are you sure those were his intentions?" Frostbite questioned, "King Orin has proven to be a noble man. Perhaps he wanted to give you the best life possible. One where you could choose who you could be."

"I...Perhaps..." Aqualad conceded, "But he still hid it from me for all these years. I've been his right hand for six years. Had I not proven my absolute loyalty to him? Why wait so long?"

"Fear," Frostbite answered gently, "He was afraid that he would lose you. You don't know what you mean to him, Kaldur. He looks at you like you are his own son. Look at his from his own perspective, perhaps he was afraid that if he told you, then you would never trust him again. But he has already lost one son at the hands of his enemy. After all these years, he realized that if he continued to hide it from you, and an enemy such as Black Manta revealed the truth to you, then you would be hurt a hundred times worse than right now. You might never would have looked at him again, and that fear was bigger than the fear of telling you the truth."

Aqualad's expression dropped, "You make me sound so...unfair."

"No, no, do not think that I don't sympathize with you, but everyone was a story and a motivation," Frostbite noted, "I like to take the approach of asking why people do what they do before judging their actions. What is the reason that people do seemingly unreasonable things? And what Aquaman's actions concerning you are definitely a bit unreasonable, but his motivations were not. He cares for you, and out of that care, he's made mistakes. Just like every person that's ever existed. So, be mad as long as you like, but do take note that nothing he has ever done has been to spite you. His actions are one of love, and love makes us all dumb, blind, and deaf."

Kaldur chuckled at that, "Fair enough. But there does leave the issue of telling everyone else. I...I don't know what they will think."

"If anyone let's this new development cloud their judgment of who you are, then they are not worthy of being your friend," Frostbite gave a large grin, "From the stories the Great One has told me, your Team will just shrug this news off. None of them will care. That's what a true friend would do."

Kaldur looked very much amused, "You are very good at this. You know that?"

"Of course," Frostbite laughed, "I was always the most reasonable one of the Ghost King's Advisers. Don't tell the others, though. They'll get mad."

"You secret is safe with me."

"Kaldur!"

The duo's eyes drifted down to see Tula swimming up to them. She stopped below the balcony and looked up at them. Kaldur answered the call, "Yes?"

"The students want to see you in action. I think it would be a good motivation for them," Tula smiled.

"I do not know," Kaldur frowned, "I am not in the best of moods."

"Please?" Tula looked at Kaldur with eyes that melted his heart.

"Okay."

Tula turned her attention to Frostbite. She swam up more so that her head was level with Frostbite's head, "What about you, Mister Frostbite?"

Frostbite chuckled, "I don't believe that I could show them anything that they could replicate."

Tula swam up further in her excitement, "You never know. You may inspire something new. After all, the greatest surprises in life—"

A black arrow flew out of nowhere and rammed through the back of Tula's head through her forehead.

"Come out...of...nowhere..." Tula's eyes lost their focus. Her body drifted sideways in the water as she floated lifelessly. Blood drifted up around the arrow of black energy.

Everyone just looked on silently in horror at the death of Aquagirl.

"Damn girl got in the way! Hope you enjoy the next minute, Frostbite, because that girl just saved your life!"

* * *

Pandora hummed to herself as she brought her sheers up and began to trim the hedges around her home. The architecture of her home was based on that of Greek culture, even if the building wasn't degraded as much as stone that was built in that time period. All around the pillars and gold laced shone was surrounded by vines and hedges. Her entire yard was one mass maze of plants and flowers. Even different statues and fountains were surrounded by flowers.

"So you are worried about Kitty?" Pandora's eyes drifted to Johnny 13 who was standing a respectful distance from the tall woman.

Johnny's eyes drifted across the yard to the stone bench where Kitty was sitting. She had a haunted look on her face as she examined her hands like they were covered in blood, "Yeah, this kind of thing has been going on since le Fey's attack. Things got better when everything was calm, but whenever there was a disaster...she kind of had a freak-out moment. I've been doing my best, but I think I need some help."

"Perhaps you should ask Spectra for help?"

"Who?"

Pandora mentally cursed. Of course he didn't know of Spectra. Only ghosts in the Council of the Elite remembered what Spectra used to be, "She's a psychiatrist."

"Oh...Kitty might not like that," Johnny noted, "She doesn't like being called crazy."

"I'm not saying that. Trust me..." Pandora's eyes drifted to Nyx who was using a chainsaw to trim the hedges instead of simple sheers, "I know the difference between insane and quirky. I'm just saying that she might benefit from talking to someone who she has not emotional attachment to."

Johnny didn't look convinced, "I...I don't think talking will help her. I don't know why, but I get the feeling that this is a different issue. That's why I came to you."

"Oh?" Pandora raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you see...I-I've been changing too. It's like I'm remembering that I should be feeling differently. So I think I get what Kitty is going through, but..." Johnny clutched his head, "God, my head hurts whenever I try to think about it."

"Interesting..." Pandora looked intrigued, "You seem to be remembering more from the times when you were alive."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Extremely," Pandora nodded, "Perhaps when Vision gets back, we should discuss it with her. After all, if it has something to do with disasters happening then this might lead to trouble."

"Alright," Johnny's eyes drifted off to his girlfriend again, "I just want her to be safe and happy."

Pandora smiled, "I can tell. Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to help you—"

Johnny frowned when Pandora tensed. He also noticed that Nyx had stopped her wild swings with her chainsaw, "Something wrong?"

Both Pandora and Nyx turned from the hedges to look up at the roof of their home. To their absolute horror, a familiar figure smiled down at them. Gently petting the cat in his arms, Klarion the Witch Boy gave a demonic smile that rocked the two ghosts to their core. In that moment, their worst nightmare had returned.

* * *

Phantom rushed towards Nekron with a punch ready to strike. Nekron raised a hand to block the punch, but that proved to be fruitless. The half disappeared in a blur. Before the ghost of death could even process this, a fist smashed into the side of his head and sent him flying into the far wall.

Shaking his head to clear the buzzing in his skull, Nekron managed to recover in time to bring his scythe up to block three different ice broadswords that were posed to stab him. Although he did block the attack, the ice was not completely halted. The coldness spread forward across his scythe and to his body. In a flash, Nekron was frozen in a block of ice. That quickly began to change as his dark energy began to eat the ice way, but Phantom was prepared for that.

The halfa rushed forward once more with his fist ready to shatter both the ice and the ghost in it. It was because of this that Nekron saw how Phantom managed to gain the advantage so quickly. His usual green energy was mixed together with a faint glow of white and gold. To be honest, Nekron didn't think that the Ascended Ectoplasm would come into play so early. Using Valerie Gray liked he did was more effective than he could have hoped. Now he had to push it further.

Phantom froze when another figure from his past appeared before him. Dressed in striped pajamas, the new blue skinned ghost was once an annoying enemy to the halfa. After a lot of change, though, the blonde ghost managed to grow to be one of his most reliable friends. What once was a hunched and ugly figure was now a fit and normal appearing ghost. This was especially shocking because the last time Phantom saw him, he had taken a fatal wound for the half-ghost.

"Klemper..." Phantom whispered in sadness.

Klemper smiled at the ghost. He looked to be ready to speak, but Nekron had intervened. Shattering the ice holding him, Nekron stabbed through the deceased ice ghost and sent an arc of black energy to hit Phantom away and into the other wall.

Phantom didn't seemed fazed by the attack. Klemper's appearance, though, enraged him further, "You...You can recreate the dead. You're disrespecting the people I loved..."

Nekron just smiled, " **And what are you going to do about it?** "

More of Phantom's energy shifted from green to the white and gold that was Ascended Ectoplasm. With an even greater burst of speed, he appeared next to Nekron again. A flurry of blows faster than Nekron could see rammed across his body. It was no shock to Nekron that his powers had not effect on the half-ghost. He could feel the life energy rolling off Phantom. Good, but that wasn't enough. Nekron knew that the Life Entity had prepped Phantom for this. He just needed one more push.

Once more, Phantom froze as a figure popped up. No, that was wrong. It wasn't one person this time. Six people surrounded him. For a long time, these people haunted his nightmares and insecure thoughts. They marked his greatest failure. His old family and friends smiled at him kindly. He knew better though. This was just one big ploy to get him to lower his guard. Well, it wasn't going to work.

"That's...That's **ENOUGH!** " White and gold energy blared off of Phantom in massive waves. The images of the dead disappeared before the great power of the Ascended Ectoplasm. Phantom's once green eyes flashed white and stared at Nekron with the fury and power of an angry god. Anyone else would have felt intimidated by the look. Not Nekron, though.

Nekron just continued to smile.

" **That's it! The full power!** " Nekron's voice came out as a giddy cheer, " **I've been waiting years for this!** "

" **Waiting for what? Your death?** " Phantom hissed and took a menacing step forward that seemed to make the entire room shake with his rage.

" **Yes! That was always the point!"**

Nekron's words gave Phantom pause, " **What?** "

" **I am the ghost of death, as such I cannot die. That's how I lived before. As long as there is still a living person still alive, then I can't die. But if everyone's dead, then I can complete my obsession and die!** " Black energy poured off of Nekron, " **Now come to me! It's now time for the final step of my goal!** "

Nekron lunged forward.

" **It's time for the Transferal!** "

* * *

Dora rushed through the front gates of the Ghost Zone's prison. She saw Torch and Ember seemingly in a panic. Well, mostly Torch was in the panic. Ember seemed worried, but she was not nearly as on edge as her brother.

"Torch looked everywhere," Torch hissed out loudly, "All of Torch's minions are missing. None of them would leave without telling Torch. Something bad must have happened."

"I know that you're upset, Trever," Ember placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, "But you need to calm down. I agree that this is a seriously messed up situation, but blowing your top won't help. Cool down, dumbass."

"Alright, alright…" Torch tried to calm down, but he was still trembling in rage. Before he could snap something else out, he noticed Dora, "Oh…Dora. Torch is sorry, but this is not a good time."

"I heard," Dora had a hard look, "I think I know the source. I can sense my brother's energy in the Ghost Zone. I was coming for your help."

Ember's eyebrows raised, "Just your brother, or all the Black Lanterns?"

Dora fingered the amulet around her neck, "I don't know. I know when his amulet is activated, but that's about it. I'm not connected to the other Black Lanterns like I am with Aragon."

"Then we know where start," Smoke drifted off of Torch's seething form, "Let's go get some back up and beat some answers out of the pompous asshole."

Dora nodded slowly at Torch's response. She didn't exactly want to see her brother hurt, but she could no longer allow him to go around hurting people, "You're right. Pandora is closest. Let's—"

The conversation came to a complete halt as the entire prison compound began to shake and rattle. Surprised, the ghosts looked around to see that the walls of the compound were crumbling. Inky black creatures rushed through the hardened walls of the prison and rushed into the entrance courtyard. Hissing and moaning, the strange creatures with no real discernable form bared razor sharp and lunged themselves at the ghosts. They were met with a wave of crimson flames.

"Now is not the time to mess with Torch!" Torch roared and swung his scythe multiple times to burn through the creatures of death.

"What…What are they?" Ember actually sounded disturbed by this turn of events.

"I don't know," Dora's eyes shifted from their normal calmness to the look of a rage filled dragon, "But I get the feeling that my brother sent them."

* * *

Mary giggled as she knelt on the floor and played a clapping game with Box Lunch. Nearby on the plain couch, Billy and Lunch Lady were encouraging the young child. Off to the side, though, Freddy and Box Ghost just watched. They all were contained in a small apartment owned by Billy's Uncle Dudley. While Billy and Mary did grow closer over the months, Billy didn't want to leave his uncle alone.

This suited the situation just fine, though. Freddy or Mary's parents might have been more than a little freaked out at the thought of being in the presence of dead people. So, the simply furnished apartment was the perfect place for this little play date that Mary was dead set on having. It also helped that Dudley's lack of furniture emphasized the box shape of the apartment, extensively pleasing both the Box Ghost and Box Lunch.

Box Ghost smiled as he watched his daughter laugh in pure joy at the attention she was receiving, "Thanks for inviting us. Box Lunch doesn't get a lot of interaction with other people besides our close friends, and they always seem to be busy."

Freddy was also watching the scene fondly, "Not a whole lot of kid ghosts? Jeez…I realized what I was really asking as that was coming out of my mouth…"

Box Ghost chuckled, "I've looked into it. Child ghosts are rare. Very rare. Especially those around my princess's age. Human children usually lack the willpower to become ghosts, and ghosts rarely reproduce like my wife and I. That doesn't help us fulfill our obsessions, and life coming from people that are dead is extremely difficult to pull off."

"Then why did you two do it?" Freddy's voice was laced with curiosity.

"It's hard to say," Box Ghost scratched his chin with his regular hand, "I always wanted people to admire me. Maybe having a family helped with that, or maybe being a father just changes my priorities enough that I never cared about what I used to want."

Freddy's face dropped into a frown, "Being a parent changes you that much?"

"Oh, you have no idea."

"Jeeze," Freddy felt his heart twist as he looked as his girlfriend play with child, "You're worrying me here."

Box Ghost roared with laughter, "Don't worry, kid. You're really young. Even if you're still dating that girl in a few years, as long as you're careful, you won't be having kids before you're ready. Of course…" Box Ghost leaned in and teasingly whispered, "That's assuming that you'll live that long. I hear heroes have a big occupational hazard."

Freddy pushed Box Ghost away, "Well then it's a good thing that I'm out of the game—"

As if the gods of irony dictated it, in that exact moment, the far wall burst open in a surge of golden light. Everyone in the room dropped to the floor out of instinct. As the rubble pieces of rubble stopped falling and the smoke began to settle, Billy was the first person to jump to his feet. The word of his power were right on the edge of his lips when his mouth was covered in a golden band.

In a panic, Billy tried to pull the magical band. This proved fruitless, though. In this form, Billy lacked the strength to fight the magic of Doctor Fate in his normal form.

Another blast of golden light sent Billy tumbling away. After a few rolls, the boy stopped in an unconscious heap. The other residents in the room looked on in panic as their heavy hitter was defeated. This look only grew as the form of Doctor Fate floated into the apartment.

Freddy glared at the Box Ghost after he saw what he thought to be a dead hero approach them, "I blame you for this. You just had to joke about my mortality."

* * *

Phantom didn't know what to expect when Nekron lunged forward. He readied himself for an attack, but that never came. Nekron just threw his scythe to the side and tried to grab at the half-ghost. The opening was all Phantom needed to rush in and punch Nekron right in the skull which cracked before the force of the blow. Oddly enough, Nekron didn't even try to dodge the blow. Instead, he allowed the hit to land and used that to grab Phantom's extended arm before the halfa could pull it back. To Phantom's shock, the black energy from Nekron's arm shot over to his arm and began to wrestle against the Ascended Ectoplasm on his arm.

While Phantom was distracted with the energy transfer on his right arm, Nekron reached out and grabbed at Phantom's left shoulder. Just like before, the ghost of death's dark energy spread out from Nekron to Phantom's own body. It was then that all of Phantom's energy jumped out from his body and tried to push Nekron back, but the black energy was more than willing to push back.

" **What is this?"** Phantom demanded.

Nekron's head whipped forward to show his fractured skull, " **Do you want to know the truth? The truth about everything? The reason so many people have an interest in you? It's because of the Life Entity. The day you first fought against death, the Life Entity took notice of you. It's rare for children, let alone new born babies to have such willpower. That's why it chose to fill your little body with life instead of letting you become a ghost. In that moment, you became the living embodiment of the line between life and death. Entity created you to be its protector from anything that would threaten it. Mainly me.** "

Phantom tried to fight against Nekron, but he fought that he couldn't move.

" **That's why you gain power when Death is near. But that's also why you gain power when you were around my Black Lanterns. Like at the Sorcerer Initiative. So many of my Black Lanterns were around, and the Entity decided to pump you full of energy to protect you. And that's why it saved you during Trigon's invasion. Because you were still needed to save it. The Life Entity always knew I would return, so it made you into its Catalyst to stop me. After all, the fastest way to erase all life in the universe is to kill the source of life.** "

Phantom could only look on in horror as Nekron leered down at him.

" **The Guardians of the Universe knew about this. That's why they hid Earth for so long. If anything happened to Earth, then the Life Entity would be exposed. Congratulations, Earthlings. You were right. The Earth was actually the center of the universe, and they were right about them being special. Being exposed to the Life Entity for so long gave Earthlings the genetic potential to become gods. Just like the ones living near the Source Wall. But that's also the reason only Earth has ghosts. You see, on any other planet, using the Reality Gauntlet like Savage did would have caused a backlash that would kill the planet. But the Life Entity protected Earth to save itself. The force of Reality cares nothing for life, though. The universe does not need living things to continue for it to survive, so it created a curse on Earthling. The curse of living on after death. And it used that curse to give life to me, the worst enemy for the Life Entity.** "

Despite the circumstance, Phantom found himself enamored by this story.

" **Of course, that same curse saved the Life Entity the first time. Pariah Dark and his followers stopped me, but I can't die. I did destroy my old body and created the Ghost Zone as a way to keep an eye on the happenings of Earth, but I never went away. My consciousness existed beyond what anything living could see. And then I waited until finally enough energy was released through death for me to gain enough power to actually have enough will to start my plan. I bet you can guess the event which gave me enough energy to begin my return. The Guys in White War.** "

Phantom's face twisted with shock.

" **That's right. Your crowning moment was the day that my plan started. I gathered Black Lanterns, tried to release as much energy as possible, and manipulated situations to get as many people as possible to die. The Life Entity knew about this, though. So it decided to create an army to destroy me once and for all with the power of Life. That's where you come in. During Trigon's invasion, the Life Entity changed your body to release its energy across the world and effectively give everyone the power of Ascended Ectoplasm to fight me. At the cost of your life, of course. You were always just a means to an end of the Entity, but you are so much more than that to me. You are everything, because truth be told, I knew that I would never be able to kill the Life Entity. The light was too strong for me to actually get close, but in its paranoia, it gave me the real key to getting to it."**

" **What are you talking about?!** " Phantom felt fear grip his heart.

" **My plan was always to lead up to this!** " Nekron laughed in glee, " **The GIW War brought me back! Freakshow's fiasco gave me back my body! Morgaine le Fey's attack gave me back my power! The Sorcerer Initiative made my army! And Trigon's invasion gave me enough energy for this! The Transferal! It's time, Danny Phantom! Give me your power!** "

Black energy surged and began to weave its way through the Ascended Ectoplasm. Phantom felt a familiar wave of demonic energy from Trigon help push the black energy forward. Soon, his entire body was covered with the black energy that seemed to lovingly dance around the energy of life. Still unable to move, the half-ghost could do nothing as Nerkon's hands moved to his head. Skeletal fingers sunk into the sides of his head. Black veins rushed from the fingers and into Phantom's eyes and brain.

He had to fight back.

 _Memories of Young Justice began to fade from his mind. Who were those people in the strange clothing? Why did they look so happy to see him? No...no...he didn't know them._

This wasn't right.

 _His family was the next thing to go. Wait, he had a family? That didn't seem right? Dani...Joel...Vlad...Those names didn't make sense to him. They were nobody to him._

No...please don't take this from him...it was all he had...

 _Who was he again? Danny Phantom...what a strange name. Who would call themselves that? That was dumb. He was Nobody. He was Nothing. He was just a vessel._

Please...please...

 _He was Nekron._

Nothingness.

* * *

Vlad awoke to the feeling as a warm mouth against his neck. Eyes slowly cracked open and drifted to his new wife. The only thing covering the beautiful woman was their bed's velvet, silk sheets, and that was changing very quickly as the sheets slid off the woman's body, much to the joy of the new husband. Despite his desire to keep his eyes firmly locked on the form of his love, out of instinct, his eyes did drift across the honeymoon suit.

Their clothing was thrown randomly all across the fancy room. This included the hanging flat screen television and the mini-fridge that remained unopened because they had brought their own bottle of champagne which now sat empty on the bedside table. To Vlad's amusement, his own socks hung from the chandelier above them.

"Good morning, love," Vlad whispered as he brought his hands down her firm curves to her delicious hips.

Vision slowly kissed her way up his jawline while tracing the rock stone muscles on his torso. As her mouth reached his own mouth, she whispered a greeting of her own before hungrily attacking his mouth. The newlywed couple continued to passionately express their affection through both their mouths and their hands drifting across each other's bodies.

Reluctantly, Vlad gently pushed her away, "Love, I'd love to get an early morning start with you, but I'm famished and parched."

"I called room service. They'll be here in half an hour with a small buffet," Vision leaned in and gently bit his ear.

"Bathroom."

"You can hold it."

"Can I at least stretch first?"

"We'll stretch plenty soon enough."

Vlad sighed, "My pride hates to admit it, but I am only one man, my dear. Some things just don't –Woah!"

Vision's hand danced beneath the sheets as she sensibly mounted her spouse. She smirked as she got her reward, "You were saying?"

Vlad chuckled, "You always get your way."

"Of course I do. That's part of the reason you love me so much," Vision leaned down once more and brushed her lips lightly over his mouth once more, "Now, husband, I believe you have some duties to fulfill."

Vlad was more than happy to oblige. Like the night before, the room was filled with the noises of love and passion between two people completely in love. The sounds carried to the door, and anyone on the outside of the room would hear the muffled sounds of love making. In fact, someone was listening.

Madame Rogue disguised as a hotel employee halted her hand that was raised to knock on the door. She slowly lowered it and decided to wait for them to finish. It would be rude to ruin this moment of happiness. After all, it would be the last bit of joy the two would ever feel.

* * *

Poindexter panted and whipped his forehead of his perspiration. Exhaustion flooded him as he looked around the simple pocket dimension he created. Hundreds if not thousands ghosts floated unconsciously all around him. Like he planned with Clockwork, he had kidnapped all the ghosts that would be powerless in a fight against Nekron. He felt bad for taking people without permission, but if the plan didn't work out, then this would save their lives.

Then again, this was nothing new for him. He had manipulated so many people to take them to safety so they could fight in this battle. He could only hope that it would pay off. It now lied on Mal's shoulders to complete the task Poindexter set in motion. Poindexter prayed that he would pass Jericho's test.

Nodding to himself, Poindexter decided that he should now turn his attention to the human work. That would be a lot more difficult of a task. The Ghost Zone's ectoplasm helped amplify his powers, and there were a lot more humans than ghosts. That was really the only reason he chose to save the ghosts first. They were the fastest to get. Now, though, it would take some time to get…all the humans…

Oh no.

"I should have known," Poindexter spoke out, "But I never thought of it. I always heard that Nekron could just make monsters. But this…I never assumed that he could use you against me, Master Scribe."

Dressed in a purple blazer trench coat with simple grey clothing underneath, the Ghost Writer did not give off the impression of great strength. With a simple scarf around his neck, thick glasses covering his green eyes, and messy black hair, he looked rather nerdy actually. Poindexter knew, though, that behind the long goatee and gray skin was one of the most powerful ghosts to ever live.

"Master…" Poindexter allowed a tear to trickle out of his eye, "What I wouldn't have given to see you again on any other day. But in these circumstances…"

Scribe just looked on impassively.

"We have to fight, don't we?"

The Ghost Writer's silence said everything that Poindexter needed to hear.

"Alright…" With a wave of his hand, Poindexter summoned a keyboard to start typing. Scribe copied that motion to create a reality altering keyboard of his own, "Let's see if the apprentice has surpassed the master."

* * *

Fright Knight didn't know what happened. One second, he and Constantine were fighting Hotep Ra. The next second, Hotep Ra grabbed Constantine and pulled him into a black portal. Then, the entire castle shook. Everything went black for a full minute before things finally calmed down. The light from the torches returned revealing a silent and empty room. Not just that. The entire castle was eerily silent. He couldn't hear anything happening. Nothing from behind, and nothing from ahead. It was like the fighting had ceased all at once.

"Lord Phantom!" Fright Knight called out in fear. He rushed from the room and through the castle hallways until he reached the destroyed throne room. The knight rushed through the broken doorway just in time to see his master grab the lid of the Ghost King's coffin and effortlessly pull it off to reveal that nothing was inside. Phantom, covered in a halo of Ascended Ectoplasm, tilted his head sideways in confusion at the lack of a person inside the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

"My Liege!" Fright Knight called in relief at seeing his master safe, "What happened?"

Phantom turned to look at the knight. Smiling gently, he took several calm steps to the knight, "We beat Nekron, but Dark Dan didn't make it."

Fright Knight looked around only to see that besides the broken coffin and the halfa, the only thing left in the room was a familiar scythe. Walking over to it, Fright Knight grabbed the weapon and held it up, "Two birds with one stone? Well done, my Liege. You impress me more and more with each challenge you overcome."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that I overcame anything," Phantom held out a hand, "Can I please see that scythe? I think we should destroy it just in case Nekron can use its energy to regenerate."

"Of course," Fright Knight handed the weapon over without question. Phantom admired the weapon by holding it up into the light, "I must tell you, my King, that Constantine was taken by Hotep Ra. We should be able to track him—"

In a blur of motion, Phantom swung the scythe with such speed that Fright Knight wasn't able to even think about blocking with his guard down as it was. Coughing, Fright Knight stared down at the long blade that was now sticking through his chest, "L-Lord P-Phantom?"

"Oh, you're master's not here anymore, Fright Knight," Phantoms' white eyes bled into a sickening black, " **You can call me Nekron.** "

* * *

 _Wheezing, Fright Knight watched as Danny Phantom began to change before his eyes. His battle attire switched into a long black robe that seemed to constantly be flowing like a river of black. Once tanned skin slowly turned an almost sickly pale. This was a deep contrast to the black markings that began to cover the still visible parts of his body. The black markings seemed to outline his bones emphasizing the man's skeleton. Hair once as white as snow bled black and extended to his shoulders and began to dance around constantly like flames._

 _"You...you possessed him..._ _"_ _Fright Knight whispered in horror._

 _"_ _ **Exactly. Danny Phantom no longer exists. Now, there is only Nekron the Reaper,**_ _" Nekron smiled wickedly. The sight of his master's face like that made Fright Knight feel sick, "_ _ **And now I am finally complete. I am the god of death.**_ _"_

 _"God?" Fright Knight hissed. Hearing those words from the humble king made his ears bleed, "Bastard. You're no god."_

 _"_ _ **Oh really?**_ _" Nekron held up the hand not holding the scythe. A combination of Death Ectoplasm and Ascended Ectoplasm danced in unison around his fingers, "_ _ **I disagree. My power is now literally untouchable, and I'll prove it soon enough. What is the name of Earth's greatest champion again? Superman? I believe I'll make an example of him first. That will put the fear of their new god into all the Earthlings' hearts."**_

 _Fright Knight shook his head, "It doesn't matter how powerful you are. You are not great enough to be a king, let alone a god."_

 _Nekron chuckled,_ _ **"And what, dear Fright Knight, makes someone great enough to be a king?**_ _"_

 _"Passion. Humility. Servitude. Selflessness. Love. Hope," Fright Knight stated passionately, "That was the Ghost King before his corruption, and that is Danny Phantom. He who has all the power, money, and servants he could ever want and still call himself Nobody. That is a true king."_

 _"_ _ **Then I guess I'm the corrupter of kings. Because you see, I was the one that corrupted Pariah Dark. I placed my energy into his crown and ring. The more he used them, the more he slipped into madness.**_ _"_

 _"N-no..."_

 _"_ _ **Luckily for Phantom, his fall was not so slow and painful. I was quite merciful actually. He didn't feel any pain.**_ _"_

 _"No...You're wrong...Danny Phantom still exists...He's too strong for you...You could never destroy him!"_

 _"_ _ **Are you sure? Because I have complete control over his powers and body.**_ _"_

 _The Fright Knight gained a smug look, "Then...Why are you crying?"_

 _It was true. Small beads of tears were slowly making their way down Nekron's face at the sight of Fright Knight being stabbed like he was. Realizing that the Fright Knight was right, Nekron's face twisted with anger. After wiping the tears away, he brought his free hand to the handle of his scythe. With a roar of rage, he brought blade of the scythe, cutting through the metal and flesh that was the Fright Knight. Green blood sprayed everywhere as Fright Knight was cut into two from his chest up to his right shoulder._

 _This did not stop the Fright Knight, though. During Nekron's distraction, he had brought his hand to his own blade. In a blur of motion, he unsheathed Soul Shredder and tried to stab Nekron in the head. Before he could finish the attack, he froze. Drinking in the sight of the Nekron possessed Phantom, he remembered his time with the king. He remembered all the times he witnessed Danny Phantom sacrifice for the good of everyone. His mind flooded with the images of all the tears, blood, and sweat Phantom had shed. All the kind words and friendly chats they had rushed before his eyes._

 _With a roar of his own, Fright Knight flung the blade away. Before it could hit the ground, it burst into flames and disappeared into the fear dimension that it sent people. He might not be able to slay the king, but he could ensure his successor would be armed with the best. All his energy now spent, Fright Knight tumbled back and fell onto the broken ground. Despite the blood and the pain, Fright Knight refused to go quietly._

 _"Long live the Ghost King!" Fright Knight roared as his body dissolved, "Long live Danny Phantom, the greatest king to ever live! Long...live...the king..."_

 _Nekron looked on in disdain as Fright Knight dissolved into a pile of ooze, "_ _ **Fool. That was just a small lapse. I'm still in control. And if Danny Phantom really is still in here at all, then I'll make him watch as I kill everyone he loves.**_ _"_

* * *

 **Next update: "Blackest Night" on August 1, 2016**

 **As I'm sure you've noticed, Nekron's resurrection abilities work a bit differently than in the comics. I thought it would be better for the story if the resurrected allies of the Phantom Family looked that same as their living selves instead of as the zombies from the comics. It would bring out more of an emotional reponse from the characters. Also, before people start asking, I have not forgotten anyone. I have checked literally twenty times. If you can think of the character, then they probably will show up at some point in this arc...except for extremely minor characters like Metallo.**

 **Also, as you can probably tell, I have decided to throw the events of Young Justice Legacy out the window. It wasn't that good anyway. And if you don't know about YJL, then I'll tell you that it's the gaming telling the story of what happened between seasons 1 and 2 of YJ, but the gameplay was very base and the story was kind of bland. So I'm just going to say those events don't happen in this universe. Originally, I was going to keep the game in as canon, but...I like my version of Tula's death better.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	27. Blackest Night

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Sometimes when you're overwhelmed by a situation - when you're in the darkest of darkness - that's when your priorities are reordered."

Phoebe Snow

* * *

Chapter 27: "Blackest Night"

(Sunday-May 18, 2014)

Mal groaned as he slipped back into consciousness. Oddly enough, he was extremely comfortable. It was like he was floating on air. He wasn't kidding. There was literally nothing underneath him. Cracking his eyes open, Mal was shocked at what he saw.

He was floating in a strange place. There was no ground to be seen, and the sky was anything but blue. All around the man was an area of swirling colors and spinning flowers. For a second, Mal thought that he could be high, but his focused mindset proved that inclination incorrect. It was then that Mal remembered what happened.

Sitting, up Mal yelled out, "Jericho!"

He was immediately greeted with the sight of a man with long blond hair. The strange man was covered in purple and white robes. Clear green eyes lifted up from the guitar in his hands to look up at Mal. Smiling, Jericho waved cheerfully before turning his attention back to his instrument.

Mal just blinked, "You…You're Jericho, right?"

Jericho nodded.

"What happened? Where did you take me…and why?" Mal demanded.

Jericho paused as if he was thinking. Raising a single hand up. He began to write in the air, the color around him flowing with his finger to complete his writing.

'You wanted the horn, so I brought you here.'

Mal frowned, "Can't talk or something?"

Jericho erased the writing and made another sentence, 'I took a vow of silence to make up for past sins.'

Mal raised an eyebrow. This man didn't seem capable of committing sins worthy of a vow of silence, "What did you do?"

'Not me. My father. You probably have heard of him. Slade Wilson.'

Mal's eyes widened, "Your dad is Deathstroke the Terminator?!"

Jericho nodded, 'My real name is Joseph Wilson, but please just call me Jericho.'

"Well…Deathstroke's got a lot of sins to make up for…" Mal stroked his chin, "What about Rose, though?"

Jericho tensed up, 'My sister…When I originally decided to leave, she was very young. Father would not let me near her. I had to leave her to he own journey.'

"I see…But…You don't look too much older than her."

'This is the Realm of Inner Peace. Nirvana. True inner enlightenment. We are ageless here.'

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaay…" Mal frowned, "So how do we get out of here?"

'The Horn of Gabriel.'

"Right. And how do I get that?"

'Inner peace.'

"Well, that's helpful…" Mal noted, "How do I get that?"

Jericho shrugged.

"Well, how did you get it?"

Jericho shrugged again, 'Meditating?'

"And how long will that take?"

'More time than we have really.'

"What does that mean?"

'Oh, I forgot. You're not in tune with the flow of the universe. Sorry. It's simple really. All life in the universe will come to an end in the next 24 hours.'

* * *

"Okay!" Superboy groaned as he held what appeared to be a large battery. It was shaking violently, but his strength allowed him to hold onto the strange device. Hoping off of the Supercycle version of Sphere, Superboy placed the battery down to avoid getting electrocuted. Wolf leaned in to sniff the battery, only to back away and growl, "I got it!"

 _"You feel good about yourself, little boy?_ " Electricity sparked from the battery as a feminine voice sounded from it, " _The two of you against one poor woman. Real tough guys._ "

Superman landed by the Kryptonian clone, "Livewire, you were trying to take over the city's power grid and hold the city hostage. Don't try to take the moral high ground."

" _Oh, please just send me to jail_ ," Livewire begged, " _That's so much better than listening to the boy scout's lecture_."

"Trust me, I know," Superboy nodded. He then noticed that Superman was glaring at him, "Just kidding, Kal-El."

"Uh huh..." Superman didn't look convinced, "Let's take get her to the police. We'll...Huh?"

Both Kryptonians looked up in surprise to see various heroes flying overhead above the city of Metropolis. Almost the entire Justice League seemed to be approaching them. Those that couldn't fly were being carried by a platform created by the Green Lanterns. Soon, all of them had landed around the Kryptonians in the somewhat empty streets. A lot of the populace had cleared out from the large street where they had just been fighting Livewire. Some of the civilians did stick around to watch, though, and with the fighting done, the others were slowly returning causing whispers to spread out about all the heroes in the area.

"We got your message, Superman," Batman stepped up the alien, "Where's the alien hive?"

"Um...Alien hive?" Superboy gave his adopted brother a surprised look.

Superman shrugged, "Uh, Batman. I really don't know what you're talking about."

Wonder Woman frowned, "We heard your communication fifteen minutes ago. You said you discovered a massive alien hive and needed as much backup as possible."

Superman shook his head, "That's not possible. We've been chasing Livewire around for the better part of a half an hour. Her powers make communication through the coms impossible. Too much static from her electricity."

Martian Manhunter's eyes narrowed, "Then if you didn't do it...then someone must have hacked our communication system. Was it to get us away from the Watchtower?"

" **No. It was to get you all here.** "

To the League's surprise, a large black dome popped up to completely cover the city. As the civilians began to panic, a thick black fog began to spread out through the streets. The natural sunlight was blocked out, leaving only artificial light to give them sight through the blackness, although the Green Lanterns did help give enough light to see around them. This allowed them to see a dark figure rise out from the black fog.

" **Hello, Justice League,** " Nekron smiled at them and lifted his massive scythe over his shoulders, " **It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm sure you've heard of me. I am called Nekron the Reaper.** "

"You kind of look like...Danny," Superboy noted. There were a lot of differences between this man and the clone's best friends, but there were enough similarities to get the comparison.

" **Oh, Conner, that's because I've taken over your friend's body,** " Nekron's voice came out with a gentle fondness to it. This statement shocked the League to its core.

"Liar!" Superboy shouted, "Danny would never submit to you!"

" **Well, it did help that we have the same connection to death. Plus, all the energy I've gained through your little adventures this past year** ," Nekron chuckled, " **He didn't really stand a chance.** "

"So after regaining a body, you hack our communication system and gather us all here?" Captain Atom scoffed, "That's a pretty stupid plan. We're an entire league of heroes. Why let us work together at all?"

" **You...you are the guardians of this planet. Everyone looks to you as their gods. When I defeat you, the entire planet will know that it's the end. They will panic, and I will relish in their screams,** " Nekron explained.

"That's assuming that you even stand a chance against us."

" **Oh, I don't assume...** " Nekron disappeared. Once again, the League were completely shocked when he appeared right in the middle of them. His fist had punched its way right through Captain Atom's chest, " **I know that none of you stand a chance!** "

Black energy blasted of Nekron, shoving all the heroes away. Many of them flew into the buildings that lined the sides of the roads. As for Captain Marvel, the radiation in his body began to leak out. Seeing that he was about to be caught up in a nuclear explosion, Nekron manipulated his energy and used it to smother the radioactive energy. In an instant, all of Captain Atom's energy was suppressed and stolen, causing his living suit to the crumble to the ground like a discarded sock.

" **One down! Who wants to go next?!** "

* * *

"Wulf!" Spirit shouted while chasing after the animalistic ghost. They raced over the rooftops. Despite her fast speed, Wulf always stayed ahead of her. This did nothing to stop the halfa, though, "Wait!"

"Spirit!" Cyborg and Youngblood raced after the halfa girl. Like the two ghosts in front of them, they couldn't close the distance, "Wait! It has to be a trap!"

Spirit ignored them and continued forward with her eyes completely set on Wulf. Her last memory of the deceased ghost was still fresh on her mind. For a split second, she could feel his blood splattering on her face once more.

"Dammit!" Youngblood pointed his hook forward Spirit. The hook split apart to allow a green net to jump out and smash into the young woman. Caught up in the ecto-net, Spirit crashed down to the roof below her. Cyborg instantly landed next to his girlfriend and began to untangle her.

"Sorry," Cyborg held onto the halfa to keep her from flying off again, "But we can't let you go."

"But Wulf…" Spirit looked to where Wulf was flying off.

"He isn't real. I know this is a sensitive topic for you, but I was there," Youngblood floated above them and shifted his hook into a blade, "He died. Ghosts don't come back from that. Whatever that was, it just looked like Wulf."

"Right…" Spirit took a deep breath and relaxed. Seeing this, Cyborg released the woman, "But…that means that someone not only abused Wulf's image…They also know about what happened to him."

"There are plenty of ways they could find out," Cyborg noted, "Cameras. Spies. Rumors. Hell, Madame Rogue knew how he—"

"RAW!"

A giant mass of muscles landed into them. Only Youngblood managed to avoid getting hit. Before any of them could identify what it was that had landed on them, it grabbed Spirit and Cyborg and jumped of the roof. It landed onto the street below creating a panic among the populace.

Anger flashing, Spirit prepared to turn intangible but froze when she saw who was holding her, "Grundy?!"

The hulking mass of muscles growled at her. His ripped vest was open to reveal his white pale torso. This continued up his head. A thick jaw, frowning brow, and hair were all white as snow. The only thing not white on the man besides his dark clothing was his glowing green eyes.

Taking advantage of the lack of reaction, Solomon Grundy pulled them both up and slammed them into the ground repeatedly. He only stopped when Youngblood floated down behind him to stab him through the chest. Roaring in pain, Grundy tossed his original two targets away and reached behind his back to grab the forever young ghost. Shocked by the lack of effect from his attack and the pain from being grabbed to tightly by the zombie, Youngblood could do nothing when Grundy flipped him onto the ground and began to violently beat him.

Crashing into the side of a building, Cyborg quickly forced himself to recover. Shifted his arm into a sonic cannon, he tried to take aim to hit the zombie. His shot was paused, though, when he saw Spirit being contained by a bubble of black energy. As he used that split second to decide who to save first, someone took advantage of his distraction. Wulf burst through the wall behind Cyborg and used his claws to cut through Cyborg's arm.

Shouting from the pain, Cyborg clutched at his wound allowing a combination of blood and oil to seep through his fingers. Wulf once again used the distraction to his advantage. He repeatedly stabbed his claws into Cyborg, tearing through both metal and flesh.

"No!" Spirit tried to force her way through the energy bubble but failed, "Vic! Chuck!"

"Look at what happens to people who get close to you," Nocturne floated down next to the halfa. His ring was pointed right at the energy bubble to give it extra concentration and energy, "They all suffer and die."

"Nocturne!" Spirit hissed, "Let me go and fight me for real."

"I'd be glad to, but orders are orders," Nocturne grinned as large green beings known as Sleep Walkers popped out of the ground and surrounded the area to prevent any outside interference, "The agent Delirium must not be given a chance to survive."

Spikes popped out from inside of the bubble. Spirit was force to curl up to avoid getting impaled.

"But I would be lying if I said that I wasn't going to enjoy this."

* * *

Dusk held up a massive Reflection Shield to cover himself and his two companions. He managed to craft the shield right before the flames had hit them, so his friends had been saved from a fiery demise. Nevertheless, another problem immediately popped up. Though his shield was big enough to protect them, the stream of flames was far larger than the shield. Purple flames laced with the black aura of Aragon's ring poured them like an unstoppable river of lava.

What was worse was the fact that the flames seemed to be so hot that they were constantly melting his weapon. Dusk was forced to pour a constant flow of ectoplasm into the shield to keep it stable. This combined with his lack of sleep made the halfa feel incredibly weak and unstable. Aragon seemed to having no such issues, though. His stream of fire wasn't slowing down in the slightest. The combination of the dragon amulet and Black Lantern ring was too ridiculously strong.

While Dusk held the shield up, the women behind him desperately tried to come up with a plan to get out of the situation. Unfortunately, neither of them could past the flames. The intensity of the heat was so great that the Amazon felt her skin burn slightly from just being near them. Bumblebee looked ready to pass out from the intensity of the fire, though.

"Uhn…" Dusk collapsed to one knew. Sweat poured down his shaking body, "I can't…hold it…"

"I know," Troia cradled the gasping Bumblebee, "But I don't know what I can do. If I enter the flames…"

"Right…" Dusk narrowed his eyes to prevent sweat from impairing his vision, "I have…an idea…"

"What is it?"

"I…drop the shield…you use me…to stop fire… then you two fly away…"

"NO!" Troia looked insulted, "I would never leave a friend behind!"

"Please…" Dusk huffed in exhaustion, "I'm…going to die…anyway…let me save you…"

"But…"

Dusk began to cry, "Let me save…one friend…Jason…would want you to live…"

Troia began to tear up herself, "He'd want thee to live too! I won't leave thee!"

"Then do it…for Karin…"

"Please don't make me do this! I hate this! I hate being a hero!" Troia protested, "Why must we always suffer!? We're only trying to save people!"

Dusk shook his head, "I don't know…please leave…"

"No! I refuse!" Troia clutched Karin close, "I REFUSE! Please! Someone help us! If you can hear me Athena…Artemis…Hera…Zeus…anyone! Please save us!"

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

Her prayers were answered. Another massive dragon rammed into Aragon forcing the steam of flames to stop. Felling the fire stop, Dusk dropped his weapon and collapsed into an exhausted heap. Before he could fall into the flames, though, they were suppressed by the combination of Torch and Ember's control.

"Hey!" Torch landed by Dusk to check on him, "You alright, Dusk?"

"Yeah…I'm just tired…" Dusk struggled to stay awake.

"I'll take them away," Ember floated next to her brother, "You help Dora."

"Right—"

Torch was silenced when a burned and bleeding Dora in dragon form crashed down on the burning church. The entire building collapsed under the dead weight of the dragon. Above them, Aragon floated menacingly. His entire body was now covered in black armor that only enhance his already deadly abilities as a dragon.

"Finally!" Aragon rolled his eyes, "I was waiting so long for you to show up! I even sent the weak monsters so you wouldn't get slowed down, yet not get enough time to come up with a plan! Once again, I overestimate how useless you are, though, Dora!"

Dora looked up weakly, "B-brother…"

"Now, I can kill you and complete my mission," Aragon roared, "Now just to make sure the agent of Destruction and the Amazon don't run, let's go somewhere that they'll refuse to leave! Tell me, Donna Troy, have you wanted to see your home burn!?"

A black portal immediately opened up beneath the downed ghosts and heroes. Dark hands reached down and began to pull them into the darkness. Seeing what was about to happen, Troia threw Bumblebee into the air letting her avoid getting pulled into the darkness. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the other members of the group. They were all gone in an instant just like the floating form of Aragon.

After Bumblebee hit the ground, silence rang throughout the area. This only lasted a moment, though. Soon, thunder and lightning began to crash throughout the area. A gravelly voice called out over the sounds of the weather.

"HELLO…huff…GHOST ZONE! DID YOU…huff…MISS ME!?"

* * *

Nekron quickly learned who wanted to go next. Sphere the Supercycle flew above him and sent down a barrage of bullets down at Nekron. At the same time, Wolf jumped up behind him and tried to bite into his shoulder. Both of the two pets of Young Justice were defeated in quick fashion. Flicking both of his hands, Nekron sent out two different attacks. An arc from his scythe nearly cut Sphere in two and sent it crashing uselessly into a building. Meanwhile, Wolf was flicked away with a burst of black energy and sent flying into a car. Neither pet rose from their landings.

With the pets down, the far range combat experts in the League opened fire at the ghost. Explosives and energy blasts flew in from every direction to Nekron. With a bored look, the ghost of death just stood there. All the weapons and energy attacks slammed useless into the energy aura around him. Nothing even got close to him.

As the energy and weapons died down, the better hand to hand fighters rushed at Nekron. Wonder Woman lunged from once side with a sword raised high. Black Canary flew in from the other side with her fists ready. Still looking bored, Nekron blocked be combinations with one arm each. Then, Martian Manhunter appeared in front of the ghost of death. With his expression never changing, he brought a leg us and used that to block with the barrage of punches the alien sent at him.

With the calmness of a grown man holding back three children, Nekron just stood there and blocked the attacks. His limbs moved in a flurry of motion, but he didn't seemed strained in the slightest. Even as he pushed them away and flash froze the ground with a blast of black and blue energy, Nekron didn't even blink.

"Woah!" The Flash cried out in shock as he lost his traction. He had been aiming to hit Nekron's open backside, but the ice caused him to slide wildly to the Reaper. The speedster ran straight into a kick that shattered his nose and sent him crashing backwards. The speedster's head slammed against the ice which shattered from the force of the man landing on it. Blood running down his face, the Flash lie prone and defeated from Nekron's nonchalant efforts.

Nekron yawned, " **Should I make this easier for you? I can take a nap if you want.** "

The League's response was to send the Green Lanterns forward to take control. Three different beams of willpower energy fired down at Nekron. They met the aura of black and attempted to push through it. This proved to be as fruitful as their last attacks, but for some reason, the Green Lanterns found that they couldn't stop their beams. Their own rings refused to obey their commands.

Nekron's eyes lazy looked to each Green Lantern. Hal Jordan…John Stewart…Guy Gardner…Interesting. They were all very talented at what they did, but they were nothing special. Rolling his eyes, Nekron controlled his energy to rush down the beams of the energy. To everyone's fear and shock, the black energy wrapped around the Green Lanterns and began to crush them. After a few seconds of crying in agony, they slumped into unconsciousness.

The Reaper used the energy beams to flick the beaten Lanterns away. Nekron once again gave them all a lazy look, " **Was that a yes? Nap time it is then. Wake me up when you're ready to give me an actual challenge.** "

* * *

"Get to the Bioship!" Zatanna shouted out as she and her friends ran into the hanger. Her magic provide a ball of light to guide them to their destination. When they saw the Bioship, though, she let the spell drop because the ship jumped to life and lit up the darkened area.

Turning to the entrance of the hanger, the magician cried out, "Kcolb eht rood!"

The metal and earth around the entrance instantly collapsed. Just as they fell, the strange monster that had been attacking to them appeared in the magician's vision. Two of the creatures were crushed under the rubble. The others began to ram themselves against the rock and metal. Based on how the rubble was shaking, Zatanna figured that the blockade would only hold for a few precious seconds.

With her job done, Zatanna turned and ran to the ship. Just as she made it to the ramp entrance of the ship, the creatures burst through the rubble. They charged forward wildly. Luckily, the ship entrance closed before they could get inside. With a shake, the Bioship rose into the air and fired its guns at the hanger door to give them an escape route.

Despite the creatures clinging and clawing at the ship, M'gann managed to steer the Martian transport out of the hanger and into the open air. Even as the ship cut through the air like a knife, the creatures still clung to the ship as if it were their lifeline. Before the heroes could come up with a plane to get the creatures off of them, red lights began to blare through the ship.

"No! They're turning intangible and getting into the ship!" Miss Martian gasped in horror, "They must be ghosts!"

As soon as the Martian said those words, the strange black creatures entered through the wall like there was nothing there at all. Beast Boy immediately acted by turning into a tiger and lunging at them. He managed to take one down and rip it apart, but he never got the chance to attack a second one. The monsters tackled the green tiger and began to tear into him just like he had done to their brother.

"Gar!" Zatanna shouted. She prepared an attack of her own but never got the chance to unleash it. The monsters were on her just as quickly as they had tackled Beast Boy.

"No…" Miss Martian tried to divide her attention between pushing back the beasts lunging at her and keeping control of the ship. It seemed like the monsters knew that the Bioship was alive and were doing everything they could to injure her enough to ground her, "Come on, girl! You can—Damn it let go!"

The division of her concentration allowed the monsters to maul at her like the others on the ship. Without Miss Martian's control, the ship began to spin wildly. It stayed in the air for a bit, before it came crashing down right in the middle of Happy Harbor, Rhode Island.

* * *

"Cassandra! Cass, wake up!"

Cassandra awoke to the feeling of someone shaking her shoulder. The masculine voice stirred her memory, "D-Dad?"

"No, Cass. It's Dick. I need you to wake up."

Opening her eyes, Cassandra saw that the voice spoke to the truth. Richard knelt over her downed form. Despite the aches Cassandra felt across her body and most specifically on her face, Richard looked far worse. His clothes were torn all over, revealing the dozens of gashes and bruises across his body. That wasn't all, though.

"You're shot," Cassandra eyed his bleeding arm.

"Yeah, your dad's a really good aim," Richard tried to ignore the searing pain in his bicep.

"My parents…" Cassandra remembered what happened, "They attacked us…but they're dead…Are they ghosts?"

"Maybe," Richard shrugged, "But I doubt that they're the real deal. They wouldn't attack you otherwise. Someone must have copied or cloned them."

"Damn it," Rage flooded through Cassandra's chest, "I'll kill that person who did that."

Richard decided to ignore that, "Worry about that later. We need to get to the Batcave ASAP."

Cassandra looked around the room that Richard had managed to drag her too from the backyard. It was one of the many guest rooms in Wayne Manor. Almost everything was covered in a white cloth or wrapping to protect it from dust. The only uncovered things were the paintings on the wall. There was a problem with the room, though…

"Blood trail…" Cassandra eyes the stains on the carpet leading to the door.

"Couldn't help that. They'll catch up soon enough," Richard explained, "We need to push past them, get to a Batcave entrance, and get our equipment."

"Alright…I won't freeze up this time."

"Cass, I…I know how this must feel. If my parents suddenly—"

"I said that I won't freeze up this time," Cassandra shoved him away and forced herself up, "Let's go."

Before they could make it to the door, it was suddenly kicked open. The two members of the Batfamily were prepared for either Shiva or Cain. Who actually stood at the door shocked them even more to their core.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" The Joker burst out laughing. He held two different army knives in each hand, "Did you miss me kiddies!?"

* * *

Superboy panted in exhaustion. He reached up to wipe the blood that was running down his face. It was actually his own blood. The Kryptonian clone could count the times he actually bled on one hand. That proved how serious of a threat that Nekron was. His powers seemed to be able to defeat Kryptonian invulnerability.

Looking around, Superboy saw that half of the members of the League currently fighting were already down. In fact, a defeated Blue Beatle was sent rolling right to Superboy's feet. The muscular man wore blue spandex which was different than his predecessor's armor. The clone didn't know this man all that well because he was a rather new Leaguer, but he still felt pity for the man's injuries.

Al this pain…all this destruction…This wasn't Danny. The Danny Phantom Superboy knew always fought for what was right. He was there for the clone through all the tough time. Now, it was Conner's turn to return the favor.

"Danny!" Superboy shouted out.

Nekron noticed the name Superboy used. Still holding a bloodied Green Arrow up by the throat, he looked over his should to look at the clone. The Reaper gained a curious look before letting the archer drop and turning around fully, " **Danny's not here anymore, Conner.** "

"No, he has to be in there," Superboy took a stead step forward, "He's never given up before. Even when the Light was controlling his mind, he fought back as much as he could. This isn't any different."

" **Yes it is. The soul you know as Danny doesn't exist anymore. I erased it into nothingness soon after I possessed him. Yes, there was a bit of lag, but now…** " Nekron held out his arms confidently, " **There is only Nekron the Reaper.** "

Superboy continued to slowly step forward to the ghost of death. He noted that Justice League had stopped their attacks. Whether they trusted his judgment or they were catching their breath was undecided in his mind. That didn't matter, though. He was getting his chance to speak, and that's all he cared about right now.

"Please, Danny, prove this guy wrong! Just like you've proved everyone wrong countless times!" Superboy now stood in front of Nekron. To everyone's shock, he pulled the Reaper in for a hug, "Come on, man! You can beat him!"

"C-Conner?" Phantom's voice sounded out from Nekron's mouth.

Superboy grinned, "I knew it! Danny you—"

In a blast of black energy, Superboy was sent flying into the air, " **Psych! I got ya! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!** "

With a roar of rage at Superman rushed forward to try and avenge his adopted brother. Just as he was about to hit the ghost, he froze. Nekron had lifted Green Arrow up and used him as a shield. Superman just stopped himself in time to avoid hitting his friend, but his loyalty was quickly punished by a kick to the balls…literally.

Superman groaned in pain and dropped to his knees.

" **Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! That's what if feels like for everyone else!** " Nekron pushed Superman away with his foot and dropped Green Arrow once more.

The Reaper then disappeared. He appeared behind Icon and used his scythe as a bat to smash him behind the head. His energy destroyed Icon's defenses to make him a normal man, thus making the attack effective enough to knock the hero into unconsciousness.

Nekron disappeared again to appear behind Red Tornado. The android was immediately flash frozen in a block of black ice. Now unable to fly, the android fell to the ground and broke into pieces. Luckily enough for the android, his head and memory chip did remain intact, though.

Finally, Nekron disappeared once more. He reappeared back to his spot. Raising his scythe, he sent out a blast of energy that branched out and smashed into some of the remaining member of the League causing them to crumble as well. Smiling, the Reaper then looked at the last three remaining members of the League.

" **The Trinity of the Justice League. Batman. Wonder Woman. Superman…** " Nekron watched as Superman pushed himself up to stand by the two other icons, " **You are the last line of defense. You are the world…no, the universe's only hope.** "

Grinning, Nekron extended his free arm out. A smoking Superboy fell down to land on the extended arm back first. Groaning in pain, Superboy slipped over the arm and slumped to the ground defeated.

" **I believe the correct line of thinking right now would be 'Oh shit'.** "

* * *

Raven frowned as she saw the figure approaching them, "I should have known you'd show up eventually."

The others turned to see who she was looking at. Even Kid Flash stopped his run to stare at the figure.

Brother Blood smiled at them, "Hello, Raven. It's good to see you again."

"I can't say the same," Rave's eyes began to glow. The other women in the group readied their weapons while Kid Flash took a battle stance.

"Oh come now, I'm not here to fight," Brother Blood stated in sickeningly sweet voice, "I just came here to give you an invitation to join the new church."

"Yeah, your previous 'church'." Artemis gave him a disgusted look, "I've heard about it. I think I'd rather swallow a jar of rusty nails."

"Oh, now there's no need for such nasty words," Brother Blood still stood in a relaxed position. He didn't seemed bothered by the fact that he was incredibly outnumbered, "I'm sure that we can come to an agreement."

"The only agreement you'll get from is only knocking a few of your teeth out before sending you to Belle Reve," Rocket noted, "As long as you surrender right now, sicko."

"Or we can do this. You come with me willingly, or I tie you up and drag you to my new church," Brother Blood chuckled softly.

"You wish," Kid Flash disappeared in the blind of an eye. He moved in a blur towards the cultist. There was no way for Brother Blood to react with his relaxed stance. Yet somehow Kid Flash was sent flying back. A massive bruise already covered his face.

The women in the group paused for a brief second. They didn't really understand what just happened. Still, they knew better than to pause for too long. Artemis was the first to act. She fired an arrow at the cultist. Soon after, Rocket sent out a blast of kinetic energy while Raven began her regular chant.

"Azaroth Me—" Raven's eyes widened when her mouth was suddenly covered in green goop. She was the only one effect by a strange sudden change. Rocket fell face first to the ground with her belt sparking. Artemis suddenly found that all her arrows were gone.

"How…How did you do that?!" Artemis demanded.

"Oh, I didn't do anything," Brother Blood let out a chuckle, "My friend did."

Once again things changed instantly around the women. They were now all tied up and gagged by green rope. Unable to move at all, the three heroines collapsed to the ground. Smiling, Brother Blood used his physic abilities to lift all three women up and too him. He reached up and gently removed Raven's hood.

Brother Blood wantingly ran his fingers across her unblemished cheek, "I definitely prefer you in this form. That child form of you was far too young for my tastes. Now, though…You're the definition of pure beauty. Skin white as snow. Hair black as night. Perfection. I'll enjoy ruining that."

Raven looked at him with wide fearful eyes.

"Don't touch her!" In a rage, Kid Flash rushed forward once more. Like before, he was smacked away by some unseen force.

"I wanted Spirit, but Nekron's orders are absolute. The Pride of Trigon, though…the person to defeat me and my old master…" Brother Blood's face twisted into a wicked smile, "This might be even better than the ghost. Revenge has the best taste, after all. Granted, I would have liked you both, but Master ordered her immediate death…just like with the speedster."

Kid Flash cried out in agony as his arm shattered for no reason.

"You would have made an excellent enforcer for my new church, Kid Flash," Brother Blood lifted his right hand to reveal a Black Lantern ring. It fired out a narrow black beam that created a portal big enough for him to retreat, "But orders are orders. Master Nekron specifically ordered your death . It's not that big of a loss, though. I got the ladies after all."

Shouting against their gags and struggling against their restraints, the young women were levitated into the portal. Brother Blood followed right after them. As the portal closed, Kid Flash tried to force himself up to run after them. Unfortunately, something grabbed him by the throat and slammed him back down to the ground.

As the portal closed, Kid Flash saw the reason they were beaten so badly. Above him was a ghost that he could have sworn was still in a coma, "C-Clockwork…"

* * *

The Spectre rushed to Colossus. Avoiding the old general's strike, he slipped past his enemy's guard and delivered a massive punch to Colossus's face. This sent the giant flying back at great speed. He crashed through several different floating rocks in the middle of the Ghost Zone before he finally came to a stop. Unfortunately, the stop was not pleasant.

Pariah Dark had appeared in Colossus's flight pattern and stopped him by force with a knee to the spine. Colossus's body arced around the king's knee strike. Groaning in pain, Colossus tried to move but found that he couldn't. The blow to his spine seemed to temporarily stop his movements. No matter how much he tried to move, his body wouldn't respond.

Seeing that Colossus wasn't moving, Pariah Dark grabbed him and held him in place. This allowed the Spectre to rush forward to send dozens of strikes at Colossus's unmoving form. Each blow felt like hammer to the body for normal person. Colossus felt bruises forming where the blows hit.

As the blows came in, Colossus managed to regain control over his limbs. With a loud roar, he sent a large shockwave out from his arms sending Spectre flying away and into a floating island. Colossus then rammed the back of his head into Pariah's nose. This allowed Colossus to force himself free. Turning, he sent a massive uppercut to Pariah's midsection. The shockwave force made Pariah keel over in pain, but that didn't stop the Ghost King.

Two massive hands reached up and smashed against the side of Colossus's head. His brain rattling, Colossus could only clutch his head and shake in confusion. Before he could clear his mind, the Spectre reappeared behind him and punched him in the back of the head. As he did this, Pariah brought his elbow up and hit Colossus square in the nose.

Having his head crushed between two blows of such magnitude borderline knocked the red giant out cold. Still, he clung desperately to consciousness knowing that sleep meant death at this point. This meant that he felt every blow that his two enemies sent at him. By the time his head cleared, his entire body was screaming in pain.

Pariah and Spectre were now playing a game of hackey sack with his body. He was bounce around everywhere before the two of them got bored. They both attacked simultaneously with massive rays of ectoplasm. Covered in a borderline miniature sun, Colossus went flying through the Ghost Zone. He crashed into a floating island and went through it. The entire island crumbled beneath him sending rubble flying everywhere.

Finally, the ectoplasmic blast died down. Colossus was left lying on a floating rock. He had to do something. It normally took everything he had to fight against just one of these enemies. Pariah Dark and the Spectre combined, though…He couldn't physically beat them both at once.

Unless…He pushed past his limits and went all out. Would that even work, though? He never tried going 100% before. There was always a cautionary wall his body set up to stop him. It said, 'Go any further and you die.' Colossus had always listened to that instinct. He had been saving that power for his dream fight, but…he wouldn't get to his dream fight if he died here.

Before he could decide what to do, Colossus was grabbed by Pariah Dark and thrown towards the Specter. Said ghost of vengeance began to blur. His arms seemed to multiply into hundreds of limbs. Then, they came back into one arm that hit Colossus so hard that it created a literal rip in dimensions.

Colossus sailed through the portal and was sent crashing into a plains area. He went skidding across the dirt for several miles before coming to a stop. Forcing himself to his hands and knees, Colossus looked up to see that the sky was darkening.

"Oh…That explains it," Colossus muttered before collapsing, "It's you, isn't it…Nekron…"

* * *

Batman glared at Nekron, "Your power is that of decay. You make everything around you weaker and slower."

" **You figured that out?** " Nekron tilted his head to the side, " **Impressive considering that I've been kicking you around this whole time.** "

"How do we fight him?" Wonder Woman questioned.

"We can't," Batman shocked the other two heroes, "I can't think of one possible way to beat him. Any of my strategies against ghosts…magic, ectoranium, ectoplasmic weapon…None of them worked. The only thing left is raw power, and that won't work. Nekron's ability to weaken his opponents and Phantom's raw power combined make him an impossible enemy to fight."

" **Wow…You really are the world's greatest detective…** " Nekron gave him an impressed look.

"There has to be something," Superman tried to keep his voice steady even as he struggled to fight off the pain from the last blow, "Anything. We can't let him win."

"We won't. He'll only win over my dead body," Batman took a defensive stance, "It's been an honor fighting by you all these years."

Sharing a look, Wonder Woman and Superman both nodded. They took fighting stances of their own. There was no fear on their faces. Instead, they looked determined and ready for what was to come.

" **And that's why you're the Trinity. Hahahaha…** " Nekron shook his head, " **You probably can't hear it, but people all around the world are cheering you on right now. You see, I can recreate everyone who's died within the past. Using a few of them and all their powers, I'm broadcasting this around the world. Every electronic devise…every mirror…Even the goddam sun has been showing this fight since the beginning.** "

With a wave of his hand, Nekron allowed thousands of holographic images and inter-dimensional windows to pop up all around the area. Soon, the silent space became one giant roar. The three heroes could see people all around the world cheering them on in the fight. Still, none of them reacted. They kept their full attention was right on Nekron.

" **Yes! Cheer them on! Show how much you worship them!** " A combination of black and white energy swirled around Nekron menacingly, " **I'm going to enjoy when you all go silent in despair!** "

* * *

Kaldur's face twisted in horror as Tula's unmoving body floated before his eyes. Slowing reaching up, he grabbed onto her and pulled her into an embrace. The arrow in her head faded to allow the blood to flow out freely from the holes in her head. Kaldur made sure to keep his eye away from that. Instead, he focused on Tula's glossed over eyes.

"You fiend!" Frostbite roared in rage and lunged towards the perpetrator.

William Hand floated in the middle of the water calmly. His regular civilian clothing was discarded for a more fitting outfit for a Black Lantern. He was covered in a pure black spandex suit that was comparable to Batman's suit with its cowl and cape. The biggest differences between the hero and the Black Lantern was the upside-down triangle symbol on the man's chest and the strange state of the man's right arm. It looked more like rotting flesh than a real life arm.

"You think that you can beat the Black Hand?" William sneered at the yeti ghost. He blasted the ghost away with a massive ray of dark energy, "I have been chosen by Lord Nekron to be the ultimate Black Lantern! I have accepted his power more than the others! I am the messenger of death!"

"You bastard!" Tempest rushed towards the Black Hand with a look of pure hatred on his hands. He flung concentrated blasts of water at the Black Lantern. William didn't even look at the angered boyfriend of his victim.

"Please," With a roll of his eyes, Black Lantern created a reconstruction of Aquagirl who blocked the water attacks with ease.

Tempest froze, "What?"

"That's a fake!" La'gaan, in puffer fish mode, rocketed to the recreated Tula, "He's trying to trick us—Oof!"

The form of Ocean Master formed beside Tula and batted Lagoon Boy away with his Trident.

"They're not fake. My Black Lantern ring allows me to resurrect anyone that has died," Black Hand stated with an air of superiority about him, "This location does limit who I can use, but it enhances the pain of who you have to fight."

In a blur of black, different Atlantian soldiers that had passed away appeared and began to spread out through the city. In addition, Nekron's monsters of death were summoned as well and began to ravage everything in sight. The Atlantian heroes could only look on in horror.

"Now…" Black Hand licked his lips, "I suggest you hand over the yeti ghost. If you do that, I'll leave with only killing some of your people."

"We do not betray our friends!" Aquaman burst through a castle wall and attempted to punch Black Hand straight in the face. Like Frostbite, he was sent flying away before he could get close. This time, someone was there to catch them.

Frostbite nodded to Aquaman as he released the king, "Thank you, King Orin. I am honored by your loyalty…and your intelligence. That man has no intention of leaving anyone alive."

Aquaman looked to the unmoving form of Tula. His heart clenched as anger and grief surged through his mind, "I can tell. Kaldur! KALDUR! Snap out of it! We need your assistance."

Aqualad did not respond, though. Instead, he acted just like the queen down in the courtyard who had yet to move. He was completely unresponsive. Kaldur just stared at the deceased Tula while stroking her cheek. He had long since accepted that Tula would never love him as he did her, but at least he had the satisfaction of knowing that she was happy. This, though…There was no happiness in such a random and meaningless death.

"There's no point," Kaldur muttered hopelessly, "No point at all."

* * *

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Both Kitty and Johnny fell to the ground clutching their heads.

Despite her concern for the ghost's strange actions, Pandora could not give them her attention. Instead, her eyes focused right at Klarion the Witch Boy. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Nyx was visibly shaking from the sight of her old abuser.

"How…Dusk…Dusk killed your cat…" Nyx muttered.

Klarion just chuckled.

To their further surprise, a black dome of energy appeared around Pandora's home. The Controller of Chaos instantly recognized the energy. It belonged to a Black Lantern. The familiar feel of energy in the air revealed to her which one it was.

"Walker!" Pandora shouted out into the darkness, "What trickery is this?"

"No trickery. Just reality," Walker appeared in a swirl of black right outside the dome, "I have my orders. All the members of the original assault group need to be taken out. I've already dealt with Colossus."

"Lies! He would not fall to you!" Pandora snapped.

"But he would to the Spectre and Pariah Dark," Walker grinned triumphantly.

Pandora gained a worried look. Those were the only two ghosts to ever exist that could match Colossus in raw power.

"With Jester, the Ghost Writer, and the Fright Knight taken care of…" Walker's mention of the knight made Pandora gasp out in horror, "And Vision and Frostbite being dealt with by other Black Lanterns, all that's left is you."

"I will not fall easily, Walker," Pandora hissed in a rage.

"Oh, I'm well aware, but you have a fatal weakness," Walker pointed to Nyx who as still frozen in shock and fear, "And your fatal weakness has a weakness of her own. That means that right now, you're an open target."

"Ahahahaha!" Klarion leapt towards Nyx with fireballs ready in his hands.

"Nyx!" Pandora rushed to protect her daughter.

"Sorry about this," Walker's tone hinted that he was anything but truly sorry, "But Nekron set up the new rules. I just follow them."

* * *

All it took was one hit for Batman to fall. With a single solid blow to the stomach, all of the Dark Knight's ribs shattered. He knelt over and gasped in pain. Blood trickled from his mouth. The blow was so intense that Batman felt a familiar pain in his spine. Gurgling, he collapsed to the ground defeated.

Nekron sneered down at Batman. He basked in the sight of seeing the man broken before him. His focus was so intense on the down knight that he didn't even react when a golden rope wrapped around his torso and held him in place.

Giving a battle cry, Wonder Woman tried to throw the Reaper. Nekron just stood there and ignored this though. Despite all her strength, she couldn't move Nekron at all. Still, she trapped his arms at the very least. This created an opening that wouldn't have existed before.

Superman took advantage of this opening. Flying in at top speed, he sent a barrage of punches at Nekron. He moves at a speed that normal people could not possibly follow. Nekron didn't even seem to care, though. He just kept sneering down at Batman. The punches from the strongest hero seemed to bother him as much as a few droplets of water would bother a normal person.

Deciding that the defeated form of Batman was no longer entertaining, Nekron raised his scythe. Once again, he shocked everyone by cutting through the Lasso of Truth. The rope blessed by the gods themselves was cut as if were a piece of simple yarn. Almost immediately, the lasso lost its heavenly glow.

With a shout of surprise, Wonder Woman went tumbling back from the force of her own pulling. With her away, Nekron reached up with his scythe and batted Superman away with so much force that Superman when flying through several buildings. Turning to the woman, Nekron rushed to her with his scythe raised.

Still on her knees from tumbling back like she did, Wonder Woman could only bring up her arms to try to block with her indestructible bracelets. This proved to be foolish, though. Like everything else, the bracelets shattered in front of Nekron's power. Deep gashes appeared at the woman's wrist. Gasping in pain, she tucked her arms into her stomach to try and stop the bleeding.

Looking up to Nekron, she was surprised to see his foot aiming for her face. The foot slammed into her jaw and sent her head back into the cement. The entire ground shattered from the force of the blow, and the same thing could be said about Wonder Woman's jaw. Just like that, the Amazon princess had been defeated as well.

Now, there was only one hero left.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Superman shouted in absolute rage as he rushed back to the battleground. He unleased the complete power of his heat vision. The beams rammed into Nekron. The Man of Steel knew the real power of his heat vision. It was like a concentrated sun. Everything burned before his heat vision.

Nekron just acted like it was simple sunlight.

Suddenly, the beams stopped. Covered in sweat and panting in exhaustion, Superman dropped to his knees, "My powers…They're…they're not working…"

" **No, they're not. You draw the power from the sun, genius,** " Nekron pointed up to the black sky, " **You see the sun? No? Okay then. And just being around me drains your powers. So, with no sun and no poweres, you're not Superman. You're just a man.** "

* * *

Freddy's eye darted from the resurrected Doctor Fate to the Box Ghost, "I don't have powers anymore. There's no way I can fight him."

"Yeah…" Box Ghost glared at the Lord of Order, "I'll distract him. You get your friends and my daughter out of here."

"You sure? I know you're strong, but…" Freddy knew of Doctor Fate's power. He was a powerhouse even among the Justice League.

"That doesn't matter. Get Box Lunch to safety!" Box Ghost ordered as he lept up and to Doctor Fate. He was immediately followed by Lunch Lady. The couple did their best to try and push their enemy back.

"Mary, take Box Lunch and get to the door!" Freddy ordered while lunging at an unconscious Billy. With an uncomfortable grunt, Freddy pulled his friend over his shoulders and dragged him to the door.

"Come on!" Mary held the door and allowed Freddy to exit before slamming it shut.

Now clear of the damaged room, the old Marvels found themselves surrounded by panicking people exiting their apartments and heading towards the stairs. Seeing as that was the only safe way to go, Freddy and Mary followed the flow of the people while holding firmly to the people they were clutching.

Unfortunately, as soon as they made it to the top of the stairs, the entire building shook. Mary and Freddy ducked as a golden beam of energy cut through the room. To their complete despair, the stairs below them began to crumble. With no real solid footing, they could do nothing as the stairwell collapsed around them.

Mary looked up hopefully, "Shazam?"

Nothing.

"Worth a try…"

The stairs collapsed. Freddy's response was a little less calm, "Oh shit!"

Then, they fell.

* * *

Vlad quickly pulled on a towel over his waist and made his way to the door of the honeymoon suit. His breath was heavy, and his skin was covered in a layer of sweat. Nevertheless, a happy smile covered his face. Looking through the peephole, Vlad saw that the person knocking was the main with room service.

"One second," Vlad stated through the door. He stayed knelt over for a second while thinking about old nuns and kicked puppies. When everything was normal again, he stood up all the way and opened the door.

The maid smiled kindly at him and wheeled the food card into the room, "I'm sorry if I were interrupting, sir. But I did come as scheduled…"

"No, no, miss. Don't worry about that," Vlad gave her a thankful smile, "I needed a break and some food. Thank you so much."

"Of course, sir."

"Tip…" Vlad suddenly realized before the maid could say anything else, "Um…give me a minute. I have to find some money."

"No problem," The maid's eyes drifted to the closed door leading to the bedroom. She then looked to Vlad who had his back turned to her. With a wicked grin, she approached the man from behind and draped herself over his back.

Vlad tensed up, "What are you doing?"

"I can see why your new wife doesn't want you to leave the bedroom," The maid teased evilly, "Do you think she'll mind a third?"

"Oh, no," Vlad's already sex fatigued mind struggled to process this. He began to turn to push the woman away, "She…Rouge—Oof!"

While Vlad talked, Madame Rogue shifted back to her normal form. As soon as Vlad turned, she sucker punched him with enough force to take down a bear. Before he could topple over, Madame Rouge wrapped her entire body around him like a rope. Her Black Lantern ring was pointed right at Vlad's neck. A long blade of energy jumped from the ring and threatened to slit Vlad's throat.

Hearing the commotion, Vision crashed through the door. She held a thing sheet from the bed to cover herself, and it didn't do a particularly good job. Still, she didn't care about that. She was more focused by the woman threatening her husband.

"Let him go. NOW," Vision hissed.

"I zhink not," Rogue kept her hold on Vlad steady. Her painful grip on him prevented him from transforming or using his powers…or talking for that matter, "My orders are to not give you a chance to do anything. Your strategy kills are too dangerous."

Vision desperately thought about what she could do. No plan came up that involved both defeating Rogue and saving Vlad. The key factor that prevented those two goals was the ring on Rogue's finger, "You're a Black Lantern now."

"Yes, and Master Nekron wants you dealt with."

Vision's face darkened. So…Nekron had already returned. Damn it, "Alright. So—"

"Non. No talking," Rogue stated, "Surrender or he dies."

"You—"

Rogue silenced her by placing the blade against Vlad's neck. A thin trail of blood leaked down the unshaved morning gruff of his collar.

"Okay!" Vision dropped to her knees, "Just promise you won't hurt him!"

"Don't worry. If you cooperate, I won't kill him," Rogue noted, "But Nekron…well, I have no idea what he'll do."

* * *

" **What was the saying? Don't tug on Superman's cape?** " Nekron grabbed onto Superman's cape, " **Let's see what happens.** "

The Reaper held onto the cape and began to swing Superman around wildly. He smashed the alien repeatedly onto the ground. Nekron then threw swung him around like a towel before sending him skipping away like a rock. Before Superman could get too far, Nekron appeared above him and punched him face first into the ground. The entire street crumbled from the blow.

" **Oh…looks like nothing,** " Nekron chuckled and stepped away. Pausing, he noticed that the entire area was silent. All the inter-dimensional windows showed shocked and fear ridden people. Many of them were crying. The sight filled Nekron with joy, " **People of Earth—** "

"H-hey…" A broken and beaten Superman pushed himself to his feet. His faces as swelling to the point that is was unrecognizable. The super suit was basically rags at this point. He looked like complete garbage at this point, but he still stood, "We…We're not done…"

Nekron raised an eyebrow, " **Oh really?** "

"Y-yeah…" Superman held up his fists, "C-come on…"

" **Oh please. You have no powers. You have no allies. You have no fighting skills,** " Nekron shook his head, " **This is over. Just die with dignity.** "

"It's not about dignity…" Superman's legs shook like rubber, "It's about…fighting for what's right. I'm the only person standing in the way between you and innocent people. Even without powers, I can't just lie down and let you win. So come on. I'll beat you with no powers if I need to."

" **You're pathetic,** " Nekron noted.

"Maybe," Superman admitted, "Maybe I've always been pathetic. People say that I'm corny and boring, but I never cared. I always did what I thought was right. I've made mistakes, but I own up to them. That's what I believe…That's what the people of this world have taught me since I was young. This may not be my birth planet, but I love this world, flaws and all. And I refuse to let you destroy it!"

Cheers sounded out through the window.

"You will lose Nekron!" Superman declared, "Because justice always prevails in the end! This world will live on, and together, all of humanity will work to fix what you've broken! We'll own up to our own mistakes and make things better than ever! That's the Earth I know! We never give up! We never surrender!"

 _"Yeah!"_

 _"Go get him Superman!"_

 _"We believe in you!"_

 _"Superman!"_

 _"Superman!"_

 _"SUPERMAN!"_

Everyone across the world began to cheer for the Man of Steel. They placed all their hopes and dreams on his shoulders. For the first time in the planet's history, humans had come together to support one ideology. This filled Superman with enough hope to feel like he still was the most powerful being to ever live.

He charged forward, "FOR EARTH!"

All it took was one hit for Superman to fall.

Everything was silent again as Superman slumped to the ground defeated.

" **God…I thought he would never shut up.** "

Nekron had won.

* * *

"Damn it!"

Poindexter's fingers were a blur as they raced over the keyboard. He kept his movements despite the new gash across his face. The backlash from the battle or reality manipulation had quickly backlashed. If he wasn't trying to stay alive, he would have been fascinated by the qualities of such a battle. As it stood, though, he had no such luxury.

Another gash appeared across his left bicep.

"Damn it!"

The space between the two ghosts was constantly shifted. Both of the reality writers were creating contrary entries into their keyboards. While Poindexter was sweating and struggling to keep up, the Ghost Writer was calmly setting the pace. His fingers moves with ease, while Poindexter's own appendages shook and began to cramp.

Another gash appeared along his right leg.

"Damn it all!"

Poindexter was desperate. He typed in sentences like 'Scribe was defeated' and 'Poindexter was calm.' None of these things worked, though. Master Scribe was too strong to be affected by such simple commands, and it appeared as if his own powers didn't work on himself.

Poindexter's back began to gain several cuts.

"No! No!" His eyes drifted to the peaceful ghosts. He had to protect them. He had to save them. His power was the only things protecting them from death. No matter what, he wouldn't give up. The backlash and pain didn't matter. Hell, even dying didn't matter. All that mattered now was doing the right things.

"I will win—"

BANG!

Poindexter froze. Blood began to trickle out of his mouth. His side was blasted open by an ectoplasmic shotgun. Letting his eyes drift to the side, Poindexter saw an armored skeletal figure covered in weapons. Burning green eyes mocked him as a green Mohawk floated on top of his head.

"Skulker…"

The keyboard in front of Poindexter shattered. The ghost of black and white floated aimlessly in the pocket dimension. His eyes were glassy and unfocussed as his body went into shock. Despite all this, though, his mind was still racing with the knowledge that he had lost.

* * *

Amorpho floated at the side of the street watching the television in a store shop. Around him, people were panicking. It actually wasn't because of him, though. They're cries of horror came from what was happening on the screen. Nekron the Reaper had beaten the Earth's strongest warriors with ease. The ghost knew that it was definitely a terrifying sight.

Bursts of light across the city revealed that something was happening across the city. Based on the color of the explosions, it was probably a Black Lantern. It seemed like Nekron had sent his minions out to take care of the other threats. Nekron had planned for everything. No one would be left to stop him.

"Hey you!" A woman clutched at Amorpho's arm, "You're a ghost! You have power!"

"That's right!" A man nodded at the woman's statement, "You'll fight that thing, right?!"

"My powers…are only for blending in," Amorpho noted, "I have no combat abilities."

"Then…then what do we do? Who we rely on?"

"I don't know…" Amorpho shrugged, "God?"

A heavy silence fell over the area. The woman clutching at Amorpho's arm released her grip and slid to the ground where she began to cry. The other soon followed. Some of them just cried. Others were actually praying. All of them, though, had fallen to their knees in despair.

Stilling watching the TV, Amorpho reached into his coat and stroked the note in his coat. It was from Poindexter. The note had appeared before him the night before. Poindexter seemed to want to warn Amorpho of the danger. The context of the note was simple, but he understood the message.

Still, like he said, he was not a fighter. There was no conceivable way for him to stand up to Nekron. Poindexter seemed to think that he was the key to something, but Amorpho only had one real talent. He could disappear.

So that's exactly what he did. He disappeared into the wind, leaving the people to cry and pray hopelessly. Not only that, really. They were also cursing him to hell.

Amorpho couldn't really blame them.

* * *

Nekron turned from the downed Superman. He looked across the various windows that showed the despair filled people of Earth, " **Alright, where was I…Oh yeah! People of Earth! I am Nekron the Reaper! As you can see, I have beaten all of your beloved heroes! You are now completely defenseless!** "

The sounds of sobbing began to come through the windows.

" **And before you get your hopes up, I'm going to tell you that I have already dealt with all the ghosts and other heroes that could have stopped me,** " Nekron explained, " **How can I do this? It's easy. I'm a god…No! I am the only God! Nothing in the universe can touch me!** "

Screams filled the air as the despair changed to panic.

" **Shut up!** " Nekron silenced them, " **As your God, I have only one commandment. You must follow it perfectly, but don't worry. It's a very easy rule: Die for me.** "

Everyone just stared on in absolutely horror.

" **I was created by your obsession with Death! I am the second ghost to ever live! All of you obsess so much about death, that you literally created your own demise!** " Nekron proclaimed, " **And I will fulfill my duty as your God of Death. I will kill all of you. I am going to send my monsters to go out across the planet and kill you! And if that doesn't work, do not fret my people! If you live through the next twenty-four hours, then I give you the deaths you desperately obsess about myself! I shall destroy this world and all other worlds! That is my duty as God! I will bring an end to all life!** "

Nekron raised his hands high into the air. Black energy began to appear all around the Earth. Soon, the sky for the entire planet was covered in darkness. Droplets of black energy then began to rain from the sky. As soon as the droplet landed, it morphed into a hideous creature of blackness. Within seconds, the entire world was covered with monsters and screams of terror.

In that one moment, every monster stopped. All the Black Lanterns raised their rings to the sky. Together, with their evil master, the dark army chanted the oath that would forever haunt the human race.

 _The Blackest Night falls from the skies,_

 _The darkness grows as all light dies,_

 _We crave your hearts and your demise,_

 _By my black hand, the dead shall rise!_

" **It's time! Die for me, my subjects! Embrace this new world! Welcome, my people…** " Nekron looked up to the heavens in complete satisfaction, " **Welcome to Earth's Blackest Night!** "

* * *

 **Next update: "Remember" on August 15, 2016**

 **Nekron is now officially my favorite character to write. Combining an Internet troll and a Shakespearean character into one...He's just a blast to write.**

 **So the animated movie, Batman: The Killing Joke came out. Pretty good overall. They followed the story very closely, but it all lacks a punch without Brian Bolland's nearly unrivaled artwork. There was also the issue of...Batgirl. Now, as a Batgirl fan, I do appreciate any focus on her, but the first fifteen minutes or so of her were way too heavy handed in a desperate attempt to get the viewers to care more about her. It was unnecessary and didn't fit in with the rest of the narrative. There was also the issue of the sex scene between her and Batman...Why is this a controversy? It was heavily implied in most incantations of Barbara Batgirl that she was attracted to Batman, even the cartoon versions. Crazy feminists need to calm down over this stuff (You PC, bro?). Also, the R rating is a gimmick. Nothing in it was edgier than PG-13. Still, I enjoyed myself, but I would suggest the comic over the movie any day of the week. Or my version of it...#WarriorDidItBetter...That's right. I said it. I did it better than the movie. Come at me, bro!**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	28. Remember

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Anyone with a heart, with a family, has experienced loss. No one escapes unscathed. Every story of separation is different, but I think we all understand that basic, wrenching emotion that comes from saying goodbye, not knowing if we'll see that person again - or perhaps knowing that we won't."

Luanne Rice

* * *

Chapter 28: "Remember"

(Monday-May 19, 2016)

"Dude…" Richard Foley peaked out of the window of his friend's house, "Why is it that I'm always stuck at your house when supervillains attack the entire world?"

"I don't know, man," Virgil Hawkins shrugged, "You're here most of the time anyway. If it were gonna happen, I guess it would most likely be here."

"Well, I'm never coming over here again."

"Don't be like that, man. It could be worse. You could be stuck at school," Virgil suggested.

Richard scoffed, "Good point."

Both boys paused in their conversation when they herd angry shouts from the kitchen. The two boys shared a look.

"I, uh, don't think your mom likes being stuck in here," Richard rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah, she probably wants to go out and help people," Virgil frowned, "But I'm glad she's here. I don't want to worry about her out there."

"Not that this place seems as safe. I mean…this guy beat Superman…with ease," Richard looked nervous, "How does anyone beat that?"

"I don't know, man, but—"

Virgil instantly shut up when a dark portal appeared in the middle of the room. The two boys instantly cried out in shock and fell to the floor. Their shouts drew the attention of Robert and Jean who rushed into the room just in time to see Hotep Ra step out of the portal.

"You!" Robert rushed forward, "Get out of my house!"

In an instant, Robert was sent flying back and into the wall. Everyone watched in horror as the man slid to the ground. Hotep Ra didn't pay any attention to him, though. His focus was on one of the boys.

"You," Hotep Ra pointed at one of the boys.

"M-Me?"

Hotep Ra reached forward to grab the boy. Jean, however, jumped in between him and the boy, "No! I won't—"

Jean was sent flying through the window.

Virgil looked on horror, "Mom! No! You…Richie!"

"Virg!" Richard cried out as Hotep Ra dragged him into the portal, "Help!"

"No!" Virgil lunged forward as the portal closed. It closed right as his fingertips were about to touch it. He landed flat on his stomach before jumping to his feet to look around desperately only to see nothing he could do to change what just happened, "Rich…no…"

* * *

Aquaman floated in the water in a defensive stance. Frostbite was right by his side ready for battle. Despite the damage he had sustained, he still was calm and collected. The same could not be said for the rest of Atlantis. Flashes of black and screams poured from the city. His people were in pain and trouble, and he couldn't go to help them. It pained his heart, but he knew that the Black Hand needed to be dealt with first.

The biggest problem was that he had no help besides Frostbite. Tula…Tula had already fallen, and her afterimage was fighting against her former lover. Lagoon Boy was trying to combat the deceased Ocean Master, but the inexperienced boy lacked the battle prowess to defeat the resurrected villain. Both of his protégés were being completely beaten down, for two obviously different reason.

One protégé still remained available, though. Kaldur looked to be in no mental condition necessary for battle, however. Seeing Tula's demise seemed to shatter his mind just like Aquaman's wife…his wife…

"Shit!" Aquaman hissed as his eyes darted around desperately, "Where did Mera go?! She was just down there!"

"The queen?" Frostbite's eyes narrowed, "She must have retreated, otherwise the Black Hand would have already used her against you."

Aquaman was instantly calmed, "Right, righ—"

"You're open! Hahahahaha!" Black Hand smacked them away with a large skeletal arm. The two of them were sent flying away through the water. Their abilities quickly allowed them to correct themselves and try to combat the Black Hand using a combination of water and ice. Nothing seemed to be close to actually hurting the agent of Nekron, though. A black energy bubble easily protected him from the water and ice attacks.

While the two of them were trying to fight back the Black Hand, Kaldur continued to cradle the cooling corpse of Tula. Tear streamed down his face as he gently stroked her cheek. Why did she have to die? She was good and innocent. Why not him? His blood was the muddied one. It was him that should have died, not someone as soulfully beautiful as Tula.

"Tula?" Queen Mera's voice sounded behind Aqualad. Kaldur did not turn away from his unrequited loved one. This did not stop the queen, though. She knelt by the young man and gently reached out to her dead apprentice, "No…not another…"

As the sounds of loud sobs invaded his ear, Kaldur turned to face the queen that was now gently petting Tula. He had seen the queen's face many times, but he never realized how broken Mera looks. She looked like a shell with no purpose in life. It was like she just lived because she was too afraid of dying.

Was…was that how he looked right now?

Looking up, Kaldur finally noticed the destruction around him. Atlantis, the city of water, was literally burning. Everything was being destroyed. Yet, he was just sitting here cradling the dead. That…that would do nothing. Wallowing in pity would do nothing. It wouldn't save anyone. That was the point. Even if it hurt, he had to do something.

Kaldur leaned in and whispered into his dead love's ear, "I am sorry, Tula. I know that you never loved me, but I wanted you to live a happy life. As long as you were happy, I was happy. I would have done anything for you, but now I must leave you. I will avenge you, my love, so that you can rest in peace."

Gently kissing her nose, he moved Tula over to the crying queen. Mera carefully took Tula into her arms. Then, finally, Kaldur let go of Tula. For the first time in years, he released her both physically and mentally.

Turning to where the Black Hand was floating, he pulled out his Water Bearers and charged forward, "Black Hand! I will cut off your heat and mount it on a spike!"

The Black Hand gave the boy a side glance and scoffed, "Fool, the Black Hand is beyond you."

* * *

" **Go ahead and come, I'll destroy all of you,** " Nekron sneered at the holograms before him. He reclined in a throne made of different bones. The Guardians of the Universe just glared back at him with a look of pure hate.

" _Do not think that you can stand up to an army of our Green Lanterns, Reaper,_ " One of the Guardians snapped, " _No one being is that strong._ "

Nekron chuckled, " **I'm willing to bet that I am. Of course, that's assuming that they even make it in time.** "

Another Guardian hissed at the ghost, " _Are you not aware of the consequences of your actions?! Without the Life Entity, all life in the universe will come to an end."_

Nekron gave them a blank stared, " **Um, that's the plan, genius. Sheesh, I'm the Ghost of Death for a reason. I want everything to die. You'd think that people as old of you would be able to make that connection. Are you going senile? Do your little Lanterns have to wipe the drool from your chins?** "

" _You won't succeed! Your arrogance will be your downfall!"_

" **Arrogance? I just bitch slapped Superman into submission along with the rest of the Justice League. The only way I could have dominated them is if I got a belt and spanked them. Hahahahaha!** "

" _You're sick!_ "

" **I know, that's the point, dumbass,** " Nekron rolled his eyes, " **Okay, I'm bored with talking to you. Your conversations skills suck hairy donkey balls. I'm gonna go kill all life in the universe now. BYE!** "

" _You won't—_ "

The holograms disappeared with a wave of Nekron's hand, " **Wow. They just don't know when to shut up, do they Little Vision? Unlike you. You haven't said a word.** "

Standing from this throne, Nekron walked towards the kneeling and tied down Vision who was still clothed only in a bedsheet. They were all in the giant cave that once was used to summon Trigon to Earth. The massive crater that had been used to 'kill' Phantom was still where it was. The only real difference in the cave were the floating body trophies of the League, Vlad, and Superboy who were all held up by black energy rings.

Kneeling down, Nekron gently lifted Vision's chin to get her to look at him. Her response was to spit in his face. Raising a hand, Nekron wiped the spit from his cheek and then violently smacked Vision with that same hand.

" **Even now, you're defiant?** " Nekron grabbed her hair and pulled her head up violently this time, " **Even after I gave the courtesies of keeping your husband alive and letting you keep that bedsheet to hide your modesty?** "

"Go to hell," Vision hissed hatefully, "I know you're just doing that to hold a power over me, you sick sack of shit."

" **Then I should strip you and kill your husband?** "

"You're going to do what you want no matter what," Vision noted, "Do you want me to beg? To cry? To offer you anything to spare Vlad's life? What can I offer you that you've want? You're not interested in money, knowledge, or sex."

" **That rationale of yours…It both pisses me off and impresses me,** " Nekron released her hair and stepped away, " **That's why you're my favorite out of all the original ghosts. And why you're going to be my final witness to destroying Life.** "

"The others will stop you."

" **Really? Who? Jester? Dead. Ghost Writer? Dead. Fright Knight…DEAD! Hahahahahaha!** "

Vision looked at him in horror, "No…"

" **Oh yes! And the others will be the same soon enough!** " Nekron created holograms of the remaining Ancient Ghosts. They were all being beaten down by their enemies. He then created holograms of Spirit and Dusk to show their predicaments, " **They have no chance. Besides the Green Lanterns, there are literally no heroes able to fight me. And even then, they won't make it in time. I stand unopposed.** "

"No…there has to be…someone…"

" **There's no one, dear. Anyone that could stand up and fight is defeated or dead,** " Nekron sneered, " **How does it feel knowing that you'll be the last living member of your family? Not the just the 'Phantom' one either. The one created by your father. All your sister and your brothers…All died by my hand twice. It's almost poetic.** "

Vision just looked down in defeat. She could think of no way out of this situation.

" **Shall we go?** " Nekron asked, " **The Life Entity is waiting.** "

* * *

Mal took deep, steady breaths. With his legs crossed, he floated in the center of the strange dimension. He focuses on keeping calm. That was not possible, though. His mind was buzzing with thoughts on what Jericho told him. Opening his eyes, he glared at the blonde man calmly strumming at a guitar.

"Okay, how in the hell am I supposed to find this inner peace stuff when you drop bombs on me?" Mal questioned.

Jericho looked up from his guitar with a raised eyebrow.

"Nekron…the world ending…my friends are in danger…" Mal scowled, "Hell, my girlfriend might be dead right now! How am I supposed to be calm while knowing that!?"

Jericho smiled. He wrote in the air, 'It is easy to be peaceful in calm times. The true test is to be peaceful in times of panic.'

"Now you sound like Dusk…" Mal sighed, "How come he can't do this? He's the pacifist type, not me."

Jericho shook his head, 'The Horn is not meant for him. It is meant for you.'

"And the only way to get to the Horn is through inner peace…" Mal muttered under his breath, "But I won't be able to do that knowing what's happening in the real world."

'This isn't real? Mal, my friend, this is more real than you realize. Extend your mind. Reach out and feel the universe.'

"Feel the universe…" Mal sighed and closed his eyes, "That sounds like something a drug addict would say."

* * *

Colossus let out a groan as he sensed the Spectre and Pariah Dark landed right in front of him, "Damn it. Can't you give me a damn minute to rest?"

Pariah Dark's response was to kick Colossus with a leg empowered with ectoplasm. In a burst of green, Colossus was sent flying away. He soared across the plains like a rocket. Eventually gravity took its hold once more, and he landed with a crash. The giant continued to move through the dirt, though, leaving a long trail in his wake.

After finally coming to a stop, Colossus lay at the end of the trail looking up at black sky, "Guess not."

Before Colossus could do anything to get up, the Spectre appeared above him with a glowing green fist. The fist smashed down on Colossus's stomach casing the red giant to arc his back up in pain and to spit out blood. Green energy then spread out from the Spectre's face and spread out creating a large blast of energy.

The entire plain area around them shattered from the spray of energy. Once gentle flowing grass was now a destroyed mess. Having the entire crumble around him, Colossus decided to use the new area to his advantage. Despite the current pain rushing through his body, he lifted his massive arms up and then brought them back down to smash against the broken earth. A giant shockwave spread out from his arms and lifted all of the crushed earth high into the sky and created a reverse rainstorm.

Flying earth and dirt rammed into the Spectre sending him flying into the air with the rest of the dirt and ruble. Knowing that he couldn't give himself time to rest and still take advantage of this opening, Colossus picked himself up and chased after the reverse dirt storm. With eyes hone right on the flailing Spectre, Colossus channeled as much energy as he could into his right arm as he possibly could.

Just as he was about to send out his attack, Colossus was stopped. A tsunami of ectoplasm tore through the area. In the blink of an eye, the dirt storm was replaced by rolling waves of energy. The ruble disintegrated into ash while Colossus was stopped completely in his tracks by the dense storm of enemy ectoplasm. When the energy finally began to die down, Colossus was left floating in the air. His body looked completely defeated with more burns and bruises covering his body than untouched skin.

Unable to move his body, Colossus forced his eyes to see the old Ghost King floating off to the side with both arms extended and smoking. With a snarl, Colossus tried desperately to do anything he could to Pariah. Even if it wasn't an attack, Colossus wanted to do something in defiance. Instead of flipping the Ghost King off, though, he just feel down in defeat.

He didn't get far, though. The Spectre caught Colossus and threw him up back into the air. Now thousands of meters above the ground, Colossus could do nothing by fly lifelessly through the air. His eyes were glued down to the enemies below him. Both Spectre and Pariah Dark floated side by side. They appeared to be charging up a combined attack. Still barely conscious, Colossus could do nothing but watch and wait for the attack as he began to fall back to the ground below him.

Colossus did not fall for long, though. His enemies sent out a concentrated beam of energy that was slightly larger than Colossus. The events that happened next was a blur to the giant ghost. There was no pain when the ectoplasm hit him. He was beyond pain at this point. Still, he did recognize the beams power, though, as it carried him further up, past the highest clouds, air particles, and Earth atmosphere. In mere seconds, Colossus was pushed out into space.

Luckily, he came to a stop before he flew too far out. This was not because the energy of the attack died down. It also wasn't because Colossus fought against the attack. The reason was because something managed to stop the massive amount of force pushing the brute through the void of space. Blinking, Colossus looked up from his position to see a large black orb circling around a burning sun. That sight and the white rock around him revealed what had stopped him.

Colossus had landed on the moon.

* * *

Dick and Cassandra rushed through Wayne Manor with Joker right on their heels. Neither of them were in good enough condition to fight against the psychotic clown without their equipment. Even if it was two on one, they didn't want to waste time or risk further injury with Lady Shiva and David Cain still lurking around the manor. As such, they had decided that the best course of action was to make a beeline to Batcave.

Turning a corner, they saw a familiar grandfather clock hiding one of the main entrances to the Batcave. They rushed towards the clock without a second's thought.

"Hurry!" Cassandra hissed as she grabbed a painting from the wall and threw it at the Joker to slow him down.

"I am!" Dick shouted as he spun the clock hands to unlock the door, "Just keep an eye out for your par—"

BOOM!

The clock exploded in a blaze before the clock could move. Both members of the Batfamily were sent flying into the side wall where they slumped lifelessly onto the ground below them. It seems like they had found out where Shiva and Cain had been hiding. They had been rigging the Batcave.

"Well, well, well," Joker smiled as he skipped over to the downed Richard's position with his knives ready, "Looks like I finally get to carve the first Robin. Don't worry, Nightwing, I'll make this faster than with your little friend. HahahahahahahahahahahaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The loud bang of a shotgun drowned out Joker's insane laughter. The hand that had been position to stab Dick in the chest was now completely blown off, leaving only a sub in its place. Joker immediately dropped his other knife and stumbled back holding the bleeding appendage. Oddly enough, the blood was more of a black ooze.

"Who the fu—"

Another bang sounded out from the shotgun. This time, Joker was shot in his other hand. He immediately crumbled to the ground in agony.

"I will not permit such language in this household," A butler with graying hair and wrinkled features walked up to the downed clown.

"You…" Joker stared up angrily at the man. The butler didn't let Joker get another word off as he placed the end of his shotgun against the clown's temple and pulled the trigger once more.

"I always wanted to do that."

"Gah…" Dick forced himself to sit up. He stared at the Joker's corpse, which was dissolving into a black liquid, "Alfred…"

"Master Grayson, do keep still. You have quite a few injuries," Alfred stated, "The same goes for you, Miss Cain. Oh, and please don't tell Master Wayne I keep this weapon in the house. He would be very upset. Both of you stay her, and I will go get the nearest first aid kit…" The butler paused in his speech and turned around to fire the shotgun at sneaking David Cain who jumped out of the way of the spreading bullet.

"Of course he can dodge bullets…" Alfred stated dryly before being tripped and thrown away by Lady Shiva who jumped down from above. The butler slammed into the wall like a rag doll.

"Alfred!" Dick shouted out even as Lady Shiva lunged at him.

Cassandra, however, wasn't able to say a word as her father stood above her with a gun pointed at her head. She met his cold eyes with her own, "Dad…It's me…It's Cassandra…Please remember me…"

Cain didn't even react. There was nothing of the man that had existed before his death. He was just a shell. Unflinchingly, he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

With that, blood splattered across the ground.

* * *

Kid Flash ran through the desert at full speed, which unfortunately was still the speed of sound. His eyes darted all around the area looking for Clockwork. He knew that this was useless. It didn't matter how fast he was. Clockwork was beyond speed. There was no way for him to keep up with time itself.

He had to try, though.

"Oof!" Kid Flash groaned in pain as Clockwork's fist rammed into his face. The force sent him flying through the air. On instinct, he flipped and landed on his feet. The speedster glared at the ghost while ignoring his aching jaw.

Trying was a very far distance away from succeeding, it seemed.

Sand flying beneath his feet, Kid Flash rushed towards the ghost in a desperate attempt to catch the ghost before he disappeared. Unfortunately, the speedster's attempt failed, though. Clockwork disappeared without notice. The next thing the speedster knew was that he was face first in the sand with his legs aching.

He tried to push himself up. As he got up, though, his back screamed in pain as if it were hit by a staff. Then, it happened again…and again…and again. By the time the constant blows came to a stop, Kid Flash felt like his back was close to shattering. Once more, he tried to get up. His legs refused to respond to his will, though, and he just arced up from his arms like he was doing a yoga stretch.

Both his arms suddenly ached in pain. Like his back before, a constant barrage of pain splintered through his upper limbs. Once more, Kid Flash fell face first into the sand. His arms ached just as much as his back did at this point. There was no way for him to get up with all his limbs injured like that.

"Damn it…" Kid Flash spat out sand. He had been trying to pay attention how the blows were working. There was no way to predict or react to the blows. Clockwork literally just stopped time and hit him. No strategy could stop that. In fact, no speed could keep up with that.

Would the Speed Force even help here? He doubted it. There wasn't any way he could outrun time. Without a doubt, he was going to lose this fight, and in this fight, losing meant dying. But…

 _His eyes met Artemis's own pleading eyes. Her face was twisted in agony, begging him to not die. Kid tried. He really did, but he had nothing left. His limbs fell uselessly to his sides. Tears began to fall from Artemis's eyes as she saw Wally's body give out on him. She cried out, but her words fell on deaf ears. Despite not hearing them, Kid Flash knew the meaning. He watched Artemis break down, sob, and beg her not to leave her in such a cruel world._

He couldn't die. Artemis was waiting for him. She would get away from Brother Blood. Kid knew she would. It's what Artemis did. She wouldn't give up, so he had to live no matter what.

With a loud grunt, Kid Flash rolled to the side to avoid Clockwork stabbing his staff into the ground where his chest used to be. Breathing heavily, Kid Flash grinned as he saw Clockwork's shocked expression. That was the first attack the speedster managed to dodge.

Now he only had to do it two hundred more times…

* * *

Nyx knelt on the ground watching as her parents fought against each other. She shook fearfully as her father cackled throughout the fight. Memories surged through her mind of all the months were Klarion ordered her around like a puppet. She remembered every moment of pain as he hatefully shut down every single attempt of rebellion, especially her last attempt at freedom before the Sorcerer Initiative.

Even now, she felt shadow of the electricity tearing through her bones.

The shadow ghost wasn't alone on the ground, though. Johnny 13 and Kitty looked be having seizures. She heard mutterings of children and regrets from them. None of that really made sense to her, but she felt a strange sensation of remembrance at their words for some reason.

Nyx didn't allow herself to focus on them, though. No, her eyes were focused solely on her parents. Pandora hard created spears of electricity and was using them to combat the Lord of Chaos. Klarion used his own spells of black electricity to fight off Pandora's own attacks. Neither of them were able to gain an edge as they traded blows.

The battle did show obvious consequences, though. Their deflected attacks were sent flying to the side. The concentrated attacks of ectoplasm and magic tore through Pandora's garden. This left Pandora's home a barren and burning mess. None of the attacks even got close to hitting Nyx, though. Pandora stood protectively in front of her daughter. There was no fear in her stance as she faced the person that stole her daughter.

Nyx could only watch in awe as her mother fought. She had never noticed how powerful her mother was. Even without her box, Pandora stood on even ground with one of the most powerful magic users on the planet, all the while protecting others. This was Pandora, the Controller of Chaos. No fear. No regret. No hesitation.

Yet her daughter knelt on the ground shaking in fear.

How pathetic was that? Was she really still just a little girl that needed people to protect and save her? Her mother…Dani…all her friends…They did so much to give her a chance to be herself, yet she was still too scared to move. Nyx felt disgust churn through her chest.

Still shaking, Nyx forced herself to her feet. Her bones ached in shadow pain from her memories, but she ignored that. Fear was stupid. Klarion was already dead, and she wasn't going to let his memory beat her. She was Pandora's daughter!

No fear.

No regret.

No hesitation.

With a roar, Nyx flung herself forward to her parents. Her shout caused both of the combatants to freeze in shock. Nyx quickly took advantage of that. With a wave of her hand, she ordered the shadows below them to jump up and grab hold of Klarion. Said Lord of Chaos tried to slip out of the strands of shadows, but Pandora did not allow this to happen. She grabbed a hold of Klarion and surged her electricity through the Lord of Chaos.

His screams of pain pushed Nyx onward to her goal. She flew past the duo and towards Klarion's stupid cat. Nyx created a shadow spear in her hands as the cat transformed into its battle form. With Klarion's magic making up half of her, though, she easily dominated the animal's will and brought the shadow weapon through the cat's head. Still screaming, both Klarion and Teekl dissolved into a black ooze and disappeared from the physical realm once more.

"Nyx…" Pandora's voice was filled with awe and pride.

Turning, Nyx smiled at her mother, "Sorry I took so long, Mom. It won't happen again."

"No…I understand why—"

"LOOK OUT!" Nyx suddenly lunged forward and pushed Pandora out of the way as Walker sent out a large beam of energy to hit the woman's unprotected back. She did manage to push her mother out of the way, but she got herself caught up in the attack herself.

"NYX!"

* * *

Black Hand dodged each of Kaldur's accurate swipes of his Water Bearers. He didn't seem to be in the least a bit threatened by the young man. His eyes weren't even focused on Aqualad. Instead, the Black Hand was looking straight at Frostbite. Even as Aquaman attacked from the opposite side of Aqualad, the Black Hand did not turn his attention away from Frostbite.

Said yeti ghost was struggling to fight at all. Black Hand had created massive skeletal arms that were trying to crush the ice user. Frostbite was trying to use his ice to stop the skeletal arm by stabbing the black bones with shards of ice along with freezing the water around the energy constructions. Nothing worked on even slowing the things down, though.

Eventually, the skeletal arms managed to catch the yeti ghost. The bony fingers latched around Frostbite and quickly began to squeeze the ancient being. He gasped out in agony. In a more seconds, he would be crushed into oblivion. Luckily, he wasn't alone in this fight.

Knowing that their direct attacks weren't working, Aquaman and his protégé turned their focus to helping Frostbite. Kaldur raised his Water Bearers while Aquaman raised his hook. They both focused all the magical energy they could into their respective blade. With a roar, they then brought the blades down and cut through each of the skeletal arms.

With the constructions destroyed, the Atlantians rushed to the now freed Frostbite's sides. Meanwhile, Black Hand was seething in a rage. Lifting up his ring hand, he sent out a barrage of energy blasts towards his enemies. Luckily, they were prepared. Together, all three of them created a massive shield of water and ice.

"We will not be able to defeat him like this," Kaldur noted.

Aquaman nodded, "He is too powerful for the three of us to fight alone. We need to get Garth and La'gaan up here to assist us."

"It doesn't look like they will be defeating their opponents any time soon, though," Frostbite argued.

"Then one of us most go help them," Aqualad noted

"You go," Aquaman ordered.

"I cannot just leave you," Kaldur argued.

"You can and will. That is an order," Aquaman stated.

Frostbite smiled to the younger Atlantian, "Do not worry, young one. We will be able to hold Black Hand back long enough for your return."

"I-I…" Kaldur nodded, "Understood. I will return quickly."

"I never doubted that you would," Aquaman nodded.

Not letting any doubt hold him back, Kaldur stopped his support on the shield and turned away from his king and friend. Forcing himself not to look back, Kaldur rushed down to help his fellow Young Justice members. Seeing that Lagoon Boy and Ocean Master were closer, Kaldur decided to help his junior out first.

Lagoon Boy floated in the water in puffer fish mode. He was currently in a power struggle against Ocean Master. They were both pushing against each other using the deceased villain's trident. It seemed like neither of them were getting an edge. Kaldur was going to change that.

Rushing behind Ocean Master, Kaldur made it so that only Lagoon Boy saw him. Bringing his Water Bearers down, Kaldur ruthlessly cut through both of Ocean Master's arms at the shoulders. The fake Ocean Master cried out in agony as black ooze seeped from his shoulders. Lagoon Boy was quick to take advantage. He grabbed the copy of the villain and literally tore him in half.

Seeing the body dissolve in his hands, La'gaan let out a satisfied grunt, "I've wanted to do that to this monster for months."

Secretly agreeing with Lagoon Boy's words, Aqualad only nodded and sheathed one of his Water Bearers. He reached his hand out to the younger man and pointed his remaining Water Bearer towards a struggling Tempest and fake Aquagirl, "La'gaan. Maneuver 14."

With a grin, Lagoon Boy grabbed Aqualad's free hand. He then spun around and with all his strength threw Kaldur towards the fighters. Kaldur flew through the water like a rocket. In the blink of an eye, he was by the combating former lovers. Tula looked at him in shock. Despite seeing her beautiful and pure features, Aqualad did not hesitate.

He stabbed her through the heart.

"You…" Tula whispered out in shock.

Kaldur leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Be gone. You will not pervert her memory anymore."

At his order, the fake Tula dissolved into a black ooze just like Ocean Master did before her. With that done, Aqualad turned to the shocked Tempest, "How…"

"There is not time for hesitation, Garth," Aqualad unsheathed his other Water Bearer, "Come. Our king needs us."

* * *

Nekron hummed happily as he easily blasted through the stone wall hiding the Life Entity's chamber from the world. With a skip in his step, he entered the chamber. He was quickly followed by the dozens of captives he had with him. They all floated around the glowing white chamber. Once they all hung from the walls like the fallen gods they were, Nekron began a steady stride towards the white cocoon that floated in the middle of the room.

A pulse of white energy blasted out from the cocoon in an attempt to stop the Reaper. Nekron didn't flinch as he actually absorbed the white energy. This continued two more times before large angelic wings burst of the cocoon and tried to stab the Ghost of Death with its sharpened feathers. Like the attacks before it, the wings were absorbed into Nekron like they were simple air.

" **You should know that it's useless** ," Nekron continued his steady strides forward, " **I control your Catalyst now. There is literally no attack you can do that will hurt me**."

The Life Entity's response was another burst of energy. That was just as useful as the previous attempts, meaning, not at all.

" **Told you,** " Nekron chuckled. After a few more steps, though, his joyful steps came to a stop, " **Oh! Now this was unexpected. Who would have thought that you would be here to fight me?** "

The Endless stood in front of them. All seven of them were side-by-side standing between Nekron and the Life Entity. They all glared defiantly at the harbinger of demise.

"Did you really think that we would just stand by and let you destroy everything?" Destiny questioned.

" **No, I'm just surprised that you will actually fight me directly,** " Nekron explained, " **Who will show up next? Lucifer Morningstar? The Monitors? The Presence?** "

"Fight you directly?" Destruction looked at Nekron like the Reaper had a mental issue, "We aren't going to do that, dumbass. The fallout would kill the Entity anyway."

"Although…" Desire gave Nekron a curious look, "It is tempting to see how we would stand up to someone with such untouchable power."

Dream gave her an exhausted look, "Really?"

"Well, what did you expect from me?"

" **As amusing as this is…** " Nekron pointed his scythe out at them, " **Can we hurry this up? I want to get on with completing my obsession.** "

"That won't be happening," Despair noted.

" **And how are you going to do that without fighting me?** "

"We don't have to fight you," Death gave him a condescending look, "We just have to delay you."

With that, the seven Endless disappeared in a burst of energy. The energy surrounded the cocoon of white. A clear shield of energy covered the Life Entity, protecting it with the blessing of every element of existence.

With a curious look on his face, Nekron walked to the spherical shield. Placing a hand on the shield, he tried to decay the shield with his energy of death. To his surprise, it didn't falter at all. Oddly enough, Nekron seemed amused instead of angered.

" **Really?** " He shook his head, " **Okay then. Nice move. But you've just delayed the inevitable.** "

* * *

"Ah!" Brother Blood sighed contently as he slid into his comfortable throne, "Isn't this nice?"

It really wasn't. What was once a beautiful, if creepy, church was now a ruined mess. The Church of Blood lacked a ceiling at this point, and the walls were halfway falling apart. This was fine for the cult leader, though. He enjoyed hearing the world scream.

"Oh, that's right…" Blood sneered down to the kneeling girls, "I ordered to stay silent, haven't I?"

None of the heroines spoke up to answer him. His orders were absolute to them. Even if they wanted to curse his name, they were forced to silently look on with a sickening expression of devotion on their face. They felt like they'd prefer pulling teeth than continuing this.

"Such good girls…" Blood chuckled cheerfully, "I do wish that I could have collected more, but to have three goddesses under my command…I suppose I can't complain too much. Still, I am glad that I ordered the minions Master Nekron gave me to bring me some labor slaves. That way the four of us can enjoy as much time as possible with each other."

All three girls trembled as they tried to fight the control Brother Blood had on them. They failed, though.

"Oh, how cute," Brother Blood stood and walked over to them, "You're trying to fight. I like that. But it is useless."

He stood over them. With a deep breath, he relished in the power he held over them. This was why he loved his powers. Blood loved the domination he had over them.

"Soon, everyone you know will die. Even that little speedster we left behind," Brother Blood stated arrogantly, "The only ones that will live are those that have been given the blessing of Master Nekron. We will be the last living people in the entire universe, and there will be no possible way for new life to grow. Sure, we won't be able to go on forever. Eventually, we will die too, and there will be nothing left. But I am determined to enjoy every second of the time we have."

Grinning, Brother Blood turned his full attention to Raven. He ordered her to stand and remove her hooded cloak leaving her in her leotard. Blood eyed her frame hungrily. Placing his hand on her hips, he pulled her close to him. He whispered gently in her ear.

"Especially with you, Raven. I've dreaming of getting my revenge on you. I'm going to enjoy breaking you over and over again for ruining my previous plans. By the time I'm done with you, you're going to wish that your father succeeded."

Upon seeing Brother Blood's disgusting look of pure evil, Raven began to shudder a single tear appeared in the corner of her eyes. His smile only growing, Blood gently wiped the tear from her eye. Then, to her ever mounting disgust, he licked it.

"Shall we begin?"

* * *

The smoking form of the Bioship sat in the middle of Happy Harbor. Its landing created a large crater for the ship to rest. Fortunately, all the residence of the town had already fled as soon as the Blackest Night had started. So no one was injured in the crash. Well, no civilian was injured in the crash at least.

With a grunt, a gorilla shaped Beast Boy kicked open the door to the Bioship. He carried his unconscious friends over his shoulders. Stumbling, he brought them out of the crater before placing them down as gently as possible. Then, he collapsed to the ground clutching his aching head and ribs.

Beast Boy wasn't allowed to focus on the pain for too long. Loud growling forced him to look up to see the monster from before circling around them. They were completely surrounded by the beasts. With a snarl, he transformed into a tiger and stood defensively over his friends.

To his shock, the monsters seemed to back down from that. They all knelt their heads down like they were bowing. Before Beast Boy could question what was happening, a row of the black creatures parted to create a passage for someone to walk through. When he saw who it was, Beast Boy's heart sunk further.

'I'm going to die, aren't I?'

"Hello, little boy," Madame Rogue smirked at him as she took steady strides to them.

Beast Boy growled.

"Oh, scary," Madame Rogue chuckled, "Maybe you aren't zhe little boy after all. Protecting zhem like zhat is pretty manly. Especially in the face of your death."

Beast Boy didn't back down.

"Before we get started, I feel like I should apologize," Madame Rogue noted, "Zhis isn't personal. I don't particularly feel like killing you or zhe Martian. It's just zhat…If everyone else is going to die, zhen I would prefer my pride stay intact. You two are zhe only remaining targets I ever had zhat are still living after all…or outside of Nekron's grasp at the very least."

Beast Boy tensed as he prepared to lung.

"Don't worry, zhough. As a reward for your bravery, I'll kill you quickly. Zhe same goes for the Martian. You won't feel a zhing."

With a loud roar, Beast Boy lunged forward despite knowing that he didn't stand a chance in all hell.

* * *

Spirit didn't have the time to come up with a plan. The spikes around her hurriedly began to cave inward towards her. She scrunched up into a ball in an attempt to make herself small as possible. Even then, she felt the tips of the spikes press against her body. There was no time to think of a plan, and she didn't have the ability to get out of the bubble. For split second, the halfa was certain that she was going to die.

Until a bright shined through the area and her bubble was shattered.

"What!?" Nocturne shouted out in outrage.

Spirit blinked rapidly as the light faded. A now adult Youngblood stood in front of Grundy. His sword was stabbed through the zombie's head while his hook cannon was pointed at Spirit. It didn't take a genius to discern what happened.

As Grundy's form dissolved into a black ooze, Youngblood pulled his blade away and sheathed it. He then rushed to Spirit and grabbed ahold of her with his real hand. When he grabbed her, he pointed his newly transformed hook magnet at Cyborg. The magnet burst out from a chain and slammed into his metal friend. With tug, Youngblood pulled Cyborg free from Wulf's grasp.

Wasting no time, the ghost of youth raced away. As he moved, the chain retracted to pull Cyborg close. This allowed him to hold on tightly to both of his friends as he raced towards the edge of the city.

"Good moves there, Chuck," Spirit complimented.

Youngblood did not crack a smile, though. He didn't even look at her. The ghost just continued to fly forward into the horizon. To her complete shock, he seemed to be crying a bit.

"Chuck?"

"I wanted more time," He whispered to her.

"What do you mean—Woah! Was that Mr. Blood!?"

What Spirit said was true. They just zipped past Jason Blood who had been firing different spells at them. Youngblood didn't even acknowledge the deceased teacher. He just dodged the attack and continued his trek to his destination.

"They can recreate people who died," Cyborg decided to speak up, "I haven't seen any copies of living people after all."

"Aye. It's a smart strategy. Using the people your enemy loves against them…" Youngblood shook his head, "It's both genius and despicable."

"It can't just be us they're targeting," Spirit rationalized, "And if they have an army of people who died…Oh damn! Imagine what that could do to Danny!"

"The question is what to do…" Cyborg noted.

"We head to Axion Labs," Youngblood stated, "That's the only place in the city that's guaranteed to be guarded, have people that can fix your armor's damage, and give us a chance to contact the others. Besides, they probably got Masters Mansion and Fenton Works surrounded. Then we need to…Oh my God…"

Youngblood froze in his flight. Both Cyborg and Spirit could see why. A literal wave of Nocturne's Sleep Walkers were flying towards them. A quick look behind them showed that a similar situation was happening behind them. They were trapped between two giant waves of enemies.

* * *

Dusk stood on the edge of a beach. Despite the sky of pure black above him, he knew where he was. Aragon had teleported him to Themyscira. The island of the Amazons was set ablaze with the fire of Aragon's dragon form as he flew over the other side of the island. From what the halfa could tell, he was the only member of his group to be teleported so far away from the battle.

It didn't make a whole lot of sense really. Aragon had said that he was the target, so he obviously didn't want to kill the others first. The former king already had the chance to throw Dusk into a trap as well, so trying to draw him to the battlefield didn't seem like the likely plan either. So what was the point? Did Aragon just accidently send him to the wrong part of the island?

"Joel."

Gasping at the familiar voice, Dusk whirled around to see a familiar face, "Greta?"

Secret gracefully stood in front of him. The gentle waves barely brushed against her bare ankles. Even with only the light of a burning forest, she looked like an angel to him.

"I missed you, Joel," Greta stepped up to the slightly taller ghost and gently cupped his cheek.

"I missed you too. I…This can't be real. It's a trick," Dusk tensed up.

"It's no trick, Joel," Greta gave him a loving look, "This is reality. We've come to bring you home."

"We? Who's—"

"Bark!"

Scratching at his leg drew Dusk's attention downward, "C-Cujo?"

With his tail wagging happily, Cujo leapt up and into Dusk's waiting arms. He eagerly licked at Dusk's face.

"How…" Dusk's words came out in a hushed whisper, "I saw you die."

"We are dead, young knight. What's why we are here for you," The Fright Knight appeared in a burst of light, "It is time for you to join us."

"Fright Knight! You're not…"

"I am. I fell in battle not that long ago," Fright Knight explained, "Do not despair, though, for I have finally obtained peace as you are about to."

"Peace?" Dusk stood in a daze.

"Yes, Joel," Greta brushed her fingertips across his cheek causing him to trembled in pleasure, "It's finally time for you to stop fighting and have the peace you deserve."

"…Yes…" Dusk nodded. His eyes were glued solely on Greta. He wanted this so much.

"Then just let go."

"I will…" Dusk leaned into Greta. He greedily pressed his lips against hers. She tasted just as wonderful as he remembered. If only this would last forever…

If only this were real.

"Ack!" Greta dissolved into a pile of black ooze as Dusk stabbed her with a knife made from his Matter Make ability. Cujo met a similar fate at the end of the Burst Gauntlet.

Turning to the Fright Knight, Dusk gave a glower of hatred, "This was a sick trick. I don't kill, but I'm sure as hell going to make sure Aragon wishes he were dead when I'm through with him."

* * *

Freddy breathed out a sigh of relief as he was caught by a squared floating piece of debris. He, like the rest of the residents of the apartment building, was floated gently to the ground. Once they were safely on the ground, Freddy looked over to Box Lunch who was still held in Mary's arm.

"You, little girl, are an angel."

"Yeah!" Box Lunch clapped her hands happily, "In the arms of an angel!"

"Oh~" Mary cooed, "You're so adorable."

"Dote over her later," Freddy grunted and lifted Billy up once more, "We've got to move."

"Right," Mary quickly got up herself and followed after her boyfriend, "Where do we go?"

"Anywhere will be fine…Damn it! Why am I always wrong!?" Freddy shouted as they exited the apartment building and looked up to see the darkened sky.

Box Lunch laughed happily, "Damn it!"

"No!" Freddy turned to her in fear, "Don't say that. Your mom scares me."

"Damn it!"

"No. Darn! Say darn!"

"Damn it!"

Mary pulled Box Lunch away, "Normally, I would reprimand you, but…The entire world is ending, and we need to do something!"

"Right…" Freddy looked away, "We need to wake Billy up. That's the only thing I can—"

Freddy was interrupted when Box Ghost and Lunch Lady was sent flying out of the apartment building. They crashed onto the ground. Both of them tried to force themselves up but were immediately locked up in a golden ankh. Both of them tried to fight against the restraints, but the magic overpowered and suppressed their powers.

Doctor Fate then turned his attention to them. He pointed a hand towards them and sent out several blasts of golden energy. The two of them tried to use what little movements they could get while carrying people to dodge the attacks. Eventually, they tripped up, though. Seeing this, Doctor Fate sent one giant wave of energy at them.

"Damn it!" With a look of regret across his face, Freddy tossed Billy off to safety and then lunged to tackle the two girls to the ground. He covered them and used himself as a human shield. The last memory Freddy had was the look of pure horror across Mary's face. But...But at least she was safe.

That was all that mattered.

* * *

Scribe blinked as he felt a hand grab onto his own wrist. His eyes followed the pale hand up a poofy purple shirt to see a man with a faced divided into two. The left side of the face was painted black while the white side of his face was a pale white. A strange clown hat stood on the top of the man's head with different bells hanging from the ends of the hat.

"Hello, old friend," Jester smiled at Scribe, "And goodbye."

In the blink of an eye, the Ghost Writer disappeared into a black cloud of dust. Jester just dispelled the shade of the deceased ghost like it was nothing. Still smiling, Jester turned to Skulker. Said hunter tried to open fire with various guns. All the bullets disappeared into black dust before they could touch the clown. With a wave of his hand, Jester dispelled the fake Skulker as well.

"So sorry!" Jester hummed, "But Nekron's little tricks don't work on me because I control memory~"

Floating over to the downed Poindexter, Jester waved his hand and created a memory of Secret who quickly went to heal the other ghost.

"Gah…" Poindexter glared at the memory of Jester, "Took you long enough."

"You know the mirror needs time to recognize Nekron's influence. Don't want me to show up with only a minor incident of Black Lanterns," Jester mentioned, "Good job saving all these ghosts by the way."

"Thanks…" Poindexter looked around, "How did you beat those two?"

"Well, I'm only a memory of Jester. The original placed me in the mirror to fight against Nekron's army in case the bonehead ever returned," Jester explained. He pulled his shirt collar down a bit to show the Mirror of Memory shining from his chest where it continued to pump energy into Jester's new body, "That's the reason the mirror only works to reconstruct people who no longer exist on the mortal plain. I have the dominance over the 'shades' of dead people."

"So…You could defeat Nekron's army?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Yes. Maybe."

"Well, that's reassuring."

* * *

Mal didn't really get it. Inner peace? Feeling the universe? That sounded ridiculous. He always considered himself a rather grounded person. There was never really a moment where he wanted to be anything more than what he was…At least not for himself. The only reason the Horn of Gabriel even appealed to him was so that he could help other…so he could help Karin.

God, she was so amazing. Beautiful, intelligent, caring…She was great in so many ways, and he just wanted to be there for her. During the Trigon problem, he couldn't do anything. He felt so useless. It wasn't injured pride that hurt him. It was the fact that people needed his help, and he couldn't do anything about it.

Knowing that his friends…that Karin need him, and he just had to sit and ignore it…It sucked. Mal didn't really care for fighting. Despite his body builder appearance, he didn't particularly wanted to hurt people. It wasn't about hurting people, though. He just wanted to avoid seeing people getting hurt.

Yes. That's the point.

Was that really his place to try and protect people, though? Mal was surrounded by people with godly strength. Most of them could kill him with the flick of a finger. They could handle any threat far better than he ever could. He didn't even want that kind of power. Since he was young, he always had to be careful not to hurt people. Mal was just always bigger and stronger than his peers. Getting more power…That was something he never wanted.

Exactly. Desiring power goes against the flow.

Power was needed right now, though. Nekron was threatening everything. With the Justice League defeated and the others scattered, nothing stood in Nekron's way. To stop Nekron, they needed power…power to fight…Because fighting was always necessary for others to have peace. For the good of everything, heroes with power were needed.

You're almost there.

Mal didn't think that he deserved such power or the status of a hero. He was so self-conscious at times…he wasn't as smart as others…he wasn't even as kind as others. There were plenty of other people that deserved power more. Mal was just a guy that wanted to protect the little things and the beautiful things.

Images flashed before his eyes.

…The setting sun…

…Birds soaring through the air…

…Gentle falling snow…

…The sound of children laughing…

…Karin's beautiful smile…

Mal wanted them all to be preserved. He wanted all them to live. He…He wanted Life to continue because life is beautiful. That was it. Life is so beautiful. One day, it might all come to an end, but it had to be natural. Nekron wasn't the natural end. The Reaper had to be stopped so that the beautiful life could continue for as long as possible. To do that…he would be the guardian of that beautiful life…No. He would be the Herald of the universe.

Yes, you will. Accept my power, Mal Duncan.

Jericho looked up from his guitar to see the energy beginning to swirl around Mal. He smiled at the sight. There was never any doubt in his mind that Mal could do it.

Holding out his hand, Mal allowed the energy to flow into his palm. The flowing energy began to solidify into that of a silver horn. As soon as the weight appeared in Mal's palm, his form was instantly covered in a blue suit. Darker blue pants covered his lower half while a light blue, skin tight formed over his torso with the symbol of a horn on the front. Finally a black cape and hood formed around him to hide the upper portion of his head.

Jericho raised his hand to write, 'You did it.'

"Yes…" Mal studied the horn in his hand, "But it would be more accurate that I took the first step. I have much more to learn, but that will need to wait. There is much work to do if we want to stop Nekron."

'We?'

"Yes," Raising his horn, Mal blew into the instrument. Energy flowed from the end of the horn and gently opened a portal out of the peaceful dimension, "The universe needs us both along with a few friends we need to pick up."

'So you sensed them? They've been sleeping around here for a long time. I just thought they were people lost on the path of life.'

"No, they're people that can help us. It seems like Poindexter planned out everything," Mal smiled, "Let's go, Jericho. It's time to fight for the peace we crave."

* * *

Nekron stopped his constant flow of energy towards the shield created by the Endless. He could feel that the shield was quickly getting weaker. In mere minutes, it would have shattered. Unfortunately, it seemed that he would have to break it later. Right now, he head to deal with some more bugs.

Turning, the Reaper was greeted by the sight of several swirling portals. A lot of them were Boom Tubes. A few of them were magical portals, though. To Nekron's undying amusement, the entirety of the Light and their minions came out of the Boom Tubes. In addition, the still living members of Danny Phantom's "strike force" from the Ghost King's castle walked out of the magical portals.

" **Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!** " Nekron burst out laughing at the sight of them, " **So now the bad guys stand before me? That's just perfect. The universe's last remaining hope is a bunch of selfish assholes. Oh, the irony…** "

"Dad," Jinx looked to her father.

"I'm glad to see that you're okay, Jinx," Savage did not take his eyes off Nekron, though, "I thought the worst had happened."

"Normally," Lex Luthor spoke up. He was dressed up in a giant green robotic armor designed to increase his battle capabilities. The billionaire rarely like to fight directly, but it was necessary now, "I would ask why you are with those three. Right now, I'm just grateful they're here."

"Why in Merlin's bloody damn beard am I grouped with the bad guys?" Constantine took a long drag of his cigar, "I mean, really. I do good stuff...most of the time..."

Ra's Al Ghul gave Constantine a side glance, "And who are you exactly?"

"Oh, you son of a bitch…"

"As amusing as this is…" Morgaine le Fey retreated back into the portal, "I prefer watching the entertainment."

"Le Fey!" Dark Dan snapped as the portal closed, "Damn her…"

" **I was wondering where you went,** " Nekron looked straight at the alternate Phantom, " **How did you get out of that coffin exactly? I mean, I was right there. Was it Hotep Ra? Did he betray me? Damn. You think you know a guy. Well, I'll just have rip off his fingers and choke him with them.** "

"That's gruesome, even by my standards," Deathstroke noted with a disgusted look plastered on his face, "And that's saying something."

"Well, this is the guy sick enough to literally kill all life in the universe, right?" Sportsmaster eyed the cocoon behind the Reaper, "So we have to protect that thing? Really? That's the source of all life in the universe?"

"That's so disappointing. I was expecting something grander," Cheshire twirled her katana.

" **Of course life is disappointing,** " Nekron snorted, " **What did you expect? Geeze, father, I thought you would actually bring some intelligent people.** "

"Do. Not. Call. Me. Father," Savage hissed at the Reaper, "You killed my children, monster. And now, I finally have the chance to avenge them."

" **All while playing the hero. Good for you, father, but…** " Nekron sneered at them, " **Playing the hero is a dangerous game. Just ask the Justice League. Do you really think that you all can beat me when they couldn't?** "

"We don't really have a choice but to try, do we? It's the only chance we have."

" **Chance suggests that there's a possibility of you winning,** " Nekron argued, " **But if you would prefer to die by my hand directly, I'm perfectly happy with fulfilling your wishes.** "

* * *

"Okay…" Black Hand stated after shattering the combined shield of Aquaman and Frostbite. He glared hatefully at them, "I get it. You want to die first, Aquaman. Very well. I'll save Frostbite for last. I'll kill him after killing every Altantian you say you protect!"

Covering himself in projection armor, Black Hand rushed forward to his two enemies. This time, though, his focus was on Aquaman. Frostbite went to protect his friend by trying to tear through Black Hand's armor with his claws. He did manage to make chinks in the armor, but Black Hand didn't even flinch as his armor healed itself.

Ignoring Frostbite, Black Hand focused all his attention on Aquaman. In a rage, he swung wildly. It was only thanks to Aquaman's battle prowess that he managed to dodge his enemy's deadly blows. One of the blows just barely came close to hitting the hero, and the result as a deep gash across his chest. It would definitely be best not to get hit by the villain.

That was fine, though. He could keep dodging the attacks. Black Hand obviously didn't have a lot of battle experience. All the power in the world meant nothing in the hands of an amateur. Aquaman was sure he could hold out long enough for his protégés to come back.

"My king!"

Speak of the devils…

Aquaman smirked as he continued to dodge Black Hand's wild blows. Despite not looking as his approaching allies, he knew that he had won. There was nothing Black Hand could do now. Together, they would defeat the Black Lantern and avenge Tula.

"Bugs! Bugs! Bugs buzzing around! So annoying!" Black Hand shouted as his armor dropped, "Fine! I'll crush your spirits before killing you!"

No one expected what the Black Hand did next. In the noble minds of the Atlantians and Frostbite, they didn't even consider the next move a possibility. It just didn't register in their minds that he would use such a simple but diabolical tactic. What happened next would be remembered in Atlantian history for the rest of time.

The Black Hand held out his non-ringed hand.

Such a tactic might seem stupid in the situation, but it was actually the most powerful thing he could have done. Everyone was instantly floored by the action. They all froze in shock and horror. Aquaman actually began to tear up at the action. It wasn't because the arm itself, though. No. It was what the Black Hand was holding.

"Dada?" The deceased son of Aquaman peered up to his father with innocent eyes.

"Arthur…" Aquaman gasped in horror, "I…I don't…"

"GOTCHA!"

Once again, everyone was shocked into horror as the Black Hand brought his ring hand and swiped it at Aquaman. In a blur of black energy, the Atlantian hero was cut in half. His torso permanently separated from his pelvis and legs. As his upper half floated away from his lower half, the king of Atlantis knew that this was his end.

* * *

 **Next update: "Earthshaker" on August 29, 2016**

 **Alright...Suicide Squad...Critics are stupid. Is the movie a perfect movie? No. Is it as good as Civil War or Deadpool? Not even close. Did I have a good time? HELL YES. And that's all I want out of a good movie...along with a tolerable plot which I thought it had. So thumbs up. Also...Harley Quin. All my yes.**

 **Telltale's Batman Episode 1...Not bad. I feel a little Batman burnout with how much he's been portrayed lately, though. Some of the character designs are weird too (Why does Harvey Dent look like he's on steroids). Plus, what's with Telltale trying to make me feel guilty about breaking bones? I was playing as Batman. He breaks bones...a lot. Calm down, Telltale. You don't have to constantly create judgy games like Walking Dead. Sometimes, you just need to let people be assholes in games without being so condescending *cough*Tales from the Borderlands*cough***

 **So...Anyone watch Bojack Horseman? Because Season 3 got to me. Who would have thought that a cartoon about a humanoid horse would get so real? Especially the last three episodes. I got goosebumps.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to...**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	29. Earthshaker

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."

Malala Yousafzai

* * *

Chapter 29: "Earthshaker"

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Belle Reve was in a complete uproar. Upon hearing about the end of the world, all the villains began to freak out. Every prisoner was shouting and trying to force their way through out of their cells. With their powers suppressed, they could do nothing against the steel doors. In the end, all they were doing was making noise to a now guardless prison.

One prisoner was completely silent, though. Sitting down at the back of his cell, Billy Hayes looked onward impassively. There was no point in trying to escape. Even if the door to his physical cage was opened, he wouldn't try to leave. His mental cage still stood strong after all. His sins weighed heavily on his back.

After everything he did, he deserved to die from this Armageddon. His pursuit of purity had stripped everything from him. Now, all he had was the memories of the past accusing him. Even now, he saw Greta standing in front of him with an accusing look. Her memory haunted him, always reminding him of how far he had fallen.

Yes…He deserved death…There was no way for him to ever be pure again…

Billy was so caught up in his daze, he didn't even react when a black portal popped up at the end of his cell. Hotep Ra stepped out and gave the prisoner a look of scrutiny. Covered in the orange prisoner attire of Belle Reve, Billy Hayes looked like a complete mess. A disheveled beard covered the scared man's face.

"Harm," Hotep Ra spoke to the man, "Rise. It is time for you to fight once more."

Billy Hayes' eyes lazily drifted to the mummy ghost, "Fight? I no longer have any fight left in me. I am scum…trash that deserves death…"

"Then die in battle," Hotep Ra stated uncaringly, "The world needs you to fight. Whether you live through the battle is irrelevant to me."

"The world needs me?" Billy Hayes scoffed, "I doubt that."

"You haven't seen what Nekron can do," Hotep Ra argued, "We need as many fighters as possible."

"There are plenty of prisoners out there that are much more capable than me right now."

"And most of them would just run if given the chance," Hotep Ra glared at the former villain, "You, though…You have something to prove. Something to achieve. You don't fear death, yet you crave redemption. That makes you perfect for this. Redeem yourself by sacrificing yourself for the greater good."

"Redeem myself for the greater good…" Those words rolled off Billy's tongue like he was trying to taste them.

"Yes," Hotep Ra held out a hand, "Will you fight?"

Billy Hayes eyed the hand in front of him. Slowly, he reached out and took the hand, "Very well. I…Harm shall fight for redemption…Harm will fight to regain his purity."

* * *

Colossus blinked as he looked straight to the Earth. So he was hit to the moon? Well, he just felt grateful that the moon was here to catch him. In not, he might have been pushed into the void of space. That would have sucked. There was a good chance that he would have gotten lost out there.

Pausing in his thoughts, the red giant noticed how silent it was out here. There was literally no sound. That along with the magnificent view made this incredibly peaceful. Even Colossus, who cared little for peace, had to appreciate this. Very few people of Earth ever got to see this view live.

On a whim, Colossus looked around to see if he could find the Watchtower. Could he see it from here? During his attempt to find the floating Justice League base, Colossus saw two figures approaching his location. It looked like the Spectre and Pariah Dark.

Ah…He was hoping that he could get more time to rest. Colossus's body was really aching at this point. This two on one fight wasn't working for him. He couldn't think of any way to fight them. The only thing that he could think was to go all out, but he didn't have time to power up.

…Except his enemies were still a few minutes away…

There was still the issue of collateral damage. People would get pissed if he broke an entire city in his fight. Dealing with that will be annoying.

…Except there was nothing out here to break…

There was still the body count to deal with, though. If he went all out, then who knew how many people would die. Colossus didn't think of other during his fights that often, but the mass death of thousands of people would weigh on anyone's mind.

…Except there was no one out here to get caught up in the fight…

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Colossus forced himself to his feet. The lower gravity allowed his tired body to easily pull himself from the rock, "This may kill me, but I'll make sure to take you with me!"

Taking a deep stance, Colossus clenched his muscles. He forced his energy to pulse through his body. Letting out a loud roar, Colossus forced his mental barriers to open. His power jumped off him in a massive wave that caused the entire moon to tremble in fear. The most powerful ghost to ever live had finally unleashed his full power.

* * *

 _For Kaldur, his first reaction to seeing his king cut in half was complete horror. Aquaman had not only been his leader, he'd been a mentor and a good friend. Yes, there was still the secrets issue of his parentage, but that did not change Aqualad's attachment to the man. King Orin was almost a father to him, and now that father figure had just been murdered._

 _While Tempest and Lagoon Boy shared Kaldur's reaction, not everyone was pushed into silent horror. Frostbite went more down the path of unfiltered rage. His features turned wild and animalistic. With a roar, he lunged at the Black Hand and tackled him away from the beaten king. This gave Kaldur room to reach forward and grasp onto the upper half of the king._

 _Blood. There was so much blood. And what was falling out from the king's torso…Kaldur had to use all of his willpower not to vomit at the gore. The Atlantians behind him were not as able to hold back their disgust. Lagoon Boy was openly vomiting while Tempest seemed to be having a breakdown based on the tears and indiscernible mutterings coming out of his mouth._

 _Aquaman's eyes tiredly looked to Aqualad, "Kal…dur…"_

" _I am here, my king," Kaldur forced the sobs jumping up his throat back down, "I am here."_

" _You…"_

" _Do not speak. We can still save you. We can still…"_

 _Aquaman's stern look silenced Aqualad. This was no time to be making such statements. The king knew his demise was here. The apprentices knew that his demise was here. It was just a waste of time to pretend otherwise._

" _Kal…dur…you…are…my…successor…" Aquaman muttered, "You…are…now…Aquaman…You…are…king…"_

" _No. I am not…I cannot…" Kaldur shook his head. He stopped his words, though, when he noticed that his king's eyes were not focused anymore. Aquaman was gone…King Orin was dead._

 _Reaching up, Kaldur closed the dead king's eyes. Take a shuddered breath, Kaldur released the king and allowed the body to gently float in the water. With tears in his eyes, he looked to the fellow Atlantians behind him. They looked just as shocked as Kaldur felt._

" _There is no time to mourn. Frostbite needs our help. Come. We will avenge our king," The new Aquaman ordered._

* * *

Nekron raised his eyebrows as no one rushed forward to fight him, " **What? Lose your resolve? Should I attack first?** "

"Fine, you cunt!" Constantine pointed his cane at Nekron, "I'll start the party!"

Fire burst from the end of Constantine's cane and rushed towards Nekron. The Reaper just looked on impassively. Flames slammed into him and circled around him. When the fire circled around the Ghost of Death, Constantine began to chant a banishment spell. Nekron still didn't even flinch as the fire flared up and tried to drag him through a portal of flames.

"Got you…What?" Constantine's eyes widened as his spell dispelled with a small flare of energy on Nekron's part.

Shaking his head, Nekron looked down at his nails. His eyes widened when noticed something wrong. In a panic, he raised his hand to examine it, " **Oh no…** "

Growling, Deathstroke pulled out twin pistols. He opened fire at the Reaper. None of the bullets did anything to Nekron. As soon as the bullets got close to the Ghost of Death, they had their momentum sucked out of them by the black energy and dropped to the ground uselessly. As this happened, Nekron was still examining his hand.

"RAW!" Sportsmaster let out a roar as he threw a javelin to his enemy. As the weapon drew near to Nekron, it exploded out in a large burst of flames and smoke. When the smoke and flames died down, Nekron was shone unscathed. He began to bite at his nail.

As the Ghost of Death sucked at his fingernail, Cheshire led several assassins forward in an attempt to cut Nekron down. They used all kinds of deadly weapons on the Reaper. Swords, sais, and knives were all used in an attempt to bring the ghost down. Like the other attacks, Nekron was completely unaffected.

Still ignoring the people attacking him, Nekron pulled his hand away from his mouth and smile, " **There we go. The dirt under that nail was bugging the hell out of me.** "

Looking up, Nekron blinked. The assassins were still attacking him with precise strikes, " **Oh! Sorry! I forgot about you…Not slowing down, huh. Love the enthusiasm. Do you mind if I attack now? Thanks.** "

Turning a single hand into a finger gun, Nekron pointed his appendage at the people who had just attacked him. A single black bullet jumped out from his finger for each person. The bullets pierced every one of their targets with ease causing them all to instantly drop to the ground in pain.

Sneering at the bleeding enemies who dared to attack him, Nekron spoke once more, " **Anyone feel like changing their minds and running yet?** "

* * *

Poindexter groaned as his injuries were healed. Righting himself up, the nerd ghost recreated his reality altering keyboard. He was about to type and start helping out things on the physical plane when Jester raised a hand to stop him.

"What?" Poindexter questioned.

"I can't let you draw attention to us," Jester noted with a sad tone in his voice, "If you do, then a Black Lantern might come to our location. We might be able to beat one, but hundreds of the ghosts here would get killed."

"And what about humanity?" Poindexter inquired, "Am I just supposed to let them suffer? They need my help."

Jester smiled kindly, "You have really grown, Poindexter, but look at this in the long term, friend. You might save one or two people, but it would cause hundreds to die. It's the unfortunate problematic choice."

"I can't just sit here and do nothing," Poindexter argued.

"I'm not asking you to," Jester shook his head, "Spread out your influence. Create windows all over the world. That way, I can spread out my powers and try to stop all of the monsters at once."

"So that's your plan…" Poindexter stroked his chin, "But what if it fails?"

"Then we'll have millions of Nekron's monsters charging at us at once," Jester noted, "I'm not sure even I can fight that off. The mirror will be broken, and all hope will be lost."

"…" Poindexter did not look pleased, "Is this the only thing we can do?"

"It's the only plan I got," Jester explained cheerfully, "I'm not Vision, my friend. I can't come up with foolproof plans. I'm more of a 'in the spur' of the moment type of person."

"What are the chances that you will succeed?"

"Hmm…50/50?"

"Then it might be a better idea to go off on my own," Poindexter mentioned, "I know that I could save at least some people by leaving the ghosts here and going out to fight. Meanwhile, you can save up energy to fight against Nekron."

"That is very true. I would definitely say that's the safe option."

"So why shouldn't we do that?"

"Because playing safe right now might bring about the end of the universe."

* * *

Pandora caught the smoking Nyx in her arms before her daughter could collapse, "Oh, my baby…"

The prone Nyx didn't respond. Her body was not dissolving. That was good. She wouldn't die from those wounds.

"Don't worry. I didn't aim to kill her. I knew she'd jump in the way, so I went for a knockout blow," Walker explained, "Best not give you that level of anger to use against me. Besides, I was hoping I could use her against the little bitch that cut off my arm."

Pandora glared at him, "Don't think so far ahead, Walker. I'm still standing after all."

"Yes, but there's three prone weaklings you have to protect. And even if I were nice enough to leave them alone, a doubtful thought really, I still have vastly more power than you," Walker noted.

Shaking her head, Pandora gently placed her daughter on the ground. Despite the injuries, Nyx had a peaceful look on her face. It reminded the mother of the times when she tucked a younger Nyx to bed. The little girl always looked up to Pandora like the blue giant was a goddess. Those were such simpler times.

"Do you think that your power means anything to me? I was ready to stand up to Nekron on my before you were even born into your human life," Pandora stood and turned back to the other ghost.

"So you're either stupid or crazy," Walker chuckled.

"No. I'm just not the type of person that will stand for injustice. And everything about you is unjust," Pandora snapped, "Imposing your own self-made rules on the Ghost Zone without any form of vote…turning on your kind for revenge…joining the Black Lanterns like a fool. You, Walker, are a fraud. So focused on the 'rules' set by you and people you fear that you can't see the objective necessities of justice. You bring shame to anyone who stands in the name of doing what is just and fair."

"You idiot, it is the strong that decides what is just and fair. That's how it's always been, and how it always will be…at least until Master Nekron finally puts an end to the world. But as the strongest, he's allowed to make the rules. And his one rule is 'Everything dies'."

Pandora's eyes narrowed at this new information, "You fool…The strong often do make the rules, but remember it is the many that have to live with them. And if they don't like the rules, then the many will rise against the strong. That is what will happen here. The world will stand up to Nekron. He will not succeed."

"Oh, I beg to differ because his strength, along with mine, is unbeatable," Walker sneered.

"We shall see about that," Electricity surged around Pandora, "Because I'm going to stop you here and now. Then, I'll stop Nekron."

"On your own? You're not that strong, Pandora."

"I am when I'm protecting my daughter!" Pandora roared and formed four electric spears into her hands, "Now come! I'm going to show you what justice and order really are!"

* * *

Cassandra Cain shook as blood tricked down her cheek. Her father's bullet had been redirected at the last possible second and only grazed her cheek. It wasn't Richard that helped her, though. Alfred also wasn't her savior. No, it was someone completely unexpected.

"Ah~" Ravager tilted her head as her left hand firmly held David Cain's gun away from Cassandra's head while her other hand held onto her katana, "Why does this seem so familiar?"

David tried to attack her.

"Nope! Not gonna happen~"

Ravager ripped the gun from David's hand. She then used the gun to shot a shocked Lady Shiva in the head and save Richard from getting choked to death. The assassin then used her sword to stab David Cain in the head effectively eliminating the threats before they could do anything.

As the gun in her hands along with the victims of her attacks dissolved into black muck, Ravager's face twisted with disgust under her mask. She flicked her hand in an attempt to get the goo off her gloved hand, "Ugh…gross. I prefer the real blood and gore, you know?"

"Rose?" Cassandra blinked up at the other young woman.

"Hey, Cass!" Ravager sheathed her blade, "You won't believe how hard it was to track you down. So…Bruce Wayne is Batman, huh? Should have figured that out on my own, really."

"Gah…Not…Not that I'm ungrateful, but…How did you track us down?" Dick rubbed his throat and sat up.

"Well, when a dead Lady Shiva and David Cain show up in the same place…it doesn't take a genius to figure out who they'll be around," Ravager noted, "Don't worry, though. I've searching through Gotham for months. It was just luck that I heard the police scan of their descriptions heading this way."

"I see…" Dick nodded. He quickly forced himself up and walked over to see if a groaning Alfred was okay.

Cassandra gave Ravager a confused look as she was helped to her feet, "But why track me down just to save me? I figured you'd want revenge for betraying you."

"No, I came because someone wanted me to give you something," Ravager reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture that had been given to her months earlier.

Cassandra quickly took the picture, "Dad…"

"Yeah. He asked me to give that to you. It was his dying wish, so…Even an asshole like me couldn't ignore it," Ravager shrugged, "Kind of ironic, though. Because he asked me to give you that, he inadvertently saved you from himself. That's some deep emotional shit right there."

"Yeah…" Cassandra reached up to wipe the single tear that appeared in the corner of the eye.

"Look," Richard spoke up once more as he helped Alfred back up, "I hate ruining good reunions, but I'm assuming the crisis isn't over."

"Oh, yeah. You probably didn't see the whole Nekron thing," Ravager realized.

"Nekron thing?"

"I'll explain as we go. You need equipment and a way to get out of Gotham."

Dick nodded at that, "We keep spare equipment hidden away deep in the manor, but the Zeta Tube is probably toast…along with the Batwing and Batmobile. We'll need to head into Gotham to get to the other Zeta Tube."

"Oh…That…that might be a problem."

"Why?"

"Let's just say that there are a few more people back from the grave."

* * *

Kid Flash panted heavily as he dodged another heavy blow of Clockwork. Despite not even beginning to know how, he had managed to predict where several of the attacks were going to come from. It wasn't always perfect. There were still times that he would get hit, but it wasn't complete domination like a few moments earlier.

This didn't mean that he was even close to winning this fight, though. He had yet to land a single blow. Clockwork remained untouched, and that wasn't something Kid Flash thought he could do anything about it. Even if he could land a hit, then there would still be the intangibility issue that he needed to overcome.

Well…there was one way to do it.

 _In an instant, there was a tornado around Envy. Kid Flash seemed to running around the demi-demon at speeds that wasn't even comprehensible to the son of Trigon. For a second, Envy wondered what this would do. The moment after that, though, he realized that the his breath was being sucked from his lungs. Envy instantly crashed to his knees clutching his throat._

 _Desperately, he switched to a person that didn't need to breathe. In the form of Phantom, Envy turned intangible as a way to defend himself. To his undying surprise, though, Kid Flash rushed in from his tornado and punched him right in the face. It seems like the Speed Force could overcome intangibility_.

The Speed Force was the only way for him to win this fight. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to activate it. Envy's vibrations while copying the Flash was the only reason Kid Flash did it before in that fight. Right now, though, there was no speedster to help him.

…He had to do it himself…

Dodging one last blow, Kid Flash took off in a dead sprint. His body screamed at him in protest. The previous damage was too much for him to be doing this. If this failed, then his body would just give out on him from sheer exhaustion. That was the biggest weakness of speedsters. They needed constant fuel to get going, and with his previous morning of training, Wally was almost on empty. Doing something stupid like trying to vibrate himself into running at the speed of light would burn off everything. If he didn't die from exhaustion, then he would be killed by Clockwork in his vulnerable state.

Kid Flash didn't have any other options, though. Artemis was waiting for him. He would do this for her. Kid Flash would not let himself fail.

While dodging as many Clockwork's blows as he could, Kid Flash began to vibrate his body. With each step he took, his molecules began to vibrate faster and faster. Electricity sparked off of him. His body began to blur. Clockwork's attacks began to pass through him making it so that he didn't have to dodge at all.

He was doing it! Almost there! Yes! For once, Kid Flash was not going to fall flat on his face!

At least that's what he thought until his body gave out on him.

The electricity stopped. His molecules ceased to vibrate at rapid speeds. There was no more pain. After all, pain suggested that he could still feel his body. No, everything was numb. Without the energy to even squeak in surprise, Kid Flash fell face first onto the sand. He slid for a bit before coming to a stop.

Tears appeared at the edge of his eyes as he tasted the disgusting texture of sand in his mouth. Despite his best efforts…despite having Artemis on the front of his mind…he still failed. It seemed like all of his darkest thoughts were actually a reality. He was a loser.

* * *

Artemis had always been a fighter. It was the one thing even her biggest critics admitted about her. Hell, even her dad stated that she would never go down without a fight. That was the closest thing she ever got to 'I love you' from that bastard.

Now, though, there was literal no way to fight. Brother Blood had effectively stripped her of her free will. None of her thoughts and mental commands reached her body. It was like there was a mental dam stopping the flow of her mind. For Artemis, who consider her free will and fighting spirit to be her greatest attributes, this was one of the worst things that could happen.

Of course, things were about to get a hell of a lot worse. Artemis had a pretty good idea of what Brother Blood planned to do with them. She would vomit from the thought alone if she could. The archer had heard stories of Brother Blood even if she hadn't experienced his church up close and personal. His sexual abuse of his victims was very well known.

If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed like Brother Blood had his full focus on Raven. Based on the look Blood had and the threats coming out of his mouth, he planned to do extremely cruel things to her especially. That made Artemis even more worried. She got the feeling that this would Raven's first experience with such things.

It might be cliché of thing to believe, but Artemis always believe that sex was a beautiful thing. There was a reason it was called 'making love.' She and Wally readily enjoyed their relationship in such a way. It was pleasurable, fun, and intimate…something she never had with anyone else. Raven, though, hadn't experienced that yet.

Given the chance, Artemis would have taken Raven's place to spare her what was about to happen. Despite her mental screams and resistance, Artemis could do nothing as Blood ripped the leotard off of Raven and leered at her pale, untouched skin.

He turned to Artemis and Rocket, "Remove my clothes."

To their disgust, the young women immediately obeyed the command. They reached up and began to remove the man's robes. In that moment, they wanted to tear their eyes out of their socket.

"Alright…" Brother Blood looked eager, "Now each other. Do it slowly I want to—"

Brother Blood was silenced as he was thrown violently away. He slammed into a crumbling wall. Unfortunately, he did not get knocked unconscious. He quickly got back to his feet and glared at the perpetrator. None of his three captives were the ones that did that, despite their desire to do so. No, it was someone else that had the pleasure. It wasn't someone they hadn't met yet, though It was someone they knew and had presumed to have died.

"You…" Brother Blood smiled in a disgusting way, "Oh, I'm glad that you showed up. This will make it even better."

* * *

Kilowog eyed the black orb that had once been a beautiful blue planet. The muscular Green Lantern could only shake his pink head in disgust. His snout and upward turning bottom lip wrinkled to show his displeasure. This was the 'Black Lanterns' doing? Jeeze, he thought the Sinestro Corps and Red Lanterns were bad.

"Alright, Lanterns!" Kilowog snapped to the army behind him, "You know our orders. We stop this Nekron guy no matter the cost! No ifs, ands, or buts! The Guardians say that this is the most important missions any of us have ever had, so failure is not an option!"

"YES SIR!" They all cried.

Kilowog held up his ring. The other Lanterns held up their rings as well. Together, they chanted their famous oath.

 _"In brightest day, in blackest night,_

 _No evil shall escape my sight._

 _Let those who worship evil's might_

 _Beware my power-Green Lantern's light!"_

They all roared in pride. Kilowog smiled at them, "Let's go—"

In a sudden shockwave of energy, all the Green Lanterns were suddenly sent spiraling in odd directions. They all quickly caught their bearings and pointed their rings at the source of the disturbance. There was no enemy in front of them. Instead, the blast seemed to originate from the moon based on the giant glowing red light that seemed to cover a large portion of the moon.

For a few brief seconds, the feelings of rage and battle lust rushing off the energy made them think that it was Red Lanterns. There was some big energy differences in the light, though. Not to mention, the fact that all the energy, which was enough for a Lantern army, seemed to be originating from one source. That mean that one single entity was releasing enough energy to shake the entire moon and send the army of Green Lanterns sprawling away even at a great distance.

Kilowog could only look on in confusion and awe, "What in Oa's name is that?"

* * *

Colossus floated in the center of a massive crater in the middle of the moon. Said crater was as wide as an entire major city and as deep as a skyscraper. At the center of the crater was a floating Colossus. While his injures still existed, it was hidden beneath a layer of crimson energy that seemed to form a second skin over his muscular. Miniature shockwaves jumped off him continuously jumped off of him without his command showing that his power was flowing off him like river water.

Letting out a deep breath, Colossus looked up to see his enemies getting close to his location. Knowing that he was on a time limit with his power, the red giant decided that he would need to meet the Spectre and Pariah Dark before they got to him. With a large shockwave, Colossus blasted away from the crater and back into space.

He appeared in front of the two in the blink of an eye. With a roar, he crossed his arms and then swung his arms out to hammer strike both of the other ghosts. The hits landed and sent out two massive shockwaves. Both enemies were caught up in the two alternate flowing shockwaves that spread out so wide that the energy flowed liked a giant tsunami wave.

Rocked by the power of what seemed like a concentrated earthquake, both the Spectre and Pariah Dark were sent flying away in a blur. Disappearing with another shockwave, Colossus chased after the Spectre. He grabbed the other ghost by the back of the Spectre's head and brought it down to meet his knee. Empowered by another massive shockwave that would have sent several buildings tumbling over, Colossus borderline shattered the Spectre's face.

Continuing his assault, Colossus several knees at the Spectre's form. He spread out each of the blows across the Spectre's body. Each blow was combined with giant shockwaves leaving the Spectre a bruised mess. Pushing the reeling Spectre away, Colossus turned just in time to catch Pariah Dark's sneak attack with one hand and a shockwave.

With his shockwave pushing the former Ghost King off balance, Colossus wrapped one of his own arms around his former leader's arm. He then used his free arm to repeatedly punch Pariah Dark in the face. Like with the Specter before, Colossus began to repeatedly send out massive shockwaves with his punches that would have broken a city in half.

Knowing that the Spectre was going to recover soon, Colossus threw Pariah Dark over to the other ghost. As the former Ghost King was sent spinning to the ghost of vengeance, Colossus sent out a shockwave kick that knocked his enemies into each other. Pariah and Spectre were caught together in a tangled mess.

It was time. Colossus had them on the ropes. Holding out his hands, the Great General focused all of his energy in front of him. The red cloak of energy around him flowed off him and into a large sphere. Once all of his energy was in the large sphere in front of Colossus, the giant concentrated and shrunk the sphere to the size of the marble. When the energy bomb shrunk, it sent out a ginormous shockwave that shook the nearby moon once more.

Colossus looked at the energy bomb. He placed literally everything he had into the attack. If this was unleashed on Earth…He didn't even know what would happen. The destruction would have been insane. The giant knew that he couldn't point this thing to Earth. Worst case scenario was the world blowing up, and even Colossus knew that was excessive damage.

Reaching forward, Colossus grabbed the energy bomb. He groaned out in agony as his arm was immediately torn apart. His skin cracked sending green blood splattering out. Bones shattered, and muscles tore. Despite this, though, Colossus accomplished what he wanted to do. His arm was covered in a massive halo of energy. It looked more like a red glowing bomb than an arm.

"Halt!"

Colossus blinked as Green Lanterns flew around him. They all had their rings pointed at him. All of them held a fearful looks on their face.

Kilowog floated right behind the Great General, "That attack your about to use breaks article 387 of the Intergalactic Article of Universal Peace. Drop the attack and hand yourself over, Nekron."

"Nekron?! Are you mentally ill?! Do I look like a skeletal harbinger of death, alien?!"

"You have the 'ectoplasmic' energy the Guardians warned us about and have another energy there to blow up a planet! You're telling that there are multiple ghosts this powerful?!"

"Yeah, you moron. Did they not give you a picture—Watch out!"

The Green Lantern distraction allowed the Specter and Pariah Dark to recover. They combined their energy and sent out a massive wave attack that instantly eradicated several of the Green Lanterns that floated in front of him. Raising his non-glowing, Colossus did his best to block the attack. Like the Green Lanterns, he was covered in the tsunami attack.

* * *

"RAW!" The new Aquaman shouted as he used his Water Bearers to create a water dragon. With a swing of his arms, he ordered the water dragon to try to devour the Black Hand.

The Black Lantern scoffed at the attack. Raising his decayed hand, Black Hand sent out a skull that cut through the water manifestation and knocked Aquaman away. He would have followed up with that attack, but he was interrupted. Altogether, Lagoon Boy, Tempest, and Frostbite viciously began to attack the Black Lantern.

Despite his power, the Black Lantern's lack of experience made it difficult to respond to the bloodthirsty attacks. He barely managed to avoid the blows. It didn't help that the three worked in near unison despite their rage. In mere seconds, Black Hand was cornered and caught off balance.

With a roar, the Black Hand created a large energy construction that immediately pushed the others away. The black energy spread out to create a massive skeleton around the Black Lantern. With dark smoking rising from the construction, the skeleton began to strike around wildly. Although his enemies managed to avoid the attacks, the power of the swing left deep scars into the nearby castle structures.

Still consumed with their rage, the four enemies of the Black Lantern rushed to attack the skeleton construction. They quickly learned that none of their attacks did anything to the skeletal energy armor. All of their attacks just bounced off the fake bones like wads of light paper.

From the skull part of the dark creation, Black Hand smirked, "Hahahahaha! Weaklings don't deserve to get so mad! If bugs don't want to be squashed, then they shouldn't buzz so annoyingly around a giant!"

This only made the fighters angry. They tried to force even more strength into their attacks, but none of them worked. It seemed like the Black Hand really was too powerful for them.

Frostbite swam back and examined the giant construction. If this kept up, then someone else would get killed. The yeti ghost refused to watch another friend get killed. He had to do something drastic if he wanted to end this quickly. So, he did the only thing he could.

Frostbite went to Absolute Zero.

The water molecules around him slowed down to the point that almost completely stopped moving. The area around the yeti was now a thick ice. He groaned in pain as he focused his energy through his body. Frostbite only ever did this once, and it cost him an arm. Of course, he wasn't recovering from a fight from a demon back then. Who knew what would happen now.

"Get back!" Frostbite shouted.

The Atlantians obeyed. As soon as his friends were out of the way, Frostbite rushed forward and unleashed his full power. Ice exploded out from him. The Black Hand didn't even get to scream as he covered in ice. Frostbite's energy was far too cold for him to fight off. In a second, the entire black skeleton was ice instead of a corporal creation.

Tempest was quick to move forward and drag a drained Frostbite back as soon as the temperature warmed up enough around the yeti to allow contact. Said ghost was coughing up green blood and clutching his chest. He looked to be in terrible pain as he whispered about his insides now being covered in ice.

Not wanting Frostbite's efforts to be in vain, Lagoon Boy rushed forward to the skeleton structure. Transforming into his pufferfish version, Lagoon Boy shattered the ice leaving the Black Hand completely defenseless. This did, however, free the Black Lantern. Covered in ice and frost, he tried to raise his ring to cut Lagoon Boy down just like Tula and King Orion.

Kaldur wasn't about to let that happen, though.

"AAAHHH!" Black Hand screamed out in agony as his ring hand was cut off by the new Aquaman's left Water Bearer. His Black Lantern ring floated away from him leaving him completely defenseless. Before the enemy could say a word, whether it be taunt or beg, Kaldur stabbed his right Water Bearer forward to impale his enemy's chest.

Looking right into Black Hand's shocked face, Kaldur spat out his next words, "That was for Tula, and this…"

Aquaman raised his left Water Bearer.

"IS FOR KING ORIN!"

With a swing of Aquaman's arm, the Black Hand's head left his body. It gently floated away the now dead body. The shocked and horrified expression never left the head's face. Aquaman took great satisfaction in the horror on the decapitated head.

"Rot in hell, you bastard."

* * *

Nekron rolled his eyes as some ice covered kid was trying to flash freeze him. What was his name? Icicle Jr.? Something like that. Not that it mattered to Nekron.

Flicking his hand at the ice boy, Nekron sent a ball of energy at the villain's head. The black ball slammed into Icicle Jr.'s head. As soon as the energy hit him, Icicle Jr. went flipping away. He turned several times until he landed unconsciously on the ground.

Dusting off his shoulders, Nekron looked around to the room full of injured enemies. Only a few people were still standing. That would change soon enough. Raising a hand, Nekron prepared a wide spread attack.

The Reaper quickly stopped that attack to use the extended hand to block a blow from Dark Dan. Catching the punch, Nekron tried to pull the alternate Phantom towards him. Dan responded by kicking Nekron in the head. The Ghost of Death didn't even flinch.

Snarling, Dark Dan followed this up by ripping his hand free and unleashing a barrage of attacks at his foe. Ranging from punches that would have sent tanks flying away to blasts of ectoplasm that would have turned an entire building to dust, the attacks landed on Nekton without any trouble. Said ghost, though, just looked bored through it all.

With one final snarl, Dark Dan flew backwards and glared at the uninjured Nekron. Nothing worked in the slightest.

" **You done?** " Nekron chuckled.

"Not yet," Dark Dan took a deep breath and unleashed his Ghostly Wail.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**

Nekron just stood there as the tangible sound waves rushed around the room. While everyone else twitched in pain, Nekron seemed to be ignoring the attack like it was an annoying bird call. The Ghost of Death waited for the attack to die down before shaking his head.

" **Now? You done yet?** "

"No…" Dark Dan smirked, "You are."

Nekron was shocked when a hand was shoved through his back to his chest. He looked down to the hand to see that it was glowing a bright pink, " **That's right…You have an affinity towards Phantom's energy, don't you, Jinx?** "

Jinx nodded from behind the Reaper. Drops of blood ran down from her ears. While she had gained in fact gained an affinity for the ectoplasm of Danny Phantom, Dark Dan's energy had enough of a difference to hurt her a bit while she moved through the Ghostly Wail. Luckily, though, her affinity did allow her to bypass the defenses that surrounded Danny's body, even if he was possessed by Nekron.

"I'm sorry, Danny," Jinx whispered, "But I had no choice."

* * *

Spirit slipped from Youngblood's grip but made sure to hold onto his hand, "Up!"

She pulled him along with Cyborg up higher into the air. They just barely managed to get far enough up to avoid getting hit by the two waves of Sleep Walkers. The waves of Sleep Walkers crashed into each other and send a few of the green ghosts to fly up to the trio. Cyborg was forced to kick them away.

"Well, that worked for now, but they're going to just fly up here and get us in a moment," Youngblood noted as he looked down as the mass of Nocturne minions. The Sleep Walkers spread all around the area. To avoid them, they would have to keep going up because going sideways would get them caught in the sea of enemies. They were effectively stuck.

"Don't worry. I got this," Cyborg was busy messing with a control panel on his arm. As he typed, green lights blared below them as the city's defense system came to life and began to tear through some the Sleep Walkers.

"Oh wow!" Spirit looked on with wide eyes at the weapons firing all across the city, "I forgot about the defense system."

"Yeah, luckily we never took it down," Cyborg nodded.

"Aye, but why did no one activate it before? Couldn't someone at Masters Mansion or Axion Labs do it?" Youngblood was frowning.

"Maybe they got caught up in a fight…" Spirit paused for a second before turning a bit paler, "Oh God…"

The Sleep Walkers had quickly reacted to the defense system. They turned their attention away from their targets and began to fly down to city. The guns managed to cut through a small portion of the sea of Sleep Walkers, but the minions were so great in number that the weapons didn't stand a chance of getting them all. Soon, the Sleep Walkers were tearing through the defense system.

"We need to move while they're busy," Youngblood grunted, "Let's get to Axion Labs."

"Right, I'm worried about my par—Look out!" Cyborg shouted.

Releasing Youngblood's hand, Spirit turned to see the fake Jason Blood and Wulf flying at them. Anger flashed in her mind at seeing them. How dare Nocturne pervert their memories like this? Mr. Blood had been her kind and patient teacher. Wulf had been a constant and loyal friend. She remembered how both of them died…on their own terms.

And Nocturne thought he could ruin that? Hell no!

With a roar, Spirit moved forward and shoved her glowing fists through their chests. It only took a few seconds for the two shades to dissolve into a pile of black goop. Spirit took a shuddering breath as she saw the face of her loved ones fade away for one final time, "I'm sorry…"

"Wow!" Nocturne's voice drew their attention away from the fakes, "I didn't know you had it in you! Well done."

"Nocturne…" Spirit hissed out in hatred.

"You know, I remember when I was in complete control over this city all those years ago," Nocturne noted as he floated over to them, "It was you, little halfa, that was the key to my defeat. I never forgot that. I was just going to kill you for it, but now I'm going to make sure you suffer for it."

* * *

Dusk jumped out of the way as the Fright Knight sent a flaming jewel to crush him. He moved just in time as the ectoplasmic attack burst sending shards of the jewel flying. Using his moment, Dusk flew around the explosion to get right in front of the fake knight. Creating his Scribe Staff to give himself the reach advantage, the halfa tried to knock his enemy way.

The Fright Knight dodged each blow with practiced ease but could not get close enough to get his own attack. Dusk felt extremely grateful that this fake version of his friend didn't have Soul Shredder. None of his Matter Make weapons would have been able to beat the power of that blade. As such, he did have a chance to beat the Fright Knight, but there was a big problem.

Chasing after the retreating Fright Knight, Dusk noticed the green goop running down his arm. His body's stability was beginning to come undone. That was bad. He didn't have any Ecto Boosts on him. If he continued to fight, then there was a good chance he would dissolve. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he would get to stop fighting any time soon.

'What do I do?'

Call…me…

Dusk had to force himself not to flinch. He continued to push forward despite the voice calling out to him. What was that?

I will…you…call…me…

This time Dusk did flinch. That opening allowed the Fright Knight to push him back. Now on the retreat, Dusk formed his Reflection Shield in order to minimize the damage he received. If one solid hit got in past his guard…

Stabilize…call…me…

The voice…the voice sounded familiar. Dusk felt a pull at the back of his mind. Something was there. All he had to do was reach out and grab it…

"ROAR!"

Dusk jumped as Aragon soared down to him. The halfa would have lunged away, but the Fright Knight held him in place. This allowed the dragon to grab onto them and carry them away. With a few powerful flaps of his massive wings, Aragon carried them to the center of the island where the main city was burning and crushed to rubble. Dozens of Amazons lie across the ground defeated along with the ghosts that had been dragged through the original portal.

Dumping his prey at the center of the chaos, Aragon landed on the steps of a large temple. The dragon sneered as Dusk pushed the dissolving Fright Knight off of him while clutching at his own bleeding side. Dusk groaned in pain and focused on keeping himself stable even as he felt his body began to dissolve. He didn't have anything left in the tank to fight with.

"Looks like you're already almost dead," Aragon laughed, "Seems like my plan worked at least a little, although I was expecting them to kill you. You're more jaded than I thought you were. Sure they were fake, but you crushed your girlfriend and dog like they were nothing."

Dusk glared up at him.

Aragon just continued to laugh at the defiant look that the halfa had despite the situation. Wanting to get his job done with, the dragon opened his mouth and sent out a torrent of flames. Desperately, Dusk rolled away from the fire and lunged into the tree line.

"Ahahahahaha! Go ahead and hide, little halfa! I know you won't get far."

* * *

Transforming into an elephant, Beast Boy charged forward with loud roar. With the weight of the world's largest land mammal, he tried to run over the Black Lantern. Despite all of the power he wielded in that moment, he was still easily sent flying away by a single punch. The elephant went tumbling away before he transformed back to his normal form.

With a groan, he tried to push himself up. Beast Boy hissed out in pain as his left arm gave out on him. He fell face first to the dirt causing pain to shoot through his swollen black eye. Punching the ground with his good arm, Beast Boy transformed himself into a gorilla once again and snarled at the mercenary. This caused blood to spill from his split lip.

He was once again knocked down with ease.

"I don't feel good about zhis," Madame Rogue noted, "Could you just stay down? Beating children like this is beneazh me."

Beast Boy ignored her. He once again forced himself up. The young hero titled back and forth unstably. He looked like he was barely able to stand.

"Alright," Madame Rogue shook her head, "I'll just finish you—"

"Hsalf ezeerf reh!"

Before Madam Rogue could react, she was frozen in a block of ice. With the enemy immobilized, Zatanna reached up to clutch her head. Forcing herself to her knees made her dizzy, but that was fine. She was just glad she managed to save Beast Boy.

"Gar!" Miss Martian, who had always just woken up, floated up to her adopted boyfriend and gently placed her hands on his shoulders just in time to stop him from falling on his face, "Oh, Gar…"

Tired and beaten eyes turned to her. Despite his pain and fatigue, he smiled at her, "Good…you woke up…I was worried…"

"Gar…" M'gann wiped the tears from her eyes, "You did good, Gar. Thank you. If you hadn't—"

Before the Martian could finish her sentence, Madame Rogue shattered the ice holding her with a burst of black energy. She had murder in her eyes as she turned her eyes to Zatanna. Before the magician could do anything, Rogue used her ring to create a gag to keep here enemy from speaking. The mercenary would have followed up with this move, but Miss Martian didn't let her.

Gently placing her adopted brother on the ground, she rushed forward protectively. With both of her friends and family members safely behind her and to the side, the alien unleashed all her power forward to create one giant telepathic push at Madame Rouge. Despite the ground shattering and the strange creatures around them being turned to dust, Madame Rogue held her ground without any real effort.

Shaking her head, Madame Rogue unleashed her own energy wave. This attack was extremely effective. The black wave knocked the Martian back with ease. She landed with a tumble, before rushing forward again. This time, she used her shape-shifting to create multiple limbs to attack the mercenary. Madame Rogue's own shifting abilities allowed her to dance around the attacks with ease.

"Please, you are too weak."

Miss Martian stumbled back as Madame Rogue punched her in the gut.

"You are too soft."

Another elongated punch to face nearly knocked the Martian out. It was only through sheer force of will that Miss Martian only fell to her knees instead of onto her face.

"You aren't willing to do what you have to in order to survive…in order to win," Madame Rogue noted, "Zhat is why I do what I do. I always know which side is going to win. Zhat is who I ally myself with. Your friends…Zhe little heroes…were doomed as soon as Nekron set his zights on zhem."

M'gann looked up defiantly, like she was going to argue. Unfortunately, she couldn't get any words out.

"Call me a traitor, but know zhat I will be one of zhe few survivors," Madame Rogue raised her non-ring hand and pointed it Miss Martian, "All because I knew what I had to do to survive."

Rogue's fingers shot forward with the speed of bullets. Miss Martian could do nothing as she watched the fingers fly forward to impale her. She tried to move, but that was useless. The crash and Rogue's beat down injured her too much.

It was over.

"NO!"

Miss Martian's eyes widened as one of her friends jumped in front of her to protect her. Rogue's fingers instantly stabbed through her ally's chest allowing droplets of blood to fall onto the ground below them. Everyone instantly knew that it was a fatal blow.

* * *

Mary gasped in horror as Freddy's broken body crashed onto the ground, "Freddy!"

She knelt next to her boyfriend. Shifting Box Lunch to one arm, she reached down to his smoking and burnt back. Her hand flinched back from the heat rolling off his skin.

Freddy's tired eyes looked up to his horrified girlfriend, "Hey…"

Mary sobbed out her reply, "H-Hey…"

"You…and the kid…You're good right? I saved you?"

"Of course you did," Mary's vision was blurred by her tears.

"Good…good…" Freddy's eyes closed.

"No…NO!" Mary looked at the downed boy frantically, "Come on, Fred! Wake up! You can't die here!"

Freddy did not respond, so she reached down to shake him. He didn't react at all. His body was still to the point that it didn't look like he was breathing.

"What do I do…What do I do…" Mary looked up to the sky, "Shazam!"

Nothing happened.

"Come on, you damn wizard! Help me out here! Shazam!"

Once again, her answer was nothingness.

"Shazam! Shazam! SHAZAM!" Mary cried out desperately. Finally, after realizing that the magical lightning wasn't going to happen, she broke down crying, "Sha…zam…"

As the cried over the smoking body, a large figure drifted over her. Doctor Fate loomed over Mary. The recreation of the Lord of Order had not pity in his eyes. He lifted his arm up and pointed it at the back of Mary's head before unleashing a torrent of golden energy.

* * *

Bumblebee flew through the Ghost Zone at rapid speeds. She had to work to dodge the rain drops around her. Her smaller form made her situation even more dangerous, but to fly she had to be at the insect size. Unfortunately, that made even the raindrops dangerous to her, but she didn't really have a choice. Vortex would have torn her apart instantly if she couldn't fly away from him.

With lightning crashing above her, Bumblebee knew that she was effectively an ant in a hurricane. She was forced to fight her way through deadly winds while dodging sharp rain and hail. Bumblebee felt extremely exhausted from just a few minutes of fleeing. Still, she forced herself onward in a desperate attempt to get away.

The only one good thing she could say about the situation was that Vortex didn't seem to know where she was. He lost track of her small form through the storm. She had a feeling that she wouldn't still be alive if he knew where she was. To compensate for that, though, Vortex just crated a massive storm all around the area in attempt to hit her.

Vortex was wearing a black vest with a lightning symbol like the Flash, except that it larger, backwards and more pronounced. His huge arms and forearms were covered by black gloves. Instead of legs, the ghost had a twister tail that was constantly spinning. Red eyes, sharp teeth, and lighting bold ears twisted with sick glee as he manipulated the storm around him.

"YOU…huff…WON'T ESCAPE…huff…LITTLE BUG!" Vortex shouted, "I'll KILL YOU…huff…THEN I'LL FIND THE REST…huff…OF THE GHOSTS!"

Bumblebee ignored the taunts. She continued to push herself forward through the storm. There was no end in sight of the hurricane Vortex created, but that didn't stop her. Karin was determined to push through this. She wasn't going to die here.

One sudden giant wind crushed her determination. She was sent flying back with a scream. This caught the giant ghost's attention. Cackling, he grabbed the girl and held her up to his face.

"HELLO!"

Before Karin could do anything, Vortex sent electricity through her body effectively shocking her. Screaming in pain, the girl spasmed and twitched uncontrollably. The electricity quickly short-circuited her suit and forced her to grow to her normal size. As the electricity died down, Bumblebee quickly realized that her suit wasn't going to work anymore.

"HOW ABOUT…huff…I MAKE YOU SUFFER…huff…BEFORE I KILL YOU!?"

* * *

As the massive wave of ectoplasm died down, a smoking and barely conscious Colossus floated in front of the shocked Green Lanterns that were lucky enough to be behind the giant. To their complete awe, the brute took the attack with one arm. Sure, Colossus's left arm was not a shattered mess of useless flesh and bones, but still…if it weren't for him, they would all be dead.

Before any of the Green Lanterns could speak, a wave of battle rage fell over them like a blanket. They all shook in fear as Colossus unleashed every little bit of Haunting Aura he could muster up. He wasn't directing it at the Green Lanterns. No, they were just unfortunate enough to be caught up in the wave. Instead, he directed at the ghosts in front of him.

After the wave had died down, Spectre and the Ghost King both rushed forward to finish Colossus off. Luckily, the Haunting Aura was enough to slow them down just a bit. Colossus wasn't about to waste this opportunity. With a roar, he lifted his arm with enough energy to put an atomic bomb to shame. He sent the glowing limb forward and unleashed his ultimate attack.

"Earthshaker Punch!"

The blast that followed would forever be ingrained in the minds of the surviving Green Lanterns. Combined with a shockwave so massive that the planet Earth behind Colossus actually shook from the force, a large beam of energy rushed forward to the ghost. In the blink of an eye Pariah Dark and the Spectre were covered in the energy. They fought back with a combined attack of their own, but it was futile. In seconds, the fake Spectre and Pariah Dark were disintegrated into literal nothingness.

Colossus's attack didn't stop with them. It continued forward and out into space. Said shockwave beam made the very void around it tremble in fear. Luckily, no planet got in its way. While Mars was safe, the asteroid belt was not. With a burst of energy that shouldn't be possible for a living being, thousands of heavenly rocks were turned to ash.

Of course, this happened well out of the Green Lantern's line of sight. Even Colossus's attack would take a few minutes to make it to the asteroid belt. As soon as the energy stopped flowing from Colossus's arm, the limb dropped lifelessly to his side. The brute then closed his eyes in satisfaction. He had won.

The Green Lanterns held expressions of pure fear. One being could not possible do that. Not even the New Gods could do something like that. This creature was a monster. This being was dangerous. This ghost…

Had slipped into unconsciousness.

"If he hadn't been facing away from the planet…It would have been destroyed," Kilowog muttered. His words were met with silence, but he knew that his comrades agreed with him. They eyed the ghost as he floated unconsciously through the void of space. Both of his arms were ruined messes. His body was covered in injures. He was completely vulnerable. Part of them wanted to finish Colossus off. Nothing with such power should be allowed to go free. Luckily for the brute, the Green Lanterns never got the chance to carry out their dark thoughts.

One of the Green Lanterns screamed as it was mauled by one of Nekron's creatures of death. This caused all of them to gain fearful looks again. Countless numbers of the inky beasts were flying towards them. The numbers were so great that they literally covered any possible view of the planet behind them. It seemed like Nekron was prepared for the Green Lanterns' arrival.

With a roar, the Green Lanterns rushed forward to fight against the army that had to outnumber them one hundred to one. So focused on the fight, they forgot about Colossus who continued to float peacefully. The look of satisfaction never left Colossus as he dreamed.

That was one hell of a fight.

* * *

Kaldur stood in front of several bodies wrapped up in cloth. After the Black Hand fell, the Atlantian soldiers managed to quickly secure the city. All the deceased were gathered and wrapped to help hide their deadly injuries. The former Aqualad felt the energy drain from him as he looked on to the deceased soldiers.

The sound of wailing drew Kaldur's attention to the side. Queen Mera was kneeling beside the wrapped body of Tula and Orin. Unlike the other bodies, the famous 'A' symbol of Aquaman and his protégés covered the wrapped corpses to distinguish them from the others.. He had to fight not to flinch as he remembered how each of them died. It was difficult not to break down like the queen, but he stayed strong. Someone had to stay up and lead.

Looking behind him, Kaldur saw all the soldiers of Atlantis looking onto him expectantly. The queen was definitely in no condition to lead. Even before this, she was a mess. With her favorite student and her husband now both dead, there was a good chance that she would never be able to lead. There was no bloodline ruler left in Atlantis.

"All hail King Kaldur!" Tempest shouted and dropped to his knees to bow. He was quickly followed by Frostbite and Lagoon Boy. After a brief pause, the soldiers dropped down as well.

"ALL HAIL KING KALDUR!"

Kaldur took a deep breath. He never wanted to be a leader. The Atlantian saw the burden that leading had placed on Danny. That was something he never even thought about desiring. If worst came to worst, then Nightwing was always there to lead. Now, though…There was no one ready to lead Atlantis but him.

Clenching his fist, Aquaman turned to his new subject, "Rise! Now is not the time to kneel! We must regroup and ready for the next battle! Earth is not safe, and it falls on all of us to do what we can to save our planet! Atlantis will not fall today or any day!"

The soldiers roared in approval. They stood and began to chant Kaldur's name. Aquaman had to fight not to flinch under the chants. Whether he liked it or not, he was now the leader of Atlantis. He held the power over all the oceans. On his whim, he could shake the entire Earth and destroy the dry land. That was not a responsibility that he felt comfortable with, but he would need it if he wanted to defeat the threat behind all this.

* * *

Jinx took a shuddering breath at knowing what she had to do, "Goodbye, Danny. I love you."

Pink energy surged through her hand. The energy spread from Nekron's chest all around his body. His black halo was pushed back, leaving him defenseless. Veins beneath Nekron's skin began to glow a neon pink. Once black eyes transformed back to green.

"J-Jen…" Danny's voice gasped out from Nekron's lips.

Jinx's eyes filled with tears as she watched the body of her lover began to dissolve into green goop. Her bad luck energy must have torn up his insides, "It's okay, Danny. I'm here."

"T-Thank you…" Danny muttered, "You…You stopped him…You stopped me…"

"Don't thank me," Jinx shoved her face into his broad back and began to cry, "I didn't save you."

"That…doesn't matter…" Danny's body began to dissolve more and more, "You did the right thing."

"Y-Yeah…" Jinx sobbed.

"Jen…before I go…I have to ask…" Danny's eyes shined with curiosity, "Would you…have chosen me? If this never happened…would you have chosen me over your father?"

Jinx's voice hitched as she gave her answer, "Yes…I would have…"

Danny looked away, "You're lying. I can hear it in your voice…You couldn't even tell me the truth while I'm dying…"

"I…I'm sorry, Danny," Jinx's voice came out as a desperate plea, "But I love being an assassin…I love my father…I love my life the way it is…"

"You love it all more than me?"

Jinx's silence was her answer.

Danny nodded, "I see… **Then I guess you deserve what I'm about to do to you.** "

As surge of black energy sent Jinx flying away. She landed back first against the cave wall. Gasping in pain, she quickly slid to the ground. Barely conscious, she looked up to see Danny's body regain its original shape. Green eyes flashed back to black. The hole she thought she created closed leaving no trace of the damage.

" **Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!** " Nekron burst out laughing, " **It never gets old! The look on your face! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I didn't think you'd actually fall for it! Oh…Oh man…That was good…** "

Jinx glared at Nekron, "You—"

Nekron silenced her by shooting her through the shoulder with a black energy bullet. He then turned his attention to a shocked Dark Dan, " **Nice try, but did you really think I would let someone with such a distinct energy signal to sneak up on me?** "

It was at that moment that Dark Dan realized there was no way to beat Nekron. He had just used the best plan he had to beat the Reaper, and it failed spectacularly. Nekron laughed it off like it was nothing. That was because it was nothing to him. Power, speed, and strategy all crumbled before him. Nothing would work against Nekron. He was untouchable.

The universe had been doomed since the moment that Nekron possessed Danny Phantom's body.

* * *

 **Next update: "Justice" on September 12, 2016**

 **God! Writing the Brother Blood stuff was one of the hardest things I've every written. Ugh...I like to try to push through my own comfort zones, but...agh, I'm going to stick with implications instead. I was going to leave on a cliffhanger without the inference just yet, but my disgust and morality overruled that idea as soon as I thought of it.**

 **Let us all give a moment of silence for Aquaman. He was a terrific woobie. At least he won't have to suffer through me creating plot points just to make him miserable. Even I pitied him, and I'm the guy cackling as he writes tragic and ironic death scenes. Speaking of which...Beast Boy or Zatanna?**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

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	30. Justice

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

* * *

Chapter 30: "Justice"

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Harriet Chin sat at the far end of her apartment. All of the furniture was overturned and pushed against anything that could be considered an opening from someone to get through. At the center of the room was a small square portable Ghost Shield which had outlined the apartment with a green shield. Nothing was getting in or out of her apartment.

Nevertheless, the woman desperately clutched at the ectoplasmic pistol in her hand. She eyed the Ghost Shield in fear. It was now low on battery. She had only a few minutes of safety left. As soon as the battery died, those monsters would flood in here in and tear her apart. Harriet Chin wasn't going to go down without a fight, though.

Her heart jumped when a black portal opened to reveal Hotep Ra stepping into her apartment. She instantly reacted by firing her gun at the mummy. Said ghost just stood there and let the bullets of ectoplasm ram into his chest.

"Really?" Hotep Ra raised an eyebrow.

Harriet lowered the gun in defeat, "I had to try…So what now? You here to kill me?"

"And why would I waste my time coming to kill you when Nekron's monsters are waiting right outside your door to do it themselves?" Hotep Ra questioned.

"For the pleasure of it."

"Hahaha…" Hotep Ra actually chuckled at that, "No, you're thinking of a few other Black Lanterns. I'm a more pragmatic type of person."

"Then what do you want?" Harriet demanded, "Because I really don't have anything to give to you. This gun is all I have worth anything right now."

"That is where you are wrong," Hotep Ra noted, "You do have something to give. I want you to help fight Nekron."

"Fight Nekron?" Harriet looked amused despite the danger in the situation, "And why does a Black Lantern want anyone to fight Nekron?"

"I have my reasons. I'd prefer to only explain it all once, though, so I'll hold off on it," Hotep Ra explained.

"Alright…" Harriet was still shaking her head in disbelief, "And how exactly am I supposed to fight Nekron?"

"I'll explain that later too."

"So…I'm just supposed to step with you into a portal of death willingly without knowing where I'm going or why…just so I can die fighting someone that defeated the entire Justice League on his own…" Harriet scoffed, "Why would I do that?"

"It's either that, or wait two minutes until the monsters get in," Hotep Ra smirked, "The choice is yours."

Harriet's eyes danced back and forth from the Black Lantern to her Ghost Shield. It was either the choice of certain death or the risk of running with a rogue enemy. For Harriet, it was an easy choice. She stepped up to Hotep Ra.

"Let's go."

* * *

Dark Dan didn't know why he was fighting. There was no way to win. It would be smart to run and spend the time that remained doing something that he enjoyed. Maybe he could destroy a city…or slaughter some of the remaining people…anything other than this really.

A sudden punch to the gut slammed into him. The alternate Phantom went flying away and slammed into the far wall by the unconscious Jinx. Luckily, his body was far more durable than the unconscious assassins's own body. While he did feel the pain, Dark Dan did not slip into unconsciousness.

Using the wall, Dan managed to force himself to his feet. He looked on as the few people still conscious desperately tried to do something…anything really to stop the Reaper. Ra's Al Ghul and his remaining assassins swung every bladed weapon they had at the Ghost of Death. The weapons that didn't disintegrate as soon as they made contact with the black energy still didn't even manage to make it through the shield.

It was useless. Everyone had to see that.

"Move!" Lex Luthor shouted at them. The assassins obeyed his command. This allowed the billionaire to shoot a small missile from his armor.

As soon as the missile made contact, it burst into a small shower of ectoranium. Normally, ghosts would have been made powerless by this. A shower of ectoranium for ghosts was what Kryptonite was for Superman. Nekron, however, just stood there. His once amused looked was steadily moving towards boredom as his energy made the ectoranium useless.

Nothing could possibly hurt Nekron. They were wasting their time.

" **Okay…** " Nekron sighed, " **The enjoyment of you ants trying to kill the elephant is fading. Do you have anything interesting to show me or should I just end this already?** "

Luthor's response was to fire multiple gun shots at Nekron. It was pathetically useless.

" **I guess not…** " Nekron yawned, " **Alright. I feel generous. I'll take a five minute power nap. That should let you get this outburst out of you. Then I'll end this.** "

With that said, the Reaper lay down and closed his eyes. His enemies took advantage and tried to attack. It was just as useless as just seconds earlier.

Dark Dan knew that the members of the Light were far from stupid. They had to realize that this was useless. Yet they didn't stop fighting either. Dark Dan didn't understand it. Even he was pushed forward to fight despite how hopeless the situation was.

Was it the desperate will to survive? Was it the pride that couldn't stand being looked down upon? Was it the hatred of someone who was humiliating them? It was hard to tell. Maybe it was all of it…maybe it was none of it. No matter what, though, they couldn't stop fighting.

Even the villains had some standards and lines that they wouldn't let people cross.

With a snarl, Dark Dan rushed forward again. It didn't matter if it was useless. Even if he could be spending his time doing something far more pleasurable, he would prefer to die trying than to give up and lie down like a dog.

* * *

 _Miss Martian looked on in shock as blood dripped down and onto the ground. The steady sound of the droplets echoed in her ears. Bile crawled up her throat. She suddenly felt dizzy and weak. The muffled sounds behind her made her realize that she wasn't the only one shocked and outraged by what happened._

 _Tears began to roll down green cheeks, "Gar…"_

" _Zhe little boy impresses once more," Madame Rogue noted as she retracted her fingers causing blood to spray everywhere._

" _NO!" M'gann shouted out in a rage. Her psychic energy flooded out unfiltered. For years, she had suppressed her real power in fear of what happened when it was unleashed during the now infamous training session._

 _The amount of telekinetic force that rammed into Madame Rogue was so great that it sent the Black Lantern flying away. This forced her concentration off of Zatanna. Now freed from her gag, the magician muttered out rapid spells despite the tears rolling down her face. The spells began to tear through the surrounding monsters who remained complacent from Rogue's orders._

 _Before Beast Boy could fall, Miss Martian gently grabbed hold of the boy and cradled him lovingly, "Gar…Garfield…Speak to me…"_

 _Tired green eyes drifted to the Martian, "Did…did I save you?"_

 _M'gann let out a sob, "Yeah…you saved me, Gar…"_

" _Good…I'm glad I could save one person I care about…"_

" _Gar, just hold on…" M'gann felt Beast Boy's warm blood run down her arms, "I can give you some of my blood, then maybe you'll get more of my powers. Wouldn't you like that? I could train you in using psychic powers too."_

" _Yeah…that does sound cool…" Beast Boy smiled at her, "But I don't think that's going to happen."_

" _Don't speak like that," M'gann pleaded._

" _I kind of wish…that I could have been a real hero…" Beast Boy noted wistfully._

" _You are a real hero, Gar!"_

" _You know what I mean…I always wanted to be like Danny…Famous…Team leader…future Justice Leaguer…Eventually bring down Queen Bee…But I was always just the mascot…" Beast Boy's words were a soft whisper at this point._

" _No! You weren't!"_

" _But I'm glad I got to be with all of you…Tell everyone…that I'm sorry…" Beast Boy closed his eyes, "I'm going to go see Mommy now…"_

" _Please no…Don't leave me, little brother…" M'gann sobbed hysterically._

 _Tears popped out of the corner of Beast Boy's eyes, "She's smiling…I'm home, Mom."_

" _Damn it, Gar!" M'gann began to reach out mentally. She found nothing. He was gone, "You can't do this! Please! Come back! I need you more that her! Please!"_

 _Her sorrowful cries were fell on deaf ears. Beast Boy was dead._

* * *

Pandora used her spears to deflect the black energy bullets fired at her by Walker's twin pistol corporeal constructions. She grunted as she was forced to surge energy through her electric spears to force the bullets away. This worked for a while, but eventually the grinning Walker grew bored of this strategy. He turned his pistols towards the downed ghosts that still lay prone across Pandora's lawn.

Cursing, Pandora spread out her electricity into arcs that burst out in front of her companions and daughter. The electricity managed to stop the bullets and protect the defenseless victims on the grass. Unfortunately, this left Pandora extremely vulnerable with her guard dropped and her focus spread out. Walker quickly took advantage of this.

One of the pistols pointed to Pandora and unleashed a thick bullet towards the blue giant. Said bullet pierced through her breastplate and lodged itself into her shoulder. Pandora hissed out in pain and flinched backwards. This was all Walker needed for his next move. The former warden dismissed his guns, rushed forward, and smashed his fake hand across Pandora's helm.

The golden helm protecting the woman's head shattered. Gold pieces lodged themselves into her skin. None of that compared to the great pain that seared from her jaw. Pandora was shocked that nothing was broken from that dangerous blow. Still, the blood in her mouth and the loose way her teeth moved when pressed by her tongue were proof that it was only good fortune and her now destroyed helmet that prevented an even worse outcome.

On instinct alone, Pandora stabbed her spears forward to her opponent. Laughing, Walker launched himself into the air before coming back down fist first. Pandora just barely managed to get out of the way and then block the follow up blasts of black ectoplasm that followed. The Controller of Chaos was ready for more, but Walker did not target her. Instead, he lunged himself to the unconscious Nyx.

Fury surged through Pandora once more. With a roar, she crafted an ectoplasm shield around Nyx to protect her from Walker. It seemed that the Black Lantern wanted that though. Before the shield even completely formed, he turned around and jammed his thumb into the bullet wound that still shone with green blood.

Pandora shouted out in pain. Although the energy bullet had disappeared, the wound was still very fresh. Despite the pain, though, Pandora recognized that the arm stabbing her was Walker's ringed hand. Snarling, she dropped the spears that she could barely control at this point anyway. Pandora then brought all of her arms up, empowered them with ectoplasm, and started beating them against the former warden's arm.

Walker let out a sound of pain himself. Showing his impressive strength and endurance, he ripped his arm free and tried to retreat. Pandora was not about to let him do that. She chased after him with the full intent of breaking his arm. That would stop his ability to use the ring.

The Black Lantern wasn't about to let her get close, however. He created thick prison walls between him and Pandora. He had hoped that would slow her down, but Pandora did not hesitate in the slightest. Her powerful arms shattered the walls with one combined punch from the arms from one side then the other.

Seeing that Pandora wasn't going to be retreating any time soon, Walker decided to continue this fight in a more personal way. He stopped his retreat and rushed forward to trade punches with Pandora. The two of them both threw punches, but Pandora's extra limbs proved to give her the edge at first. She slipped a few punches in, but they didn't cause much damage besides minor bruises.

Eventually, Walker's Kobra Venom and Black Ring upgrades proved too strong for Pandora. He slipped one massive punch past her guard and shattered what remained of Pandora's torso armor. Despite the pain of the blow and the shards of steel stabbing her, Pandora did not relent. Instead, she pushed forward once more to get even more hits in before Walker could react.

After getting a few new bruises of his own, Walker decided that this fight had gone on long enough. Using his ring, Walker created dozens of fake arms that jumped up from all around his body. They all slammed into Pandora and knocked her way. As the Controller of Chaos tumbled away, Walker combined all of his corporeal arms into one to create two massive energy arms that would tear through anything in his path.

Having righted herself once more, Pandora countered this play by creating her electrical spears once more. She surged all of her energy and prepared her next attack, but the attack never came for her. Once more, Walker turned his attention to Nyx. Quickly, Pandora tried to use electrical arcs or ectoplasmic shields to protect her daughter. Walker's energy arms tore through those defenses, though.

Pandora immediately recognized that no energy attack would stop those arms. So, she did the only thing she could. The mother threw herself in front of her daughter.

* * *

Bumblebee had quickly gained some sympathy for the people she had stung. Her victims always yelped and danced around with curses leaving their lips. For a while, Bumblebee laughed at them. Now, feeling an unbelievable amount of electricity being forced through her body, the young woman quickly decided that laughing wasn't fair. Electricity hurt like nothing else.

"AAAHHH!" Bumblebee cried out once before letting out loud pants of exhaustion.

Vortex sneered down at her, "WELL…huff…THIS IS…huff…GETTING OLD. I'LL FINISH…huff…YOU OFF NOW. TIME…huff…TO FIND A NEW…huff…PLAYTHING—HUH?"

A long roar of a horn sounded over the sounds of the storm. This shocked the ghost as there was no normal instrument that could sound louder than his howling winds. As he looked around, Vortex felt the weight in his hand disappear. His eyes snapped to his hand. He clenched it in anger, "WHAT?"

At the edge of a storm, a portal appeared and allowed Mal to step through it and out of the rain. He held Bumblebee protectively in his arms. Now safely on the floating rock and at a safe distance from the shade of Vortex, the man addressed his girlfriend, "Karin, are you okay?"

"Mal…" Bumblebee looked at Mal's new appearance, "What happened to you?"

"I went on a journey," Mal noted mysteriously, "But that doesn't matter right now. How are you feeling?"

"A bit numb…but really glad to be away from that maniac and his storm," Bumblebee stated.

Nodding, Mal gently placed her down onto the stone below. He carefully cradled her head in his lap, "I think you should rest first before we move on."

Bumblebee eyed the nearby storm. Vortex was still wildly looking for where she went, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Yes, we shouldn't go that far anyway," Mal noted, "I'd rather not come back for him after he finishes Vortex."

"Him?"

"RAW!"

To Vortex's shock, different vines and weeds grabbed onto him from the nearby floating rocks. He fought and struggled but was stopped by a large hand grabbing his head. A larger, unpopulated island from the deeper parts of the Ghost Zone had been directed towards Vortex and allowed Undergrowth to pop from the island to grab onto the ghost of the storm.

"I've heard that you call yourself the master of nature," Undergrowth snarled at him, "Well, I for one would disagree. You're just a bad memory in comparison to the real Master of Nature."

Bumblebee paled at the sight, "You found Undergrowth?"

Mal nodded, "And he's not the only one I found."

"Who?"

"It's kind of complicated. Before I tell you, just keep in mind that they're fighting for our side. Well, except Jericho. He's not fighting. He's working on a special project..."

"Jericho? Who's that?"

"It's a long story."

* * *

Doctor Fate floated over the crying Mary. Said girl clutched the babe in her arms closely and wept over the injured body of Freddy. She was begging him to hold on and to stay with her. None of this mattered to Doctor Fate, though. He had his orders. The Marvels must die. Not just the prone child version of Captain Marvel that lie on the ground. Nekron didn't want any possibility of an agent of Shazam showing up to cause trouble.

Raising a hand, the Lord of Order unleashed a blast of golden energy at the children. The golden wave covered the children's forms, but to Doctor Fate's shock, their life energy did not fade away. Stopping his attack, Doctor Fate peered down to see what had happened. A strange shield made of tiny green creatures surrounded them.

To his surprise, the tiny creatures jumped up to attack him. Doctor Fate quickly made a golden bubble to stop the annoying creatures from getting to him. Safe from the fluttering creatures, the Lord of Order tried to decide what to do next. Before he could come up with a plan, his shield was shattered by a punch that shoved its way through the golden bubble and into his stomach. In a burst of green light, Doctor Fate was sent skipping away.

Off to the side, Box Ghost and Lunch Lady were freed from their golden restraints. They both looked on in shock at the newest person to join their fight. Even Box Lunch looked up in wonder at the strange figure. The only conscious person in the area that did not look up to the new fighter was Mary. She was too busy crying over her boyfriend's form.

Lydia turned back and looked down at the girl in a mix of pity and envy, "You are lucky…to have someone who cares so much for you that he would sacrifice everything…The youngling is more of a man than many people I have met, including my own past love."

Mary finally looked up at hearing her words. Her eyes were still laced with tears, "Y-You...D-Do you have any powers that can help him?"

Lydia shook her head, "Unfortunately, no. My powers of animation cannot help here, but…There is someone that can help. Right, little one?"

Box Lunch pointed her hands at the downed Freddy. To almost everyone's shock, the skin of his back morphed back from the smoking and burnt crisp that it was into the unblemished epidermis before the attack. The recovering Freddy breathed out in relief, much to Mary's joy. Box Lunch looked happy as well, but the fatigue quickly overcame that joyful look.

"Just as the definition of 'box' can be extended, the definition of 'meat' can be extended as well, no?" Lydia turned away from the girl and looked to the recovering Doctor Fate, "Ghosts powers are strange, aren't they? You never know what situations they'll be useful in."

Mary let out a sob of joy as she hugged both Freddy and Box Lunch close.

Lydia smiled, "How about I show how my own abilities can be useful. After all, I tend to be more talented in destruction than healing."

* * *

"You…" Brother Blood smiled in a disgusting way, "Oh, I'm glad that you showed up. This will make it even better."

"Hmm…" Ace looked on distastefully at the cultists, "So you're Brother Blood. I heard rumors about you before I went to limbo for a bit. Based on what's going on here, though, it seems like those rumors were only the tip of the iceberg."

Looking to the exposed Raven, Ace frowned. With a wave of her hand, she used her telekinesis to bring the scraps of the demi-demon's clothes back up to her and melded the cloth together. With that done, she moved the girls behind her to keep them safe. She would have freed them if she had the time to focus on them, but it seemed like Brother Blood was not going to let her have that time.

Ace felt the fingers of Brother Blood's mental probes poke against her mental barriers. She had to admit that his mental probes were strong, but he was too arrogant. He expected to get the edge over her with ease. That was a stupid. Ace wouldn't fall easily.

She violently knocked the probes away. Before Brother Blood could get over his surprise, she sent out an attack of her own. His arrogant shields crumbled before her unforgiving attacks. She stabbed down into his mental plane multiple times. Several of his memories flashed before her eyes before Brother Blood recovered enough to push her out of his mind.

As the cultist stumbled back clutching at his head, Ace sneered at him, "Your mind is disgusting."

"Little girl…" Black energy flared around Brother Blood, "You just made a big mistake."

"You're right," Ace nodded, "I already regret going into your mind. I feel dirty. If brainwashing had a different definition, I'd want to do that."

"Cheeky brat. I'll tear your mind apart," Blood sent a giant wave of probes to Ace's mind. The young girl had to reinforce her mental barriers to stop the attack. She hissed out in pain as the strange dark energy from Nekron empowered Blood's own attacks, "I'll make you a doll."

Ace managed to hold her shields up even as blood began to trail down from her nostril, "You wouldn't be the first to try, old man. Trying to break me isn't a smart idea, though. Those that try tend to end up dead."

Blood smirked, "Fool. I have the power of death behind me. Such a threat—"

Blood stumbled back as Ace forced his probes away. As he righted himself, he realized that the rubble of his church was shaking. The source was the young woman whose eyes were beginning to glow. She gave a smile that terrified the man to his core.

"That's the thing, Blood. Even with Nekron's power, you're still weaker than me."

* * *

Black Bat stood on the top of a roof overlooking Gotham City, "Great. More reanimated dead people."

"Geeze," Nightwing looked at that giant robot that was stepping though the city. The center of the giant robot appeared to be a giant metal brain with eight extended legs jumping out of its sides, "Shiva. David Cain. Joker. Now the Brain? Why do we get so many enemies?"

"Gotham actually didn't get the worst of it," Ravage noted as she looked down at her phone which had a list of different events that were being blogged around the world. Not even the Apocalypse seemed to stop the Internet, "Metropolis had Nekron attack it…Amity Park's got invaded by Nocturne and an army of his Sleep Walkers…Happy Harbor's got a spaceship crashed into it…Jump City has—"

"Okay, I get it," Nightwing rubbed his temples, "I don't need to hear how all my friends are screwed."

"Agreed," Black Bat nodded, "We have our own problems to deal with first. How do we get past the Brain to get to the Zeta Tube?"

"That's a good question," Nightwing stroked his chin. Without the equipment from the Batcave, they had limited options, "Maybe we can get to Bar…Batgirl and ask her for a little tech help."

"I doubt the cripple girl can help with the giant robot," Ravager noted.

"What? How…"

"You kidding me? After finding out who you are, you don't think I wouldn't figure out who Batgirl is?" Ravager rolled her eyes, "Please. Batgirl disappears the moment after the Commissioner's daughter gets shot and crippled? It's pretty obvious, especially considering the same hair color."

Black Bat spoke up before Nightwing could argue, "Then we should probably focus on another plan. Heading towards Barb will only bring attention to her anyway. Do you think that we can use stealth to get past the Brain?"

"It depends if he has heat scanners or not," A new voice surprised the trio.

Ravage turned and smirked at the new figure, "The midget has a point."

"Hey! Who you calling midget!" Gizmo snapped at her. He landed next to her and disabled his jetpack, "I may be a little short, but I'm a man dammit! Respect that, or I'll change my mind about helping you!"

"Gizmo…" Nightwing stared at him, "I thought you were dead."

Gizmo scratched the top of his head, "Truth be told, I don't know what happened. The weird trumpet guy said that I was asleep. Woke up just in time for this shit."

Black Bat tilted her head to the side, "Trumpet guy?"

"Long story," Gizmo stated, "I'll tell you about it after I take care of the Brain. I've been waiting a long time to prove that I'm better than that French has-been."

"How will you do that?"

"Easy," Gizmo pressed a button on his gear, "I'm gonna tear his robot apart with a few friends of mine."

Metal spiders about the size of dogs began to crawl up from all around the city. The metal of the drones was painted green and black. There were wide white teethed grins on the head, and the eyes were green swirls. They all let out pre-recorded messages and childish courses from Gizmo.

" _Snot Brain!"_

" _Burger Breath!"_

" _Crud Flinger!"_

Ravage let out a low whistle, "You hid an army of drones in Gotham? That's impressive."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm too paranoid to keep my drones only in Gotham. I keep an army at the ready in every major city," Gizmo explained.

Nightwing couldn't believe it, "How did you pull that off?"

"Toasters. I replaced toasters in department stores periodically throughout the years. People just took them home and used them without questions. No one suspects a toaster. Not even Batman."

* * *

Jester smiled. His ectoplasm jumped with his joy as he sensed the happenings of the world. The tide was turning. He couldn't help his laugh of joy.

"Why are you so happy?" Poindexter asked bitterly. Despite his questioning, he did not look away from his keyboard. He was focused on extending his control and presence to all corners of the Earth. It still irked him that he was doing this instead of saving lives. If he was just allowed to do anything, then that poor young green boy…no, best not to think of it.

"The lost have reappeared," Jester noted, "It seems that Mal has succeeded."

"Good…that's some good news…" Poindexter had to admit that, "That should help."

"It will," Jester went back to focusing on the mirror in his chest, "Soon, everything will come to a head."

"You sure?" Poindexter glared at Jester, "What's stopping the Black Lanterns from turning the tide again? Plenty of people have died, including that Black Lantern. They could resurrect them if they wanted."

"You're underestimating my ability," Jester explained, "I've already halted that little problem. There will be no more new members to Nekron's army."

"I see…" Poindexter nodded, "That's good, because I got a feeling that Beast Boy won't be the only person we lose in these next few minutes alone. You better fulfill your role in this, Jester."

"Indeed. Because if I fail, we all die," Jester did not let his smile drop despite the grimness of his message, "But we should take joy in the moment. The war is finally in our favor."

* * *

Miss Martian stopped her crying as she heard the crunch of dirt behind her. It wasn't Zatanna. The magician was still dealing with the monster. That left only one person, and this person was more important than crying over Garfield right now. Revenge was more important than grief in this moment. She could cry once Madame Rogue was dealt with.

"What was it that you said to me back at the Sorcerer Initiative?" Miss Martian pushed herself up to her feet. She turned around to show her glowing green eyes to the mercenary, "I need to be more brutal to beat you?"

Madame Rogue looked pissed from the surprise flight she had just been sent on, "Zhat was zhen, little girl. Now I am a Black Lantern. You don't stand a chance."

"Physically, no, but physical fighting isn't my strong suit. I prefer mental battles," With that said, Miss Martian unleashed her full mental power against Madame Rogue. Unfortunately, the mercenary was ready for it this time. While not a telepath, she did develop a few mental shields to protect her. Keeping her mind safe was important considering her powers and career.

As her shield held against Miss Martian, Madame Rogue held up her ring and sent out a blast of black energy that smashed right into the alien's chest. To Rogue's shock, though, M'gann didn't even flinch. Miss Martian ignored the pain and the charred skin and took a steady step forward toward the assassin. Madame Rogue flinched as another massive strike rocked against her mental shields. She would have tried to heal the shields, but Miss Martian took another step forward and forced Rogue to focus on the physical world first.

Desperately, she sent out another blast of energy that would kill most normal men. Miss Martian just took the hammering blow and continued to step forward to the close to panicking Rogue. Another blow to her mental shields caused her head to ache in pain. This continued again a few more times.

After a while, Madame Rogue realized that this strategy wasn't in her favor. Her next attempt was to create a shade of Beast Boy to go and stop the Martian. Unfortunately for her, it didn't work. But…that couldn't be right. She knew that Beast Boy was dead, yet there was some kind of block happening to her ring. It was like some outside force was erasing the shade before it could materialize.

Hissing out curses, she rushed forward and grabbed onto Miss Martian before the alien could do another mental attack. Madame Rogue then used her powers of elasticity to wrap herself around Miss Martian. She then began to squeeze, strangle, and crush every part of the alien's body, even at the energy burns that M'gann had previously ignored.

Finally, Miss Martian was snapped back to reality from the pain. She cried out in agony and stopped her mental attacks. Madame Rogue smirked at that. She had won.

"Your mental powers impress, little girl," Rogue complimented, "But it's not enough to beat me."

As Madame Rogue began to literally choke the life out of Miss Martian, she extended her ring arm further so that it swung up and back down to point at the alien. A long black blade of energy extended from the Black Lantern ring. With a sense of satisfaction filling her chest, Madame Rogue brought her blade ring down to impale the Martian in the head. She didn't know a lot about the alien body, but Miss Marian's brain was definitely in the head area just like everyone else's. One solid stab would end the Martian witch once and for all.

From the beginning, there was no way for the Martian to win on her own. Rogue was just too powerful with her powers and her Black Lantern ring. Unfortunately for the assassin, in her struggle with Miss Martian, she forgot something. Miss Martian wasn't alone.

"Ekam reh ydob bmun!"

* * *

Pandora shuddered in pain. She stood defiantly in between Walker and Nyx. Her own arms were a charred and burnt mess as they held Walker's own corporeal arms still. Eventually, the searing energy from the limbs burnt through one of her limbs and caused the arm to tumble to the ground. That wasn't what hurt the most. No…What really hurt most…was the fact that Walker's attack had torn through almost half of her torso.

The Controller of Chaos gasped in agony. The left side of her body was barely there anymore. She only remained standing because Walker was there to prop herself up. As blood dripped from her mouth, Pandora stared into the gloatful eyes of Walker.

"You're too predictable," Walker sneered, "All of you. Your deluded sense of justice and morality won't let you follow the rules of existence. Rule number 1: Your own life matters more than anyone else's."

Pandora gasped and spluttered out even more blood, "Wrong…You're wrong…"

"M-Mom?" Nyx's tiny whisper weighed down on Pandora's shoulders. Of course this was the time when Nyx finally came to. It couldn't be any other time. Pandora immediately wanted to tell Nyx to run, but that wouldn't help. There was no way Nyx would abandon her.

"Oh! The girly's awake!" Walker laughed in sick glee, "That makes this even better."

"No…" Nyx's voice let out the smallest of sobs, "You can't…"

Pandora refused to look at Nyx. She couldn't turn away from her enemy, and she couldn't let go of Walker. Not yet. The fight wasn't over.

Walker leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry. You won't have to see your daughter suff—AAAAHHHH!"

Pandora twisted her head around to face Walker. She had bit down on his neck and pulled away. Flesh and blood sprayed from her actions.

Walker instantly dropped his enhanced arms and stumbled away. He clutched desperately at his new wound, "You bit—AAAHHH!"

Pandora stopped his words once more with a solid kick to the groin. As Walker knelt forward in an attempt to lessen his pain, Pandora desperately grabbed at him with one of her still remaining arms. With speed and accuracy that would make most Justice League members go wide eyed, Pandora pulled Walker's ring from his finger and threw it away.

No longer empowered by his ring, Walker instantly began to stumble in fatigue and dizziness, "You…"

Pandora punched him across the face, silencing him once more.

"Silence! I grow tired of your words!"

This time, Pandora grabbed onto Walker's arm and broke it at the elbow with a vicious twist to stop any chance of him calling the ring back.

"All you ever do is go on about rules you make up and how we're all fools for not following them, well guess what, Walker! Life isn't about rules…Justice isn't about rules!"

Pandora outstretched her arms and created her electrified spears once more.

"I have always been a creature of Order, but that doesn't mean I blindly follow the rules! Always question authority! Always evolve the system! Always show compassion and love! Always stand by what you believe in! That…" Pandora raised her spears up, "That is justice!"

With one last battle cry, Pandora brought her spears down on Walker. The electrified weapons stabbed deep into the former warden's flesh. He shouted out in pain as Pandora flared her energy and began to tear his body apart from the inside out. Walker desperately tried to do something, but he couldn't control his body correctly. All he could do was shake uncontrollably. To his horror, Pandora did not look like she was going to stop.

"What are you doing?!"

"Taking you with me!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Walker cried in agony as his insides were torn apart. His body quickly began dissolve. He tried to do something…anything to save himself, but he couldn't stop it if he couldn't even control his body. In seconds, the former warden's body completely gave out on him. Without ceremony or hesitation, Walker dissolved into a puddle of goo.

Off to the side, Walker's ring cracked and turned to dust. Another Black Lantern had fallen, but at a great cost…

* * *

"This is insane!" King cried out as he and his companion desperately dragged the unconscious body of Colossus through the battlefield. Green Lanterns and Nekron's monsters were fighting in one giant struggle. King had already almost been hit over a dozen times, "Why are doing this?"

"You heard the horn guy!" Jack shouted back. He whipped his helmet head over to his friend, "We need this guy to stop Nekron!"

"Yeah, but the horn guy could have stuck around for a minute to help us get out of here!" King argued, "Why couldn't he just help us first? Where did he run off to anyway!?"

"Who knows?! Just keep moving!" Jack hissed as he ducked under a blast of green willpower energy, "We need to get to Earth!"

"Geeze…" King shook his head, "Who would have thought that we would be helping a ghost like this? Life is strange, isn't it?"

"It is, and I would like to keep mine, so keep moving!"

* * *

Kid Flash could only move his eyeballs. Every other muscle in his body wouldn't respond to him. No matter what he tried, only his eyes obeyed his mental commands. As such, he could only watch as Clockwork appeared in front of his eyes. A few feet away from the speedster, the shade of the ghost looked on with a strange combination of curiosity and disappointment.

To Kid Flash's shame, his body was too tired to even let out one last quip in defiance of the situation. That was the ultimate defeat. To die without being able to get the last word out…Kid Flash couldn't think of a worse way to go. Granted, there weren't a lot of good ways to die, but he always hoped that he would eat himself to death.

Acceptance rushed through the speedster as he watched Clockwork's thumb reach up to press the button on his staff. As soon as that button was pressed, Kid Flash was dead, "Time out."

Kid Flash was expecting instant death. As soon as Clockwork touched that button to use that power, he was supposed to be able to move faster than anyone because he was literally frozen in time. Something was different this time, though. When Clockwork's thumb pressed down on the button, a small burst of energy spread out. It was probably something that happened every time, but this was the first time Kid Flash noticed it. In fact, he could literally feel it.

The burst of time energy spread out and flowed into his every pore. At first, that was all it was. Kid Flash still couldn't force himself to move. There was one odd thing that happened, though. Clockwork did not disappear.

Wally watched in confusion as Clockwork idly floated over to him. The ghost didn't seem to notice that his move had failed. Not like it mattered to the ghost. He could kill Kid Flash with ease no matter what. The time stop was only the icing on the cake. The frozen tumble weeds in the distance proved that.

…Wait…The tumble weeds were frozen? How? He thought that the time stop didn't work. If it did then, then why were his senses still working so well?

Kid Flash smiled as the realization dawned on him. He could feel his muscles regaining their vitality and movement. Electricity sparked off of him. Yes. He could work with this. It was time to show what he, and only he, could do.

As Clockwork brought his staff down at Kid Flash's head, he rolled away from the attack and jumped to his feet. He rushed forward with wide grin on his face. Before the Ghost of Time could react, Kid Flash slammed his fist across the ghost's jaw. The speedster continued this with a rapid combination that sent Clockwork reeling.

Kid Flash let out a laugh as he jumped back to avoid a swing of Clockwork's staff, "A little slow, aren't you?"

Clockwork's response was to send different blasts of ectoplasm out at Kid Flash. Said speedster dodged the attacks with ease. His speed was too great for Clockwork to match. In the blink of Clockwork's eyes, Kid Flash was in front of the ghost once more. In a blur of motion and electricity, Kid Flash hit him with a barrage of punches before knocking the ghost to the ground. Holding the ghost down with his foot, Kid Flash smiled.

"You didn't need to use that last time blast…you planned this didn't you, Clockwork?"

Clockwork let out a grin up at him, "Nekron isn't as smart as he thinks."

* * *

Spirit felt the ground collapse under her as she landed feet first onto the cement. She let out a deep breath and forced herself to ignore the long gash leading down her arm. Her Premonition screamed at her that Nocturne was following up with the next attack. She danced away from the area and got away just in time to avoid getting crushed by the ghost of sleep.

As soon as Nocturne landed, he pointed his ring at the halfa and knocked her away before she could react to her Premonition. Before he could follow up with another attack, Nocturne was stopped by Cyborg landing straight on his back. The metal man rammed his canon arm into the back of the ghost's head and unleashed a blast of sonic energy over his enemy's skull. This didn't even seem to faze the Black Lantern, though. The attack was only a minor tickle to him.

Still, Cyborg did not let up with his attack. He continued to fire his sonic canon at the ghost's head while holding on for his life with his other three injured limbs. His entire goal was to distract Nocturne long enough for Youngblood to get his sneak attack in from above them. Unfortunately, the Black Lantern wasn't going to fall for that. He reached back, grabbed ahold of Cyborg, and threw the dark skinned man at the other ghost. Luckily for Cyborg, Youngblood managed to stop his attack to catch his friend and not accidently cut him in half.

With that done, Nocturne brought his arm up to block a kick by Spirit. The halfa followed this up with several more kicks. Each attack was blocked with a single arm. This made Spirit curse. Her kicks were strong enough to break the bones of even ghosts. It was only because of that stupid ring that Nocturne was even able to endure their attacks. They had to get that ring off of Nocturne.

Twisting her body at an odd angle to dodge a blast of black ectoplasm, Spirit created three duplicates to distract the Black Lantern. Usually, the halfa girl didn't use this ability a lot. With how her mind worked, getting three other versions of herself to work in unison was a difficult task. As such, she saved the power for extreme emergencies where she could avoid dividing her power.

With Nocturne effectively distracted, she grabbed her friends and pulled them back to regroup, "Let's make this fast. My duplicates won't last long."

"Not to mention the Sleep Walkers. It's only a matter of time before they're done with the defense system," Cyborg reasoned.

"All the more reason to work fast," Youngblood agreed, "What do you got, Dani? How do we take him down?"

"It's kind of a weird thought and a bit of a long shot…" Spirit admitted.

"How many of our plans aren't long shots?" Youngblood argued.

"…Good point. None of our attacks are going to work as long as he's focusing that ring of his as a defense," Spirit held up a single finger and activated the Spectral Claw around it, "I got an idea of how to fix that, but I'm going to need you two to distract him long enough for me to get the jump on him. I'm going to make sure the ring isn't an issue."

Cyborg saw where she was going with this, "You'll only get one shot with this. If this fails…"

"It won't," Youngblood gained a determined look, "Don't worry, Dani, I trust you. Do what you have to do. I'll make sure that you get a clear shot."

* * *

Dusk placed a thick piece of bark into his mouth and pressed his back against the tree. He then pressed a glowing green hand against his bleeding side. His body was too exhausted to keep up his normal automatic Numbing ability. As such, he felt every one of his nerves flare in pain as he burned his wound shut.

He hissed through the bark. The wood cracked under the force of his teeth. After a few seconds of this, Dusk spit out the bark and removed his bloody hand away from the burn. Truth be told, he didn't really know the point of doing that. A quick look at his hand showed that his skin was dissolving. His stability had ran out with that last burst of ectoplasm. All he did was chose one death over another, but he couldn't stop himself from trying at least.

"Little halfa…" Aragon's voice sounded through the forest, "I know that you're dying. Why keep hiding? I'll give you a quick death instead of the slow burn you're feeling right now."

That was true. It would probably be smarter to choose the quicker death. Dusk just couldn't find it in himself to give himself up. It just wasn't in it him give up.

"Oh? Still some fight in you? Interesting. I thought you would have lost your will upon seeing your dead loved ones."

Aragon was wrong on that. Dusk was happy to see them again before he died. Having Greta so close again…feeling Cujo in his arms…Well, part of him wished that he went without knowing that Fright Knight was dead. Seeing the fake dissolve into a black blob was painful. The halfa wished that his last memory of the knight was more endearing than that.

"Hehehehe…" Aragon's smugness was clear, "Maybe one last push then?"

"Joel?" A woman's voice sounded from Aragon's location. Dusk didn't have a memory of ever hearing that voice, but he instantly knew who it was, "Son…It's time. Let's go. We can go together."

Dusk let out a hiss of anger. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles popped. The ectoplasm dissolving from his hand dripped down his fingers. This was pathetic. How dare Aragon use his mother!? If he could move, Duck would have punched Aragon in his arrogant face.

It was all fruitless, though. Aragon just wanted the satisfaction of killing him personally. Dusk wasn't going to give the dragon that. He would prefer just to dissolve here and now.

"Thou…thou DARES?!" Troia's voice sounded out. Dusk heard a roar of outrage as Troia did something to distract the dragon, "To use his deceased mother against him in such a way…it's an unforgivable sin!"

"Insolent little girl!" Aragon roared, "You dare lay your filthy hands on me?!"

The sounds of fighting broke out once more. Dusk took a shuddered breath. Troia's outrage for him was a nice farewell gift, "Thank you, Donna…"

Is that it? You're just giving up?

What? It was the voice again? Dusk thought that it was just Aragon trying to trick him back when he was fighting. Was it real, or was he hallucinating?

This is very real, young knight.

Dusk's eyes widened. Only one person called him that.

You are my successor. I will not let you die here. Reach forward.

Shaking, Dusk reached his half dissolved arm forward. He felt something weigh in the palm of his hand. It felt so familiar.

No pull. Unsheathe my gift to you.

Dusk did as instructed. In a blaze of green fire, Soul Shredder appeared in his hand. Just as this happened, a surge of energy rushed through his body. The ectoplasm from the blade reached into him and began to piece everything back together. In an instant, Dusk was stable once more.

"How…"

Did you not notice it before? How Soul Shredder reacted to you back during your previous battles against the demon cat and Trigon? The sword fills the user with power. You are its new master, and as long as you command the blade, it will not let you fall so easily.

Dusk's eyes filled with tears, "I…I won't dissolve? I'm…stable?"

Yes, young one. You are complete. A blurry image of the Fright Knight appeared before the halfa.

"Thank you…" Dusk whispered, "I just wish…I just wish this didn't have to come from your death."

I am content, young…Joel. I am happy for what I have accomplished…for what I have done with my life. Fright Knight raised his hands in joy. For I have had the honor to serve the greatest royal family in history! What more could I wish for?!

"More time…I have so much more to learn…" Dusk wiped the tears from his eyes.

And you will, with me by your side. Fright Knight explained. As long as Soul Shredder is with you, I'm with you. Even if only in spirit.

"Thank you…Thank you so much…"

You're welcome. Goodbye, my friend. Fright Knight knelt in front of Dusk and hugged the halfa. Now go. You have a dragon to slay.

With that said, the Fright Knight faded away for the final time. Soul Shredder burned in Dusk's hands. It lusted for battle and vengeance. Dusk was inclined to give it just that. With a roar, he took off to the sky. He soared to Aragon's location and swung the blade down on the dragon, drawing the ex-king's attention away from Troia.

"You can still fight?!" Aragon shouted in shock.

"No, you dragon bastard," Dusk smirked at him, "I can still win!"

* * *

Dark Dan fell face first onto the ground. He tried to force himself up, but he was stopped by a solid punch to the back of the head. His head instantly began spinning as a result.

" **Time's up,** " Nekron breathed out a chuckled, " **For you and everyone else…** "

Nekron turned around so quickly that the Flash would have done a double take. He took his scythe and instantly cut through the armor protecting Lex Luthor. The Reaper then grabbed unto the billionaire and threw him into a wall like the others. Luthor did not rise again.

Dark Dan, however, did…or at least he tried. Another punch by Nekron pushed the alternate Phantom down once more, " **Come on, Danny. I know you're smarter than this. Just give up, and your death will be painless.** "

"Idiot…You don't know anything…" Dark Dan spat out blood, "There is no such thing as 'give up' for me. Just lying down and letting you win…I'd rather lick the bottom of your foot."

" **That can be arranged,** " Nekron finished off Dark Dan with a vicious stomp to the head. The solid crack that followed showed that Dark Dan would not be getting up this time, " **You're more like your other self than you realize. Neither of you lose with grace.** "

A quick look around revealed that Nekron had finally taken care of everyone. There was no one left to stand in his way…Oh wait. He forgot. There was one more thing he had to do before he could finally end the farce known as Life. Turning to the large man that was kneeling by a wall, Nekron smiled.

" **Hello again, father.** "

* * *

"Ekam reh ydob bmun!"

The effect of Zatanna's spell was instantaneous. Every muscle in Madame's Rogue went numb. The blade coming down at Miss Martian's head veered off to the side, leaving the alien unstabbed. In addition, Madame Rogue's hold on M'gann went slack for a brief second. Rogue's Black Power Ring instantly worked to undo the spell. It only took a moment for the magic to be undone.

That second was all Miss Martian needed. Now free of Rogue's agonizing grip, she turned her glowing eyes back at the mercenary's head. In one final push, M'gann shattered Rogue's shields. Then, she entered the other woman's mindscape without hesitation.

What M'gann saw was a trash covered Paris, France. Flashes of past experiences flashed before the alien's eyes. A tiny little girl living on the streets. She used her special powers to silently steal what she needed to live until she learned her extra special power of copying how other people look. From there, Miss Martian saw how an innocent little girl who was just struggling to survive turned into a ruthless woman who would do anything to come out on top.

It was an odd thing to know the past of an enemy. After all, very few people were just plain evil. Everyone has a past, and the villain's past might just be tragic enough to explain so many things. For most people, a feeling of pity and sympathy would come out at seeing Madame Rogue's slow and steady descent into selfishness.

All M'gann saw was her brother's killer.

Miss Martian only needed one single strike to the mental plane to break Madame Rogue's mind. She wasn't about to let the villain get off that easily, though. She followed up with several more blows that shattered everything in Madame Rogue's mind. In a split second in real time, Miss Martian took everything that was Madame Rogue and turned it all into dust and ash. She left nothing left to even suggest a hope that the villain could recover.

As she exited the mindset, M'gann realized that she was holding Madame Rogue up by the neck. Rogue's still extended body lie uselessly below them like tangled rope. Blank eyes stared back at M'gann. Drool dripped down the side of the beautiful woman's mouth.

"Was that brutal enough for you, bitch?" Miss Martian hissed and dropped Madame Rogue onto the ground. The comatose woman did not move after that, even as the ring on her finger turned to dust.

Miss Martian turned and floated over to the cooling body of Garfield Logan. She passed a shocked Zatanna, "M'gann…what did you do?"

"I got justice for Gar…"

Zatanna looked over to the shell that was once Madame Rogue, "That doesn't look like justice."

Miss Martian didn't respond to that. She no longer cared about that. Instead, she gave into the injuries that she had ignored until now and collapsed onto Beast Boy's bloody chest. Unable to move anymore, M'gann just sobbed into the boy's chest and mourned the innocence that was lost.

* * *

 _Pandora collapsed forward. She would have landed straight onto the ground if Nyx wasn't there to catch her and hold her up. As this happened, the black dome around them dropped to reveal that two people had been trying to get into the battle area. Upon seeing that they were too late, though, Ten and Queen froze and could only look on in horror._

" _Mommy…" Nyx refused to let her mother hit the ground. Her mom was too great to be allowed to fall like that._

 _Pandora felt the tears run down from Nyx's face and onto her chest. She weakly raised a hand and gently petted her daughter's head lovingly, "My baby…"_

" _Y-You were amazing…" Nyx sobbed, "You beat a Black Lantern by yourself! You're the greatest, mom!"_

" _No…I only did so well because of you…" Pandora felt tears of her own run down her face, "You are my strength…You are my everything, baby girl…Thank you so much for being in my life…"_

" _Don't die!" Nyx demanded, "You're too strong to die!"_

" _No one is too strong to die, my precious child," Pandora quietly comforted her baby, "We all must continue our journey into the next world. Now is my time to move on…"_

" _But I need you!" Nyx cried out in protest, "Who is going keep me in order?! Who is going to encourage me to be my best?! Who…who's going to keep me from turning into another Klarion!?"_

" _You will, my love," Pandora kissed the top of Nyx's head, "You have your mother's strength of will. No one can overcome that. But don't try to blindly follow in my footsteps. You are not Order…you are not Chaos…You are Nyx. Be you, and you will always find your way through the dark times."_

" _Mommy…" Nyx clutched her mom tightly, "I love you…I love you so much!"_

" _And I love you, baby girl. More than anything."_

 _Nyx's loud sobs and cries continued to sound out through the area as Pandora dissolved in her arms. Once the Controller of Chaos was nothing but a puddle, Nyx finally allowed herself to collapse. She bowed her head to the ground and cried in mourning of her beloved mother. Even as Nekron's monsters appeared and the two nearby Royal Flush Gang members tried to fight them off, Nyx did not raise her head from the puddle of goo. Her grief was too strong for her to do anything else._

* * *

 **Next update: "Grow Up" on September 26, 2016**

 **Kudos to those that picked Beast Boy to be the one to die. Truth be told, I originally planned for Zatanna to die because I hated how so many DC characters seemed invincible in comparison to the ghosts. But it changed to BB when Zatanna's inability to have children story took off. Of course, that changed so many plans for me, but I made it work. Besides, considering how Garfield's Mom died, I thought this would be a good cycle. Plus, this will lead to an interesting side story for Desperation.**

 **And that wasn't even the biggest death scene. Pandora's death was one that I was planning since Obsession. I thought the match-up with Walker would be a good fit. My only regret is that I didn't get to show Pandora's full strength in battle until now. After all, she's the only person so far that's been able to take on a Black Lantern one-on-one. It was a fight that would lead to her demise, though. Her death will be a big influence on Nyx's development.**

 **I want to thank my new Beta jaguarspot for all her help on this chapter. So if you have any complaints about spelling and grammar, you can now direct it at her. I'm kidding of course. I also want to thank everyone that volunteered to Beta this story. The response was great, but I only needed one Beta for Conviction.**

 **Recently, I decided to add a chapter question in the end AN to get the discussion rolling. So...THIS CHAPTER'S QUESTION: Which death scene would you consider more emotionally pulling, Beast Boy or Pandora?**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	31. Grow Up

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

E. E. Cummings

* * *

Chapter 31: "Grow Up"

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Damon Gray raised his ectoplasmic shotgun and shot a Sleep Walker right in the face. He followed this up by turning and nailing another one of Nocturne's minions in the face with the butt of the gun. Holding the shotgun in one arm, he pulled out another ectoplasmic pistol from his hip and shot them in opposite directions. This time, his shots tore through two of Nekron's inky monsters.

This is what Damon had been doing for the entire crisis. As soon as he saw what Nekron had done to the Justice League, he knew that the end was here. So, he did the only thing he could. Damon took to the streets and began shooting every monster in sight. If he was going to go down, he was going to take as many of these creatures as possible.

It was ironic in a way. Damon remembered early in the Red Huntress's career when he monitored her guns and time spent as a vigilante. He often yelled at her for her liberal use of her ectoplasmic weapons. Now, he was in her place. Oddly enough, it made him feel closer to his daughter than he had felt in a long time…and soon he would be with her once more.

As a normal man with a few guns fighting a sea of monsters, it was only a matter of time before he was overtaken. Finally, after hours of luck and shows of skill, Damon got tripped up. His guns were knocked away, and he was tackled to the ground. In a matter of seconds, he would be torn apart.

Except that he wasn't. The weight above him disappeared. For a second, Damon thought that it was a trick. A few seconds without pain made him realize that something was up. The man jumped to his feet, ready to fight once more.

"I'm not here to fight you," Hotep Ra spoke to the surprised Damon Gray.

"You…"

"Yes. Yes. I've been through this three times already," Hotep Ra sighed, "Let's get this over with. Come with me if you want to live…or actually be able to contribute to the fight…or because you're bored. Or whatever. Just step into the portal."

With a wave of his hand, Hotep Ra created a black portal beside him.

"And why would I do that, Black Lantern?" Damon glared at the ghost, "You're part of the reason this is happening."

Hotep Ra sighed, "You know what…I'm done with trying to convince people. This is my last stop, and I just want to get this done."

"What do—Hey! Put me down!"

Hotep Ra picked up the regular man and tossed him through the portal of darkness. He then dusted his hands in satisfaction, "Now that was more like it. Time to finish this."

With that, Hotep Ra stepped through the portal to his destination. Like the other four people that he had taken through the portals before, the mummy ghost appeared right in the middle of Axion Labs. He then smiled at the people in the room. It was time to get to work.

* * *

Nekron stood in front of the kneeling Vandal Savage. He grinned down to the immortal man. Nothing he did personally to the man would leave any permanent damage, but that didn't mean he couldn't try at least.

"Do your worst," Savage hissed.

" **Oh, father, do you really think that I take joy out of hurting people?** " Nekron smiled in a mock version of affection, " **No. I take joy out of killing people. That's the purpose of my existence. It's the reason you created me.** "

"I never meant to create you," Savage snapped, "I was trying to better mankind, not bring its ruin."

" **And that's why I was created. There are so many sayings about it, no? Good intentions do not mean everything will work out,** " Nekron mentioned, " **You pushed past the boundaries. Humanity was not yet meant to have the power you tried to wield. It's a lesson that you haven't learned yet. Evolution cannot be forced forward. Death cannot be overcome so easily, no matter how much you want to get over this perpetual loneliness you feel.** "

Savage glared hatefully at Nekron, "Shut your mouth."

" **There it is. The exposed nerve,** " Nekron gained a wicked grin, " **Like with every human, you obsess over death…either others avoiding it, or you obtaining it. Living alone for 50,000 years must have been terrible, but don't worry. I'm going to put an end to that once and for all.** "

Nekron pointed his hand out towards the immortal caveman. Before Savage could speak, Nekron gathered energy into his hand. A blast of black energy shot out of the hand and covered Savage in a sea of black. In seconds, the man was disintegrated into dust by the dark energy. Almost nothing was left, but that didn't mean a lot. Nekron knew that Savage would reform sooner or later. As long as the Life Entity existed, Savage could not die, but that was going to change soon enough.

Turning, Nekron was surprised. He had dealt with all the villains and didn't feel any new energy signals in the room. Nevertheless, a new figure stood before him. In that moment, Nekron was impressed. No one had managed to actually sneak up on him since his fight against the Ghost King's court.

" **Well, isn't this a surprise? You were the last person I expected to stand in my way, Amorpho.** "

* * *

Kid Flash's face formed into a frown. He stared down at Clockwork, "Mind explaining to me why you let my girlfriend and friends get kidnapped by that sicko?"

"I suppose I could have rebelled, but it was impossible for me to predict what that timeline would lead to," Clockwork explained, "Blood would have immediately destroyed me. I was recreated with it after all. If I rebelled, he might have just destroyed your or the others' minds. This was safer."

"How so?" Kid Flash didn't even want to think about what Brother Blood was doing to his friends.

"The timeline where I followed Blood's orders allowed me to see what would happen," Clockwork noted, "Someone will save your friends before anything too bad could happen. I apologize, but it was the only real choice a man twice dead could make."

"So…They're safe?" Kid Flash's face relaxed a bit more.

"Well, I'm sure your friend Raven is more than a little angry and will need to talk about what she thought Blood was going to do, but…overall yes. They are all safe," Clockwork nodded.

"Thank God…" Kid Flash muttered.

"Can I get up now?" Clockwork requested.

"Huh? Oh, right," Kid Flash helped the ghost up.

"I apologize for being rough with you," Clockwork mentioned when he was finally up, "I had to push the Speed Force out of you, and that is no easy task."

"Right, the…Wait…" Kid Flash's eyes were wide as he noticed everything else was still frozen in time, "Damn! I can't slow down! Flash always worried about this, but I never got close to being that fast before…"

"Do not worry," Clockwork pointed at Kid Flash's chest. A cog symbol with a large C in the middle appeared at the center of the Speedster's chest. Almost immediately, time began to move forward once more for them, "I thought ahead."

"Woah…" Kid Flash watched as the symbol disappeared, "What did you do?"

Clockwork smiled, "Well, let's just say that I gave you a blessing. After all, the Observants and the Master of Time are dead now. Someone will have to look after the time stream."

Kid Flash's eyes widened, "What?"

"Don't worry. It's nothing too difficult. You'll know if something is amiss in the time stream is all," Clockwork explained, "You see, the Speed Force is not just the ability to run at incredible speeds. It is a Fourth Dimensional energy."

"Like…So I'm the DeLorean from Back to the Future?"

"Yes, except you need to go a lot faster than 88 miles per hour to run through time," Clockwork extended an arm forward and gently placed it on Kid's shoulder, "It will take a bit more practice, but you can now activate the Speed Force at will. Heed this warning, I have just gifted you with one of the greatest powers in the universe. You cannot abuse it, because there will be no one to stop you."

"Woah…That's heavy, man."

Clockwork burst out laughing, "Yes, yes, it is. But I trust you. You are one of Danny Phantom's closest friends after all. Just know that if you do run through time…it has consequences. Changing the past will have ripple effects, possibly creating a paradox. And knowing the future…well, let me tell you from experience that trying to avoid that future is the exact reason it happens."

"So I should only use the time travel stuff to protect the time stream? That's pretty epic. I kind of wanted to do a Quantum Leap thing, but if I can only do a Doctor Who thing…Well, who doesn't love Doctor Who?" Kid Flash grinned.

Clockwork shared the smile, "Indeed…Ah, it seems that Nekron's energy has recognized my rebellion. I have run out of time."

Kid Flash pointed at Clockwork, "Nice one."

"Thank you, but I was being serious. I only have a minute before I fade, so listen closely," Clockwork spoke to Kid Flash and gave him a location.

"There, huh…"

"Indeed," Clockwork nodded, "Be careful, though. Nekron has shown that Death can trump time."

"I'll be careful."

"Good. Now go. Don't worry about me. I'll be gone soon enough."

Kid Flashed turned to run away, but paused, "How come you kept your memories?"

"Transferred my consciousness through time," Clockwork shrugged, "Standard for me really. Nekron really should have seen it coming."

Kid Flash snorted, "I can see why Danny thinks so highly of you. Bye, Clockwork, and thanks. I'll make sure to use these powers right."

With that, Kid Flash disappeared in a burst of speed so great that Clockwork could barely keep track of it. Shaking his head, the Master of Time looked off to the distance and took in the beauty of nature once more before fading one final time.

"That's if you have the will to use them at all. I hope you remember my warning. Changing the past is dangerous."

* * *

As Dusk brought his sword down, Aragon formed his armor once more. Soul Shredder bounced off the black energy armor, and Dusk was forced back. He was then forced to lunge sideways as Aragon brought his massive tail towards the halfa.

"Win? You think you can win!?" Aragon snarled at the youngest half-ghost, "Mere seconds ago you were on death's door!"

Dusk landed and smirked up at the dragon, "Don't you know? Half-ghosts are at their strongest when Death is near."

Snarling, Aragon slapped his massive wings and rocketed up into the air. Once he was a good distance into the air, he looked back down to see both Dusk and Troia chasing after him. Just like he wanted them to do. Opening his large jaws, the dragon began charging up fire into his mouth from his stomach. The heat was so intense from the flames that even Aragon felt his mouth blister up and burn.

Oddly enough, neither of the Young Justice members seemed bothered by the charging attack. They continued their flight upward undeterred. This suited Aragon fine, though. It only made it easier to incinerate the pathetic ants below him.

After a few seconds of charging up his flames, Aragon unleashed his built up attack. The largest wave of flames the former king had ever created flooded out of his mouth. Fire spread out so wide that it was impossible for either of the young heroes to dodge. Aragon was certain that his enemies were as good as dead. Fortunately, for the heroes, he was wrong.

The former king's flames parted as soon as it was about to hit the heroes. Then, to Aragon's shock, the fire then turned around to slam into him. If he hadn't been blinded by the attack, he would have noticed that both Torch and Ember had recovered. Using their bond and teamwork to their advantage, they had joined hands and used every bit of pyrokenisis they had to manipulate the dragon's flame to their advantage.

Just as Aragon dismissed the flames around him, the bottom of his jaw was smacked upward by a long arc of green energy. When he saw that Aragon was distracted, Dusk stopped his ascent and swung his blade to create that arc of energy. With the dragon now reeling, Troia went on the offensive. Having continued her flight upward, she took her Lasso of Truth and wrapped it around Aragon's snout, effectively gagging the dragon to prevent him from speaking or breathing fire once more.

With an anger flaring through his mind, the former king tried to swipe the Amazon away. Like a fly in his eye, though, Troia flew away. In fact, she flew a long distance away. It was almost like she was trying to get clear of an explosion.

"RRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR!"

Pain flared through Aragon's body as Dora crashed into him and dragged him downward. She desperately clawed and bit at his armor, effectively tearing away at his defenses. Even as they crashed, Dora did not relent. Instead, she continued her barrage.

"I'm sorry, brother!" Dora cried, "But this is what you deserve!"

* * *

Nocturne raised a shield to stop a barrage of missiles that shot from Cyborg's shoulders. The ghost was surprised by the sheer number of rockets from the launcher. It seemed like the man was unleashing an entire arsenal uselessly at the Black Lantern. Was it a desperate attempt to actually hurt Nocturne? Probably not. It was obviously a distraction.

Turning around, Nocturne raised his arm to block a sword swipe by Youngblood. He then continued to block the follow up strikes while holding up his energy shield. Rolling his eyes, Nocturne flared his energy. His shield then burst out through the remaining missiles and then smashed Cyborg away. At the same time, Nocturne shattered Youngblood's sword.

Still, Youngblood did not relent. He charged forward with his hook transformed into a small ectoplasmic canon. Several shots rammed into Nocturne's chest while Youngblood's fist smashed into the other ghost's face. Unfortunately, Nocturne had focused he energy back to working complete defense. All of Youngblood's attacks knocked uselessly against the Ghost of Sleep's body.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice?" Nocturne grabbed Youngblood's unhooked arm and held him in an arm bar in a way that Nocturne's ring finger was pointed right up at the descending Spirit. Said halfa girl did not slow her decent at all. She continued to charge forward with one single Spectral Claw activated, "I learned from my last attacks on Amity Park. Never take your eye off of Danielle Masters."

"That's true. I knew I couldn't take your attention away from her. But I knew you wouldn't notice the most important detail of this fight," Youngblood struggled against the arm bar, but nothing he could do would allow him to exit the hold without breaking the arm, "I got nothing left to lose."

Just as Nocturne was about to fire a blast of energy from his ring at Spirit, Youngblood pointed his hook canon at his other arm. In a blaze of green, he shot through his own arm to Nocturne's chest. Because the Black Lantern had focused his energy into attacking, his defenses actually fell. Thus, shocked at Youngblood's unexpected move, Nocturne was knocked completely off balance.

Ignoring his dead arm, Youngblood turned and lunged at Nocturne. The ghost of youth surprised the other ghost once more by biting into Nocturne's ring arm. Youngblood then pulled the arm with his teeth and extended the limb out as far as it could go. This left a completely open arm for an attack.

Spirit was ready to take advantage. Having not slowed her decent even a little through the fight, she was already ready to strike. Her trust in Youngblood let her get in the perfect attack. In one perfect motion, she thrusted her Spectral claw forward to Nocturne's ring finger. With perfect precision, she cut straight through the finger. The dismembered appendage tumbled to the ground along with the Black Power Ring that was set around it.

"OOOWWW!" Nocturne shouted out in his outrage and pain, "My ring! I can't—AAAHHH!"

Cyborg silenced Nocturne with a blast of sonic energy. This caused the Ghost of Sleep to arc in pain. Without his defenses, the ghost was now completely vulnerable to attacks. The others quickly took advantage. In a show of brutality, Youngblood lunged away while holding his bite causing skin to tear and blood to spray. As this happened, Spirit flipped over and punched Nocturne in the jaw.

As Nocturne fell, Spirit flipped over. Without hesitation, she brought her other leg over and smashed it over Nocturne's head. Like many years ago, Nocturne smashed into the concrete of Amity Park with a horn breaking off his head. In a sickening sense of déjà vu, Nocturne looked up to see an angry half ghost staring down at his defeated form. This time, though, there was no Clockwork to interfere.

* * *

Undergrowth roared and latched his vines around Vortex's body. He desperately tried to tame the storm that was crashing against him. Despite the roaring winds and the freezing rain, Undergrowth refused to release other ghost of nature. At the same time, Vortex could not force himself free despite all his struggles.

With an angry growl, Vortex sent out a surge of electricity through his limbs. The lightning smashed into the plant covering him and instantly blasted the vines off of him. Despite his body being covered in flames, Undergrowth refused to move back. His body regenerated faster than it burned.

Not deterred by this, Vortex tried the same strategy but only got the same result. Flames and electricity couldn't overcome Undergrowth's regeneration. This only angered Vortex even more. Snarling, he switched his tactics. He took a deep breath before letting out a roar of ice and snow.

This tactic actually managed to slow Undergrowth down. The vines and branches reaching out to Vortex froze over. As Vortex was smirking at his small victory, he roared in pain as roots stabbed into his back. Electricity instantly disintegrated the roots, but the damage was done. Black blood oozed from his back.

Sneering at the pain, he followed where the roots came from. Vortex then realized what Undergrowth's greatest weakness really was. All of his plants originated from the islands below him. The plant ghost needed the earth for him to continue regenerating.

Vortex let out a cackle. With a wave of his hand, the ghost of the storm unleashed a dozen of concentrated twisters to cut through the islands below the two giant ghosts. Each of the islands shattered into smaller chunks of rocks. This did not stop Undergrowth's roots, though. The ghost's roots and vines instantly spread out to hold the chunks of earth and connect them together.

Before Vortex could react to this, Undergrowth managed to free himself from his icy prison. He punched the storm ghost across the face and tried to go on the offense once more. With one more snarl, Vortex went on a counterattack, exchanging blows with Undergrowth that seemed to shake the entire Ghost Zone.

Both ghosts of nature quickly realized that they were at a standstill. Neither of them was going to defeat the other any time soon. It would take hours before their abilities to cancel each other out became exhausted. For Undergrowth, that was time that he didn't have.

From what the plant ghost understood, there was still Nekron to deal with, and they were running out of time. He needed to finish this quickly, but that wasn't going to happen on his own. Luckily, Undergrowth knew that he wasn't alone in this fight. The loud sound of the horn that bellowed through the raging storm around him proved it.

* * *

Ace never had a real challenge in her life, at least mentally. Physically, she was at the weak end of the spectrum. Mentally, though, she was a titan. From the moment of her birth, she was nearly unmatched, and that made her family afraid, even her once beloved sister. Maybe that was why her sister betrayed her. Fear...It was such a strange motivation. Before the experiments, Ace never would have thought about using her powers to hurt people.

Now, it was all she thought about.

What made things worse was the fact that the experiments only amplified her powers. By the end of the Light's little games, Ace was completely unbeatable. Oddly enough, they weren't afraid then. They thought that they had control over her. That was why they tried to use her to help destroy Amity Park. All it took to break that control was a simple look of love and a few sympathetic words.

So, Ace went out into the world unchained and unmatched in terms of mental abilities. Even after all these years of searching for ways to hurt the Light, she had yet to find one single individual that could withstand her strength, until today. Brother Blood had to be the single greatest challenge Ace had ever faced.

Once they found their ground in their mental battle, very little happened on the physical plane. On the psychic plane, though, things were as chaotic as it could get. In between their mind's shields, the two telepaths waged a war between each other. They quickly traded blows that their minds interpreted as soldiers rushing into each other.

The warriors were cutting each other apart. Normally, Ace's probes would tear Brother Blood's offense apart. It was the Black Lanterns ring that made it so that Blood was actually a challenge. Ace could feel the dark energy flooding in to empower the psychic soldiers. That was all that was giving Blood's attacks the chance to match Ace's power.

Another flood of energy surged into the mental plane. Ace thought at first that the cult leader would try to strengthen his soldiers further. To her surprise, though, he did no such thing. Instead, he created a giant the size of a skyscraper. Made completely of black energy, the titan easily tore through Ace's army with a few strikes of its massive fists. It then began to beat against Ace's mental barriers.

In real life, Ace flinched back from each blow. After several different strikes, she collapsed to one knee with blood absolutely pouring from her nose. Brother Blood could only smirk at that and continued his attack. He could literally feel Ace's barriers crack more and more with each blow.

'Where is your bravado now, little girl? I thought you were supposed to be the best.'

'I am.'

'Really? Then why are you about to lose to me?'

'Because dividing my attention between undoing your mental locks and fighting you cut my power in half.'

'Undoing my mental locks—AAAAAAHHHH!"

A sharp piece of rubble stabbed itself into Brother Blood's hand. As oozing blood seeped from the hand, the Black Lantern saw that the girls that had previously been comatose were now awake. Artemis, who no longer had her bow, still used her skills in accuracy to pelt Blood with sharpened rocks.

It was this distraction that led to Blood's doom, though, because while he was distracted, Ace had officially turned all of her full attention right at Blood's mental soldiers and giant. They never stood a chance.

* * *

Gizmo zoomed over the city. His jetpack propelling him high above even the rooftops. He had long since left the others behind him. Well, more like that they left him behind by disappearing into the shadows and heading to wherever their dumb Zeta Tube was. Stupid ninja stuff. No matter how much he tried, Gizmo couldn't figure out how they just disappeared like that.

Well, not like it really mattered or he needed their help. Gizmo could handle the Brain. Having them try to help was just variables that he couldn't account for right now. Besides, he always wanted to one up the French inventor.

As he drew closer to the giant walker, Gizmo saw that the large machine's weapon defenses were already working against his drones. Luckily, his drones were holding their own and distracting the weapons system from his approach. Slipping past the fighting machines and crumbling metal, Gizmo landed on an open space of metal.

Humming out nonchalantly, Gizmo pointed his wrist watch at the steel of the walker. He began to cut through the metal in a circular motion. Even as a gun popped up behind Gizmo and pointed itself at him, Gizmo just calmly continued to cut through the walker. Instead, a canon popped up from Gizmo's backpack and destroyed the enemy gun before it could get off a shot.

Once the opening was created, Gizmo jumped in and quickly made his way to control room. He was instantly met with a gorilla with a machine gun. Monsieur Mallah opened fire and caused Gizmo to activate his jetpack to get out of the line of fire. Zooming around the room, the diminutive young man pointed his laser watch at the gorilla and shot the animal in the hands.

With a roar of pain, Monsieur Mallah dropped his gun and held his hand in pain. Knowing that the animal was just a fake, Gizmo used his backpack canon to shoot the ape in the head and caused Mallah to dissolve into black goo. With that done, Gizmo turned to the Brain who was at the control center of the walker. Different guns jumped off the brain's mechanical body, but that didn't matter. Gizmo didn't even try to dodge as the weapons began to charge up.

All at once, everything in the walker went dead. Even the Brain's rolling container turned off. Chuckling, Gizmo landed and walked over to the Brain, "All my drones were hacking your systems during the fight. Pretty cool, huh? If you weren't just a fake following orders, this probably would have been harder."

Without his rolling container to speak for him, all the Brain could do was float silently in his rounded jar. Even as Gizmo's backpack canon turned to him, the Brain could do nothing. In a blaze of energy, the scientist was disintegrated just like he was during the Sorcerer Initiative.

Gizmo scoffed, "Really wish I could have fought the real you. That way we could really see who the better inventor was. It's such a shame."

* * *

Lydia turned her body to avoid the golden blast of energy being sent at her by Doctor Fate. She moved just enough to avoid getting hit. The beam was so close that it actually warmed her cloak. Just as the golden energy passed her, Lydia rushed forward to punch Doctor Fate in the face. He reeled from the blow, but Lydia wasn't given the chance to capitalize.

Golden light blasted off of the death shade and forced the ghost to fly back. As she landed, she created a shield to block the follow up blasts of energy. With smoke rising from her shield, Lydia immediately lost sight of her enemy. Quickly dispatching the smoke, Lydia realized that Doctor Fate had disappeared.

Not knowing where he would come from, Lydia whirled around while bringing her guard up. She was too slow, though. Doctor Fate knocked her back with a punch of his own. He then trapped her in a large golden ank just like he did to the now recovering Box Ghost and Lunch Lady. With her now trapped, the shade went to finish the woman when she suddenly burst into her living tattoos, revealing that she was a fake.

As Doctor Fate tried to swat the creatures away, the real Lydia burst form the ground from behind the fake Lord of Order. She smashed him to the ground and began to violently smash her elbow against the back of his golden helmet. Unlike the real Helmet of Fate, the fake was not nearly as indestructible. Each blow caused new cracks to form and spread across the golden steel.

In a blur, Doctor Fate turned and threw Lydia away. He then sent another, even larger beam of golden magic at her. The attack didn't even get to her, though. Lydia's living tattoos had jumped in the path of the attack and took the blow without question or command from their creator.

Frustrated by how this fight was going, Doctor Fate turned his attention back to the downed children and ghosts. They were Lydia's weakness. If he attacked them, then Lydia would be pushed to the defense. With a nod, he rocketed towards the vulnerable heroes.

A sudden lack of energy and surge of pain caused him to crash to the ground before he could get close to his targets. The fake Doctor Fate flailed about in agony. He desperately scratched at his helmet. All of his power was drained as the cracks on the helm expanded. It wasn't because of Lydia striking him this time, though. No…

Some of Lydia's tattoos had worked their way underneath the Helmet of Fate.

* * *

Aragon grunted into his Lasso of Truth muzzle. He couldn't voice his displeasure with words, and he couldn't use his flames. So only the grunts and smoke rising from his nose could signal what he wanted to express. Dora had already tore through most of his armor and was now clawing at his back.

Once more filled with rage, he flung his sister off of his back. Dora went rolling away, but in her last moment of defiance, she took Aragon's chest plate with her. At the same time, Aragon stumbled up. The pain from the cuts and bite marks on his back stopped his concentration and prevented him from reforming his armor. Just as he stood up, though, he found himself flipped onto his back.

Troia had grabbed onto his tail and used all of her strength to flip him over and onto his back. She then held her the tail down to the ground to prevent him from using it. Just as Aragon was about to reach down to grab her, his arms were pinned as well. Ember created a sound chain to hold down his un-ringed arm. At the same time, Torch impaled Aragon's ringed arm with his scythe and held it down.

Before Aragon could question what they were doing, he looked up and saw a descending Dusk. His eyes widened as he saw Soul Shredder pointed right at his chest. Panic jumped through the dragon. With his hand impaled, he couldn't reform his armor. He was completely vulnerable…No. He still had one last play. There was still a minion that he had placed on the sideline when Troia appeared.

Dusk's eyes widened when the figure of his mother appeared in his path. While he didn't remember the woman, he had looked at her picture enough to recognize her anywhere. Pleading eyes looked up at him.

"Please, Joel. You're not a killer. You can't—Gack!"

Without hesitation, Dusk impaled his mother through the chest with Soul Shredder.

"You aren't my mom," Dusk hissed at her, "My mother would respect my choices."

As the fake woman dissolved, Dusk continued to thrust his sword forward. He then thrusted Soul Shredder into the chest of the dragon. The blade stabbed right into the former king's blackened heart. Aragon roared in pain for a brief second before his body disappeared with a pop.

All the people holding Aragon down stumbled as the weight disappeared. Torch was the first to speak up as he watched the massive Black Lantern ring that was once on Aragon's finger disappear into black smoke, "What just happened?"

"Soul Shredder sends whoever it cuts to a dimension of their own fears. Aragon is alive, but he's probably wishing that he wasn't," Dusk held up Soul Shredder up to examine it. It seemed that he had finally found his alternative to killing. With Soul Shredder in his hands, he could use lethal force without ever having to worry about actually killing people.

'Thank you, Fright Knight. I promise to use your gift wisely.'

* * *

As she stared down at Nocturne's broken body, Spirit's Premonition shouted at her. There was oddly no intention the air. Nocturne was too in pain to have such coherent thoughts. Still, the warning singed out about the Power Ring. It was about to soar off the severed finger and try to take the halfa out. Perhaps there was a natural intention in the ring from Nekron's orders to make sure the halfas died, or maybe she actually predicted a bit of the future. Either way, she knew it was coming.

Flaring her Spectral Claws, Spirit turned in a whipping motion. In a single motion, she brought her hands together to make one giant blade that instantly cut the ring in half. Said ring quickly disappeared into a cloud of black smoke. Spirit then looked back down at Nocturne. She glared down at the ghost in anger for everything he had done.

"Looks like I lose. Kill me if you must…" Nocturne grinned, "But that doesn't mean you win."

A low rumble turned everyone's attention away from Nocturne. During their fight, they managed to get towards the edge of the city. As such, when they turned, they were looking onto a sweeping view of all the city. To their horror, the Sleep Walkers had finished off with the defense system and were now turning their heads toward them.

"Even if I die, my Sleep Walkers won't fade until they are killed personally," Nocturne sneered in satisfaction, "They will tear you limb from limb."

In a rage, Spirit raised a Spectral Claw and pointed it at Nocturne's head. Just as she was about to bring it down, she paused. Shaking her head, Spirit dismissed her Spectral Claws and knocked Nocturne out with a solid punch to the head, "I've got the feeling that enough people have died today."

"I got a feeling that the body count isn't over yet, though," Youngblood clutched his arm and watched as a sea of green formed over the city.

"We can't fight them," Cyborg was kneeling on a single knee, "We're all exhausted and hurt. I doubt that we'll last a minute."

"Well, we can't run either," Spirit argued as she turned around and by Youngblood to look at the Sleep Walkers, "Those things will catch up fast. Not to mention we'll be leading them right to Axion Labs."

"So we need a miracle, aye?" Youngblood looked down to his bloodied arm.

Spirit caught notice of that, "How is it?"

Youngblood sighed, "It's numb…I'm numb…"

"That can't be a good sign," Spirit looked from Youngblood back to her boyfriend. She took in their injured forms for a second before gaining a determined look, "Run. I'll hold them off as long as I can."

"No!" Cyborg argued, "You really think I'll leave you?! We're in this together."

"That wasn't a request," Spirit turned back to the swirling sea of Sleep Walkers, "I was already reminded of the people I had to watch die. I refuse to go through that again. So go. I'll die happier knowing that I at least gave you a chance."

Youngblood stepped behind her. He nodded, "Okay…We won't make you watch…Thank you, Dani…for everything."

"You don't—AAAHHH!" Spirit screamed out in pain as Youngblood rammed a stun gun hook into the back of her neck. After a few seconds of trembling, she collapsed. The ghost of youth quickly caught her before she could hit the ground. With his one working arm, he carried her over to Cyborg and held her out for the other man to take.

"Take her and run," Youngblood ordered.

With an angry snarl on his face, Cyborg reached out and grabbed Youngblood by the coat. He pulled the ghost close and glared at his friend, "Do you really think that I would leave you? You're my friend, Chuck! It's been that way since we met! No matter how old either of us gets…"

Youngblood gave Cyborg as saddened look, "But I was never meant to get older, Vic. You know that. I've broken the seal too many times."

"But Dani won't accept—"

"She already picked you," Youngblood silenced Cyborg with that sentence, "Not that I ever stood a chance. I won't pretend that you don't know. It was obvious to everyone but her. I'm fine with that, though. That's why I stepped aside."

"Chuck…"

"Keep her safe. Please. She is what matters here," Youngblood took a shuddered breath, "Please…if you love her like I do…take her and don't look back. Let me give myself for her. That's my last wish."

With a tear running down his one human eye, Cyborg released Youngblood's coat and gently took Spirit from his arms. He then stood and slowly began to take a few steps back, "I…Thank you…"

"You're welcome," Youngblood turned away to face the now approaching see of Sleep Walkers, "Now go!"

Cyborg ran away as fast as he could leaving his old friend behind him. Shuddering out breaths, he held his girlfriend close. No matter what, he would get her to safety.

…For Youngblood…

* * *

Vortex's eyes widened as a large portal opened behind him and began to suck his body into it, "NO!"

The storm ghost tried to move forward away from the portal but ran into a fist from Undergrowth. Roaring despite his body being torn apart, he tried to push his foe forward to the portal. Vortex tried to fight against him, but it quickly proved fruitless. The combined assault from the front and behind was too much for him. He couldn't concentrate on what to fight against, so he quickly pushed into the portal which immediately closed behind him.

As Undergrowth breathed out in relief, the storm that had raged across the Ghost Zone quickly came to an end. The clouds faded away with the rain. Once roaring winds calmed down into nothingness. A thick silence spread through the space signaling the end of the battle.

Another roar of the horn allowed Mal and Bumblebee to step into the free space in front of Undergrowth. Said ghost immediately addressed them, "Thank you for your help, flesh sack. Although I wanted to prove that I am the better master of nature, I don't believe we have time for that."

"No, we don't," Mal shook his head, "We have a big time limit here."

"Where exactly did you send him, Mal?" Bumblebee questioned, "What if he comes back? Or the Nekron guy you mentioned bring him back?"

"I doubt it," Mal shrugged, "I sent to him to a dimension with no atmosphere. He's dissolving as we speak."

"Jeeze…That's harsh…" Bumblebee looked pale.

"Do not think of that shade as a real sentient being, bug girl," Undergrowth noted, "He is effectively your meat bag's idea of what a zombie would be."

"Oh…"

"Don't worry," Mal placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I won't let my new powers be used the wrong way. In fact, I don't think I can considering how they work."

"I wasn't worried, babe," Bumblebee gently traced her fingers across his jawline, "You'll still be my Mal no matter what."

Before they could revel in the moment, Undergrowth gagged, "Still here. Can we move on before all life in the universe dies?"

"Right," Mal nodded, "I need to do a few pick-ups before we can move forward. Not to mention getting Karin's suit fixed."

Bumblebee raised an eyebrow, "And how do you plan to do that? It would take hours to fix the power shortage issue."

"Oh, I think I can find a way. Let's go talk with Poindexter."

* * *

As soon as Brother Blood's focus dropped, Ace went on the attack. In an instant, a wave of mental energy swept over their telepathic battlefield. Instead of destroying the enemy soldiers, the psychic waves began to change Blood's mental warriors. When they touched the wave of energy, the soldiers shook and changed from pure black to a more violet color. A large 'A' was stamped over the changed soldier's foreheads.

With all the smaller soldiers controlled, Ace turned her attention to Blood's telepathic giant. Like before, Ace concentrated her mental powers into energy blasts. This time, though, she formed them into concentrated beams. In seconds, the beams cut through the titan and changed it into Ace's minion just like the soldiers below its feet.

Now having complete control over Brother Blood's own soldiers, Ace turned them against their previous master. The army rushed at Blood's mental barriers. Unlike with Ace's shields, which held up no matter what, Brother Blood's psychic shield shattered within moments of the initial assault.

In the physical world, Ace tilted her head up and telekinetically lifted Blood into the air. She now had complete control over everything that was Brother Blood. If she wanted to, the Royal Flush Gang leader could destroy her opponent both physically and mentally, and she really wanted to. Brother Blood represented everything wrong with the world. If anyone deserved death, it was him.

But…

Ace imagined Lydia looking kindly at her. She remembered the stories she heard of Freakshow, a man that grew into a monster. Yet he was shown mercy and kindness by Danny Phantom and the Phantom Family. Of course, they were good people and Ace wasn't, but…

" _Andromeda, you can't grow into a monster,_ " _Lydia warned the girl, "You're better than that."_

Ace didn't think so, but…With a shake of her head, she focused on Blood. He screamed in pain for a brief few seconds before being dropped. He fell without a Black Lantern Ring, though. Eye narrowing at the dark jewelry, Ace crushed the Black Lantern Ring into dust.

"Gah…" Brother Blood stumbled to his feet. He clutched desperately at his head, "What…what did you do?"

"I destroyed what gave you your powers. No more telekinesis. No more telepathy. No more brainwashing."

"No…" Brother Blood hissed out in horror.

"Yes. Now, you're just a normal man," Ace turned away from the man. He wasn't her problem anymore, "And you're surrounded by a group of really pissed and super powered women."

"Oh no—WWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Brother Blood screamed in agony as Raven viciously brought her leg up and kicked him as hard as she could between his legs. He dropped to his knees clutching his groin desperately while making an odd squeaking noise that reminded the women of a dying animal. Before Blood could even process what was really happening, Raven punched him mercilessly across the head and knocked him out.

"That felt good," Raven noted as she shook her hand. She really wasn't used to actually punching people.

Rocket stepped up to the girl and gently placed a hand on her soldier, "Are you okay? With what happened…"

"Nothing really happened," Raven argued, "So it could be worse. Don't worry, I won't just try to ignore this, but right now, we have to deal with the apocalypse."

"Yeah…" Artemis nodded and looked over to Ace who was looking off into the distance, "Why didn't you just kill him? You've done it to people who deserved it less."

"The same reason that Raven didn't kill him, I suppose," Ace gently brushed her fingers across her forehead. She could almost feel the tumor that hid itself in her skull, "I didn't want to die a monster. Besides, I think this is a better punishment. Living the rest of your life without your most unique gift…That's a fate worse than death in my mind. Especially because he's going straight to Belle Reve. I'm sure the people in there will treat the rapist cult leader real nice."

* * *

After finishing the Brain off, Gizmo quickly found the people he viewed as weird ninjas on a rooftop. As he landed next to them, he noted that a red haired woman in a wheelchair was with them, "Who's she? Did you save her from being crushed or something?"

"No," Barbara shook her head, "I was waiting for these slowpokes. They took their sweet time getting to the Zeta Tube."

"How did you sneak through all that anyway," Nightwing questioned, "Especially without…you know…"

Barbara smirked, "Trade secret."

"Not like it mattered," Black Bat noted, "Zeta System is down. We're stuck here."

"Well, we could just wait for the guy that dropped me off here," Gizmo shrugged, "He did say that he'd be back."

Nightwing raised an eyebrow, "And you didn't tell us that before?"

"You never asked," Gizmo snorted, "Besides, you seemed dedicated to getting to your little Zeta Tube. I wasn't going to argue with you."

Ravager was amused, "So…I'm guessing that you're going to ask for a kiss reward for your help?"

"Well…" Gizmo scratched his shaved head, "I kind of think that I might have a girlfriend now. Or maybe not. She did express interest, but it was a kind of 'Oh no, we're gonna die' sort of thing. I want to clear things up with her first because she could literally melt my brain. Can I put a pin in that offer?"

"Nope. One time offer."

"Damn."

* * *

Lydia walked with dignified grace as she approached the downed Doctor Fate. It seemed like her plan had worked. With each passing second, Doctor Fate spasmed more desperately and clutched at his helmet which was now covered completely in cracks, "I didn't know if that would work. Probably wouldn't have with the real Doctor Fate, but while you have the power, you lack his durability."

Taking no pleasure in the shades' agony, Lydia mentally ordered her tattoos to end it. Several of the little creatures burst from the helmet. Said golden helm crumbled to the ground and turned to dust. This left an old man in a suit that Lydia recognized. Freakshow once tried to kidnap this old man and use the Helmet of Fate to unlock the hidden power of the Reality Gauntlet.

The tired form of Kent Nelson looked up at her. Lydia instantly took pity on the man. She pointed her hand at him and destroyed him in one large green blaze, "Rest now."

With the fight now over, Lydia turned to her injured and resting allies. They looked relieved to see that they were safe. Lydia eyed the now upward sitting Freddy, "Are you okay, child?"

"Yeah…I'll live," Freddy glanced at Mary who was rubbing his back and crying into his shoulder, "It's okay, Mary. I'm fine."

"Y-Yeah…" Mary sniffed.

With a small smile, Freddy turned to the giggling Box Lunch. The young girl was being hugged by her mother, "And thank you, little angel."

"Yeah! Angel!"

Happy to have his family safe, Box Ghost stood and extended his hand out to Lydia, "Thank you so much. If you hadn't shown up when you did…"

Lydia's eyes swept over the children. She smiled lightly and shook his hand, "You don't need to thank me. It feels good to be on the completely morally good side for once."

"Yeah…" Box Ghost nodded. He looked ready to add onto to that, but a groan caught his and everyone's attention.

Freddy scoffed, "And of course Billy recovers once the fight is over. I hate my luck."

* * *

Dora, shrunken down to her more humanoid form, walked up to Dusk with a worried look on her face, "Will my brother be okay?"

"He'll live," Dusk noted as he continued to admire his new weapon, "But be okay? I don't know. It depends on how well he can deal with a scare."

Dora frowned, "I doubt that he takes it well."

"Then, no, he won't be okay."

"But he'll live?"

"Yes."

"…Good enough for me," Dora shrugged.

"Hmm…" Dusk lowered his sword and created a sheath with his Matter Make ability. He slipped the sheath over his back where it could remain in contact with him and not degrade. With a few twirls, he sheathed Soul Shedder safely onto his back. The weight felt so right to him, "Is everyone okay?"

Troia looked over from she was kneeling by her downed mother, "Plenty of injuries, but nothing fatal."

"Donna…" Hippolyta blinked up to her daughter, "What was that beast?"

"It is a long story, mother," Donna noted, "My friends and I have taken care of it, though."

Hippolyta followed her daughter's eyes and frowned, "I see…two men…on Themyscira."

"Mother!" Donna hissed, "They helped save us!"

"It's okay," Torch snorted and rubbed the back of his head, "Torch wasn't expecting much different from an island of women only. The man hate definitely had to be strong here. The same goes with lesbianism."

"Torch!" Dora snapped angrily at the male fire ghost.

"What? I've seen pornos like this," Torch shrugged, "And it's the believable outcome. Are you going to tell Torch that every woman here chose abstinence? Please…"

"He has a point," Ember noted, "In fact, I wanted to ask about that myself. There's only so much fingers can do after all. How do all the women here live…what? Hundreds of years? Without men? Jeeze, they have to have built up one hell of an itch."

"Oh my goodness," Dora face palmed, "Have a little decency, you two…"

"Shameful," Hippolyta gained a disgusted look, "Are everyone in Man's World so obsessed with such disgusting acts?"

Dusk nodded as he approached the queen of the Amazons, "Yes, but very few are as honest about it as those two."

Hippolyta's eyes narrowed at Dusk, "You wear the same symbol as Spirit…You are a ghost. The ones with strange abilities. Tell me, can you heal our wounded?"

"Not any more than someone with basic first aid training. I don't have healing abilities."

"I see…" Hippolyta gave him a dismissing look, "Then I thank you for the help you provided, male member of the Phantom Family, but our rules are absolute. I must ask you to leave as soon as possible."

"MOTHER!" Donna's face flushed, "Thou art embarrassing me! Dusk is one of my closest friends!"

"It's fine," Dusk didn't seem bothered in the slightest, "We need to get moving soon anyway. Aragon mentioned Nekron. I got a feeling we'll need to go fight him next."

"Indeed," Troia nodded as she picked up her mother to carry her to a more comfortable position near the other recovering Amazons, "But where do we go?"

"That's something I'm still trying to figure out."

* * *

 _Youngblood watched as the giant sea of Sleep Walkers rushed towards him. With one arm dead, he knew that he wouldn't last a second in a straight up fight. Despite this, he was not worried. It was just his time, "It's time to finally grow up."_

" _How mature of you,"_ _A translucent vision of Polly appeared on Youngblood's shoulder._

 _Youngblood smiled, "For once…that sounds like a compliment."_

" _It is_ _," Polly tilted his heads as the Sleep Walkers drew closer,_ _"You do know that this will cause her even more pain, right? Mom will find out about her, after all…"_

" _But she'll be alive."_

 _Polly nodded, "_ _She will be alive. And as long as she is alive, she has the chance to find happiness again."_

" _This is the first time you agree with me about Dani," Youngblood noted._

" _What can I say? She's grown on me."_

 _Youngblood let out a chuckle. He took a deep stance and held his hook arm out towards the sea of Sleep Walkers that were now close enough for him to see all of their red eyes, "Of course she has. She's just that great. Totally worth it."_

" _Agreed._ _"_

" _Polly…will you play one last game with me?"_

" _Of course. What shall we play?"_

" _I call it 'kamikaze'!"_

" _Hahahahahaha! RACK! Now that's a final game_ _!"_

 _Just as the Sleep Walkers were a mere arm's length away, Youngblood let out a loud battle cry. The entire area was covered in a bright light. The light only lasted a second before it faded. As the light died down, only two people remained in the area. One was the unconscious Nocturne. The other was a hunched over form of an old man with whitened hair and ash colored skin._

 _Although the Sleep Walkers did not age forward naturally, they did have a time frame from where they started existing. In the instant of that bright light, Youngblood had drained the entire army of their lifespan. The entire army of countless Sleep Walkers had been de-aged into nonexistence. Taking in all that time had deep consequences, though._

 _A slight breeze blew through the now silent area. As soon as the wind hit the old man, his form shook and fell apart into ash. The wind tore apart Youngblood's body apart. It then carried the dust that was once Youngblood away and scattered it across the earth never to laugh or play again._

* * *

Spirit smacked Cyborg across the face, "How. Dare. You."

"I…I'm sorry Dani…" Cyborg just stood there with his face pointed to where the halfa had smacked it. They both stood in front of the safety shelter that was Axion Labs, but the mood was far from positive, "I…he…we both just wanted to get you to safety."

"He was our friend! Your friend! How could you just leave him?!" Spirit leaned in and began to beat her hand uselessly against his metal chest.

"He was my friend, but…I just…" Cyborg stopped speaking as he felt Spirit hug him and sob into his chest. He felt more tears run down his own face.

"Not another one!" Spirit sobbed, "Not another friend!"

"I'm so sorry, Dani. I'm just so sorry," Cyborg took a shuttered breath, "I…I don't know if I should but…I think you deserve to have the chance to see this."

Dani pulled away for a second to see Cyborg handing her an envelope, "What…"

"I grabbed Chuck's coat back there. While I did that, I managed to pull this out," Cyborg raised his free arm and began to weep into his hand, "I-I t-think it was meant for you…"

With tears still rolling down her cheek, Spirit reached out and gently took the letter. Cradling the note like the most precious thing in the world, Spirit opened the envelope and pulled out a carefully folded not with familiar hand writing across it.

 _Dear Dani,_

 _I really don't know how to say this, but I needed to get this out some way. There comes a time when everyone has to grow up. Even me. Can't be Peter Pan forever, right? Especially with you around. Not that it's a bad thing to have you around. Sorry, I'm not starting this out great am I? Well, it's not like it matters. I probably won't ever find the courage to give you this anyway._

 _When I left three years ago, I did it because I was afraid to grow up. I was scared because I knew that I would break my seal in a moment's notice for you. If I stuck around, I would get pulled into tougher and tougher fights were I would absolutely need my full power. You know why that's bad. Well, you kind of know why that's bad. Not the part of me breaking my obsession. My obsession is a lot more complicated than most people think. It doesn't have to do with being young forever. It has to do with my mom._

 _But like every guy, my love of my mom faded when I found something better. When I'm around you, Dani, I'm so happy. Your smile makes me feel like there's no such thing as suffering in this world. I would do anything to make sure you keep that smile. That's why I stuck around after Wulf died. I couldn't bear to leave you to suffer because…Well, because I love you, Dani._

 _I love you so much it hurts because I know that we can never be together like grown-ups. While every day you grow more beautiful and adult, I continue to be the chubby pirate kid. So every time I thought about telling you…or giving you a rose…or even this letter, I stopped. Telling you how I felt would only make you sad. So I just smiled and let Vic step up to earn your heart. It was better that way. He could make you happy in a way that I never could._

 _For a while, I was content with that, but Trigon's attack showed me that my time is running out. Eventually, I'll have to break the seal again, and then I'll fade away. And that scares me…not because I'm afraid of growing up anymore. Or because I'm afraid of my mom. It's because I'll die without you ever knowing how I feel about you. So, knowing that I'll probably just burn this later, I want to say this._

 _I love you. I love you more than my youth. I love you more than my games. I love you more than my mom. I love you more than life itself. I love you, Dani, and I wish I could say it to your face every day for the rest of my life, but I can't. So I'm writing it all here. I love you so much, Danielle Masters, and I hope that you're happy for the rest of your life because you deserve every scrap of joy that you can get._

 _Love, Charles Forrest…or Youngblood…or Chuck. I love when you call me that._

 _P.S. Please don't cry over me._

Despite Youngblood's last request, Spirit dropped to her knees. She then curled up into a ball and began to wail out in grief. Clutching the letter like a lifeline, Spirit wept harder than she ever had before. Sobbing hysterically, she wondered why was it that she seemed to cause so much pain to the ones she loved.

* * *

Queen looked back to Nyx as she and Ten were pushed back towards the still sobbing girl, "Hey, ghost girl! We need some help here! They're about to overtake us!"

"Yeah, dude!" Ten desperately shot at the monsters closing in on them, "We get that you're, like, sad and all, but we're all about to die!"

Nyx ignored them. She was too overcome with her grief to even begin to understand their words. All she could do was continue to sob and desperately whisper for her mother to return to her.

Seeing that the girl would be of no help, the Royal Flush duo turned back to the monsters. They continued to fight, even though they knew that it was useless. There was no way that they could stop all the inky creatures on their own. They would need a miracle to get out of this situation.

To their shock, their miracle actually came in the form of the most insane and twisted Haunting Aura they had ever felt. As they gasped out in madness, Queen and Ten instantly wished that the monsters had just killed them. This was so much worse. It felt like the skin was melting off. Hell, the Haunting Aura was so thick that even the monsters were shaking in fear.

Well, they were for a while. Constructs of knives, whips, and chains burst out and began to tear through the monsters. In seconds, Nekron's strange creatures were destroyed. Still trembling, Queen, Ten, and even a shocked Nyx turned to see the source of their 'miracle.' What they saw was not what they were expecting.

Kitty was now standing. Her green hair had bled way to a deep crimson red. A small sensual smirk was placed across her face as twisted eyes danced across their forms. All three of them froze from under the gaze. Luckily, Kitty's attention was drawn away by a groaning Johnny 13.

Kitty silenced Johnny with a solid kick to the back of the head, "That's so rude. A lady finally wakes up from her nap to see a groaning…Huh, you look familiar? Almost like my Johnathan…"

Nyx suddenly spoke up. Her tear stained face stared at the strange form before her, "Kitty?"

Kitty's head snapped away from the unconscious Johnny 13. She looked right at Nyx and the Royal Flush Gang. The ghost hunters instantly fell back onto their butts in response, but Nyx remained still even as Kitty walked over to her. Oddly enough, Kitty was adding a sexual sway to her hips with every step.

Once in front of Nyx, Kitty spoke again, "Kitty? Is that what that persona was called? That's what Johnathan used to call me. That cunning little boy…But let's forget about that for now. Tell me, sweetheart, why are you crying like that."

"My mom…Pandora…she…"

Kitty's eyes narrowed, "Your mom…I see…You love her, and she died…Just like…Huh. Now this is interesting. Dearie, you must inform me what's going on."

Nyx didn't know how to respond to this strange new version of the ghost, "Kitty…what happened to you?"

"Oh, my precious little thing, don't ever call me that again," Kitty reached down to wipe some of Nyx's tears. She then brought her hand up to lick the tears from her fingers, "Call me Thorn."

* * *

 **Next update: "Debt" on October 10, 2016**

 **Big thanks once again to jaguarsot for being this chapter's Beta.**

 **Yeah, I know. I think that this was the worst death scene in my opinion. Not just the death scene itself, but the aftermath. Especially the letter. I always planned to use the letter. If you go back and read "Wedding" then you'll see the letter mentioned. Never really planned what I was going to write in it until I got to it, though. When I read it back...Even I had to do a double take. Perhaps I went too far...NAH! But speaking of the second bit of fallout...**

 **CHAPTER QUESTION: I have to say that I was surprised that very few people guessed Thorn's identity. I know my Beta did, but I can't recall anyone else on the top of my head. So, I have to ask...Did you see it coming? Did you catch the hints? Because I can name a bunch of them. (1) Youngblood's part in Absolution's "Ghost Tales" came right after Johnny 13's spot. (2) Kitty was one of the few ghosts that didn't get a part in "Ghost Tales" with her perspective. (3) Youngblood de-aged Kitty during le Fey's attack and commented on the irony of it. (4) Kitty's condition got worse every time Youngblood released his seal...including right after it was first released during le Fey's attack. (5) The Wedding...just go back and read the chapter. I kind of thought that last hint was obvious. So, did you catch the hints and saw the twist coming?**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	32. Debt

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"First our pleasures die - and then our hopes, and then our fears - and when these are dead, the debt is due dust claims dust - and we die too."

Percy Bysshe Shelley

* * *

Chapter 32: "Debt"

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Nekron looked around the cave. He only spotted the many enemies that he had defeated, " **Wait. Are you really the only one here? You came alone?** "

Amorpho trembled in fear as he stood in front of the Reaper, "Y-Yes…"

Nekron tilted his head and burst into laughter, " **Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You have to be kidding me! You?! You are Life's last line of defense?!** "

Amorpho took a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm his nerves, "I suppose so."

" **Oh, this is rich,** " Nekron shook his head, " **At least with the villains, they came in with heavy hitters and a plan. You, though…You can't fight at all. This is just pathetic. How did you even know how to get here? The villains could track my energy signal, but I doubt you have that ability.** "

"Poindexter told me where to go. He said that if I didn't come here and fight you then we would all die," Amorpho explained.

" **Right. Poindexter. That one has been surprising me with his boldness as of late,** " Nekron sighed, " **Tell me. Why didn't you just run? You know you don't have a chance. Just hiding and waiting this out would be a lot less painful.** "

"I thought about it, but…" Amorpho shook his head, "I couldn't do it. I may be weak, but I'm not a coward. The world needs me to do this. Even if…even if I die, I won't run. I have to stop you."

Nekron sighed, " **Very well, Amorpho. I accept your challenge. Goodbye.** "

With a wave of his hand, Nekron sent a large wave of black energy that would instantly disintegrate most living beings. Amorpho was instantly consumed by the black wave of death. His energy disappeared from Nekron's senses. The fool was dead.

" **Now to get back to the Life Entity…** " Nekron paused as his attack died down to reveal himself. More accurately, it revealed Amorpho transformed to look like the Reaper, " **Well that was unexpected.** "

Amorpho nodded and slid into a defensive stance, "I won't go down that easily."

Out of curiosity, Nekron flicked some more energy at Amorpho. The result was the same, " **Oh…OH! I see! That crafty little nerd! Poindexter knew this would happen. You change the fundamentals of your energy signal. My energy recognizes you as part of me, and doesn't affect you. Brilliant! You're effectively immune to all of the effects of my death aura and degradation abilities.** "

Amorpho said nothing. He just continued to hold his ground while trying to stop his legs from trembling in fear.

Nekron gave a slow clap, " **Excellent work, Amorpho. You have become the one person that I can't overcome with just my death abilities. Impressive. But the thing is…** "

Nekron disappeared in a blur and reappeared right in front of his lookalike.

" **Even with that ability, I'm still hundreds of times stronger than you.** "

* * *

Hotep Ra watched as Damon Gray jumped back to his feet and pointed a gun at the ghost. He was stopped when Harriet Chin gently placed a hand over his, "Trust me. That's a waste of time."

Nodding at the statement, Hotep Ra looked across the actually still intact main lab of the facility. That was not just because of luck or good fortune. The mummy ghost had ordered the monsters to avoid this area. He needed everything perfect for his plan to work, and a broken lab would not help.

"Hey," Harriet's voice turned Hotep Ra's attention back to her, "When I agreed to come with you, I didn't know that I'd be left alone with a kidnapped child and a convicted psychopath. What exactly is your game? Why did you want all four of us here?"

"I would like to know that as well," Silas Stone and the other three head scientists all stood off to the side with fearful looks on their face, "You came in and shut down or defenses. We could have died."

Hotep Ra scoffed, "Fool. I saved your lives."

The mummy lifted up his ring to show a large hologram of the other six Black Lanterns in action. Their names all appeared by their pictures. A small gasp came from the scientist.

"Mr. Hand?"

"Indeed," Hotep Ra dismissed the hologram, "His obsession with death and destruction caught Nekron's attention years ago. He was ordered to infiltrate this lab as a custodian to spy on you and to tamper with experiments when needed. He was the one that turned off your defenses. I only showed up to deter Nekron's forces."

"But why?" Despite lowering his gun, Damon still gripped the weapon firmly in his hands, "You're part of Nekron's forces, right? Why go against him like this? And gather us?"

"Unlike the other Black Lanterns, I was never given a choice in being a Black Lantern," Hotep Ra explained, "I never would have agreed to join him if I had a choice. My entire life was dedicated to serving others. I want to be a ruler, not a lackey. So I've been looking for years to find a way to free myself from Nekron. But there hasn't been an opportunity. If I stepped out of line once…well, I'm sure you've seen Nocturne's scar."

Harm was the one that spoke up at hearing this, "But this apocalypse was your opportunity. He finally took away all of his attention from you."

"Indeed. This is my one and only chance to stop him without getting killed," Hotep Ra stated, "But I couldn't go around saving people who were already targeted by Nekron. If I drew his attention to my location by interfering with a Black Lantern, he would have killed me without batting an eye. So I had to gather a force that even he overlooked, yet wouldn't run at the first sight of him."

"So…" Harriet looked at the four people he gathered, "You picked a reporter, a security guard, a broken criminal, and a child? Good job there, mummy guy. You might as well have trained an army of fluffy bunnies to fight that freak of nature."

"Right now? Yes. But I do have a plan," Hotep Ra opened a portal with his ring. He then pulled out a familiar looking sword and threw it to Harm.

Harm examined the sword, "This…"

"Beowulf the Third," Hotep Ra stated, "Luckily, I managed to maneuver myself to save Morgaine le Fey and a few others during Nekron's initial attack at the Ghost King's palace. The downside is that Nekron probably realized that I stand against him now, but as long I hid myself and had that group distract him for me, then I was safe. I then had her enchant one final sword for you as payment for my help."

Harm glared at the sword, "Harm does not like the idea of using le Fey's powers once more. He committed atrocious acts because of the previous swords."

"And now you can make up for them, but only if you use that sword," Hotep Ra argued. He was pleased when Harm nodded and tightly gripped the sword.

"And what about us?" The terrified Richard questioned. His voice came out as a tiny squeak, "How…how can I fight? I don't…I can't face the Nekron guy."

"Directly? No you can't. Those two will soon, though," Hotep turned away from them and began to walk across the lab.

"The Exorcist Armor," Damon nodded at the thought of getting in the battle suit again.

"Nope," Hotep Ra walked past the motionless armor and another familiar looking broken armor set.

"Then what exactly do you expect from us? We have very little training and no powers," Harriet hissed out.

"No powers right now. But you will soon," Hotep Ra reached the end of the lab. He pulled off a large tarp to reveal tall canisters of purple gas with wide labels across the top reading "Big Bang Gas."

* * *

Cyborg didn't know what to do as he watched his girlfriend. He had seen her cry and mourn before, but this seemed different. Spirit never looked so outright broken before now. This was different than the other instances where they lost someone in battle. He suddenly regretted his decision to give her the letter, "D-Dani?"

Spirit didn't react. She continued to sob into the ground.

"I…I know that it hurts…" Cyborg took a breath to force his own tears down, "But…we can't dwell on this now…"

Spirit still didn't act like she recognized his voice.

"Dani?" Cyborg gently placed a hand on her shaking shoulder. The halfa jerked at the contact like she had forgotten that she wasn't alone. Slowly, she uncurled herself from her ball and sat up to her knees. Her tear filled face looked up to the man.

Cyborg had to fight not to the flinch at the devastated look on her face. It seemed like all possibility of joy had been drained from her eyes. She blinked at him like she was trying to work her mind on how she forgot about him, "Oh…Victor…I…I just…"

Another sob jumped from Spirit's throat. This time, Cyborg couldn't fight a flinch, "Dani, I know how you're feeling right now, but…we can't stay out here…it's still too dangerous…We can't let Chuck's sacrifice be for nothing."

"For nothing…" Tears continued to run down Spirit's face. She clutched the letter at her chest, "I…Right, we have to move."

Spirit carefully folded the letter and put it into her pocket. She then allowed Cyborg to help her up and slowly lead her to the front door of Axion Labs. As she moved, she looked back with tear-filled eyes to where Youngblood had been left to die. Cyborg was right. No matter what, Youngblood's sacrifice could not be for nothing.

* * *

Dusk sat meditating on the beach. He took deep, calm breaths. The other members of his group lacked such calmness, though.

"What are we waiting for?" Torch questioned, "We need to go stop Nekron."

"We can't. There's no way of knowing where he is," Ember argued, "For all we know, we could go in the wrong direction and waste time and energy."

"Well, waiting here is wasting time too," Torch argued.

Dora nodded, "We need to figure out where to go. Donna, is there anything on this island that could help us?"

Troia shrugged, "Maybe? But it might take a while with all the Amazons hurt."

"There's no need for that," Dusk suddenly spoke out, "We'll know soon enough."

Ember raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think that?"

"Because…" Dusk reached over to unsheathe his sword, "Soul Shredder will want to get revenge for its owner. It will point us the right way. I just needed to give it a chance to find Nekron's energy signal."

"So…" Torch did not look pleased, "We're following a sword?"

Troia nodded, "I am pleased with this plan. It's like following thine battle instincts into battle."

Dora gave Dusk a questioning look, "So where are we going."

Dusk felt a familiar pull of energy as his sword communicated with him, "Oh, you won't believe it. We actually don't have to go that far."

* * *

Amorpho's ribs shattered with a single kick by Nekron. As soon as the foot rammed into the changeling's sides, a sickening crack sounded through the cave. With a groan of a pain, he clutched at his side. Despite this, though, he refused to move and give Nekron an open path to the Life Entity. Instead, he swung a wild punch at the Reaper of Death.

Scoffing, Nekron didn't even try to block the blow. Amorpho's fist bounced off Nekron's face uselessly. Still, this did not stop the changeling ghost. While still clutching at his broken ribs, he used his free arm to throw even more punches that were just as useless as the first. Nekron reacted to the punches as if they were balls of cotton being tossed at his head.

A vicious elbow to the head caused Amorpho's forehead to be cut right open. Green blood splattered across the ground. Once again, though, the disguise ghost did not move despite the blood flowing down and impairing his vision. Knowing that the punches to the head weren't working, Amorpho directed his blows to Nekron's own ribs. Unlike the changeling's own ribs, though, Nekron's side remained completely intact.

Rolling his eyes, Nekron viciously back fisted Amorpho across the face. The Reaper lookalike stumped to the side, but quickly moved back in Nekron's way. Feeling the blood in his mouth, Amorpho swished the loose contents of his mouth around and then spat out a combination of blood, teeth, and spit right into the Ghost of Death's face.

Sighing, Nekron wiped the liquid from his face. With that same hand, he grabbed Amorpho by the jaw. He then lifted his foe above the ground before slamming him down to the ground. The life energy rich ground held from the force, but Amorpho was not so lucky as another loud crack echoed through the chamber. Annoyed by the ghost's bug like persistence, Nekron didn't stop there.

The Reaper lifted Amorpho up once again and then slammed him down a second time. More cracks and breaking sounds flowed off the ghost. Nekron then did this a third time to receive the same result. He repeated this action several more times, flinging Amorpho up and down liked a ragdoll. Now done with his unwanted toy, Nekron then flung the changeling away.

To Nekron's surprise, Amorpho held onto Nekron's arm to prevent himself from flying to the far wall. He flung around Nekron like a cape flapping in the wing. As Nekron's arm dropped, Amorpho flopped onto the ground tiredly. He was draped across the ground yet he still did not let go of Nekron's arm just to make sure that he didn't lose track of the Reaper in his dizziness and pain.

" **Wow,** " Nekron chuckled, " **You are a persistent one, aren't you? I'd be impressed if this wasn't so sad. What do I need to do to you?** "

Amorpho's response was to lunge up and violently bite at Nekron's neck. He didn't even manage to pierce the Reaper's skin. Not even blinking, Nekron grabbed Amorpho's face and pushed him away.

" **Beat you to death? Okay, I can do that.** "

* * *

Aquaman gently tucked Mera into her large bed. Once she was safe and secure, he stood up and sighed, "Forgive me, Queen Mera. I never intended to take your and King Orin's place. Do not worry. The moment you are well again, I will step down for you. And in case the power changes me…I will make sure to put safeguards."

Taking a deep breath, he turned around and swam out of the room. The guards to Mera's room saluted him as he passed. Wearily, he saluted them back and continued onward through the hallway. Kaldur quickly made his way to his strike force of Frostbite, Tempest, and Lagoon Boy. They all saluted him as well.

"At ease," Aquaman looked to Frostbite, "How are you feeling?"

Frostbite looked down to both of his frozen, synthetic limbs, "Pretty good considering that I lost my other arm. Your healers are top notch, though. I'm far from one hundred percent, but I can still fight."

Kaldur nodded and turned to his fellow Atlantians, "And you two?"

"You could not stop me from fighting if you wanted to," Tempest had a dark look on his features, for obvious reasons.

"The fight is not done yet!" Lagoon Boy clenched his fists, "We need to end this now!"

"Yes, it is time to leave."

"Would it not be smarter to take the army?" Tempest questioned, "I know the four of us are strong, but it will not be enough for the Reaper from the stories I have heard from Frostbite and the signals we received from the surface."

"The soldiers would crumble upon seeing Nekron," Kaldur argued, "Their morale is low as it is."

"But…" Lagoon Boy bit his lip, "Fighting him alone will be useless."

"Who said that we would be fighting him alone?" Aquaman gently placed a hand on La'gaan's shoulder, "Do not forget. We have friends on the surface waiting for us."

* * *

Thorn stretched her body out sensually to receive a few satisfying pops from her joints. Once she felt comfortable, she looked down at her at her outfit, "Not bad. My other self has good tastes, but I'm going to have to add a few personal touches of my own."

With a wave of her hand, Thorn changed her clothes. The first thing to change was the color. All of the red shifted to a leafy green, except the green fishnets turned to crimson red like her new hair color. Oddly enough, her black tank top morphed and shrank to emphasize her cleavage.

"Nice~" Thorn did a few sexy poses, "Now I feel a lot more comfortable."

"How did you do that?" Nyx was now on her feet. Despite the grief she felt for her mother, the survival instincts in her told her to never take her eyes off the insane woman in front of her.

"Didn't you know that my other self could create dimensional rifts?" Thorn questioned. With a wave of her hand, she created a mirror and fixed her hair, "One kiss, and she could send men to an alternate dimension. That was a toned down version of my real powers. I can cut through dimensional rifts and change scenarios to one that more fits my mood."

Nyx paled when she heard that, "No way."

"Way, my little precious thing," Thorn seemed satisfied with her hair and dismissed the mirror with another wave of her hand, "I know. It sounds pretty frightening. There's a reason why I was sealed…Who sealed me again? I feel like I should know. Hmm…"

Queen started to pull Ten away, "Come on, idiot. We need to—AH!"

The two former ghost hunters froze when ectoplasmic knives pointed at their necks. Thorn lowered the hand she waved at them, "Come now. You don't need to run from me. I don't bite too hard as long as you're nice to me~"

Ten trembled in fear, "W-We have to go, though. N-Nekron…"

"Right. The Reaper," Thorn nodded, "From what you told me, only an insane person would be willing to fight him. That sounds so PERFECT! A great way to wake up. I can get a good little workout while the precious little thing can get revenge. It's a win/win scenario, no?"

Nyx didn't know if she trusted Thorn enough to fight by the older woman's side. Right now, though, she didn't have a lot of choices, though, "Right. How do we get to him?"

Queen shakily held up piece of paper, "T-The nerd ghost gave us t-this…"

Thorn quickly took the note. After spending a quick second reading it, she tossed the paper away. The psycho ghost then waved her hand to create a dimensional rift, "And there we go. Our destination is just a hop and a skip away."

"Right…dimensional rifts…" Nyx nodded slowly.

"Yeah! Now let's go fight the guy that can kill us with a look! What a great day to wake up!"

* * *

Hotep Ra looked up to the tall canisters in front of him, "This is what we need. Big Bang Gas."

" _I fail to see how the gas will help us,"_ J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded through the lab surprising everyone but the mummy ghost. Hotep Ra just smiled at her voice, " _Danny designed the gas as a measure to rapidly increase healing in humans. An emergency special gas that could close deadly injuries, perhaps at the expense of shortening one's lifespan. Unfortunately, it has yet to be perfected._ "

"I am aware of this. Remember that William Hand was spying here for us," Hotep Ra turned around to face the others. His smile was still firmly in place, "Once he gave us the report, I looked into it more. A bit of experimenting showed that if I manipulated some of the elements with my ring, then I could instead create a more potent gas. One that awakens the meta-human gene."

"The what?" Damon questioned.

Silas answered the inquiry, "The meta-human gene is something that very few scientists have even began to understand. From what I studied from formal papers, the meta-gene is theorized to be the next step in human evolution. It has the ability to awaken during stressful situations and allow humans to live through them while gaining what we would classify as 'superpowers'."

"Wait!" Harriet held up a hand, "You want to give the three of us superpowers?"

"Yes. Although giving you three powers might create enemies in the future for me, I can't worry about that now. Nekron has to be defeated, and we need people to help fight him," Hotep Ra held his ring up once more, "I have done a scan with my ring on all of you. You three have the meta-human gene inside of you. Once exposed to this gas, your latent powers will awaken."

"But what about the boy?" Harm questioned as he looked to the shaking Richard, "He is far too young and inexperienced to fight a schoolyard bully let alone Nekron."

"He won't be fighting. Not directly," Hotep Ra explained, "Black Lantern Rings are more capable then other power rings. We are able to look at things at the genetic level. I have determined what all three of your powers would be. The boy would become a technopath once exposed to the altered gas."

"Wait? I could control tech with my mind?" Richard's eyes widened.

Hotep Ra nodded, "That's why I picked you. I found other children that had the capability to become meta-humans, but I knew that none of them would be able to fight Nekron. You, though, don't need to be on the battlefield directly. Instead, you're going to control the Exorcist Armor from afar."

"That's brilliant…" Damon realized, "You'd have a fighter without any real reason not to take fatal blows."

"Indeed. Plus, we'd gain yet another fighter," Hotep Ra pointed to the destroyed Red X armor next to the Exorcist Armor, "You will be able to fix that with ease as well. Then the A.I. can upload herself to get a sixth combatant on our side."

"Woah, there's a reason Danny destroyed that suit!" Harriet argued.

"It's not like he'll be around to argue," Hotep Ra noticed their troubled gaze, "What? Do you really think that we can free him? Nekron took over his body. The only way to stop Nekron is to destroy him, and that will destroy Phantom as well."

"Phantom…" Richard looked confused at this entire conversation. Harm, the other outsider in this conversation, seemed to be connecting a few dots.

"There has to be a way," Harriet argued.

Damon gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "Harriet…Val gave her life for Danny. I don't want that to go to waste, but…We can't let Nekron live. He has to go."

Harriet took a deep breath, "Still…It doesn't feel right to rebuild his suit like before."

"Then we'll change its design so that he couldn't use it anyway," Hotep Ra shrugged, "Not like I care. I just need more fighters. You can control the machine, right, Miss A.I.?"

" _Yes…But Nekron's energy in the sky limits wireless connection. I will have to completely upload myself into the machine, and if it is destroyed then_ …" J.A.Z.Z. drifted off.

"Indeed, you will be vulnerable like the rest of us," Hotep Ra nodded, "It seems like even a machine has self-preservation. After all, if Nekron succeeds, all organic and ectoplasmic life will come to an end. Synthetic life won't, though. You'll live on in the machines."

The silence that came from J.A.Z.Z. made everyone shift uncomfortably.

"Well, I'll make it easy on you," Hotep Ra held up a glowing black ring, "Either you get in the machine, or I destroy the equipment in here and delete you."

" _No. Your threat is not necessary. My programming is meant to help bring joy to organic life. I cannot do that if Nekron succeeds,_ " J.A.Z.Z. noted, " _Get the armor ready, and I will download myself._ "

"Good," Hotep Ra looked at Richard, "Are you in, child? Because we need you."

"Superpowers. Controlling tech. Saving the world," Richard adjusted his glasses, "Of course, I'm in."

"Good," Hotep Ra turned to the adults he wanted to expose to the gas, "And you two?"

"I'm in," Damon said automatically, "If this is our best chance for the survival of mankind, I can't refuse."

"And if you die a hero's death in the process, all the better," Harriet glared at the man.

"No…I…It's not like that," Damon futilely tried to defend himself.

"Valerie wouldn't have wanted you to die. And neither do I," Harriet sighed and rubbed her temple, "Damn it. I miss having a normal life. Fine, I guess someone has to follow after you to make sure your dumb ass stays alive. I'm in."

Hotep Ra smiled and turned to the gas canisters, "Then let's begin."

* * *

Miss Martian's eyes stopped glowing as she looked down to the small grave in front of her. It was too small of a grave for someone who had died too young. Refusing to let her brother's corpse go unburied, she had quickly drifted him and the Bioship up to Mount Justice to bury him outside the cave. The entire burial process was quick with her powers.

"M'gann!" Zatanna rushed into the area holding the comatose form of Madame Rogue in her arms, "God, girl. You can't just leave me behind like that. We need to stay together."

Miss Martian turned to the magician, "Oh…sorry. I didn't think about it."

"Yeah…" Zatanna gently placed the villain down, "I get it."

Miss Martian nodded, "Thank you."

Zatanna took a shuddered breath as she looked at the tiny grave, "Maybe we should have waited for the others to bury him? I mean, they would want to show their respects."

"We'll have a full funeral once this is all over," Miss Martian began to cry once more, "In fact, I have a feeling that there will be more than just his funeral."

Zatanna couldn't argue with that, "Let's not think about that right now. We still have work to do, right? Does the Bioship still work?"

Miss Martian shook her head, "She still needs a lot of time to recover. We'll need to find a new way to travel. Especially because the Zeta Tube system is probably down."

"I'm going to put out a few feelers and see if I can't find any large energy sources," Zatanna mentioned, "When we find out where we need to go, then we can deal with the problem of how to get there."

Miss Martian turned back to the grave, "Noted."

* * *

Colossus groaned as he came back to the realm of the living. He blinked as he looked forward to the form of the Earth. His arms were completely numb like most of his body. The only thing he really felt was a needle being pushed into his neck, "Ugh…"

"He's awake," King removed the ecto-boost and moved the needle back to his belt.

"I'm alive?" Colossus questioned, "I thought for sure that going all out like that would kill me."

"It almost did," Jack reasoned, "You're the goddam luckiest ghost in the world. If the Green Lanterns didn't distract Nekron's monsters long enough for us to get out of there, we wouldn't have gotten you out of there and given you an ecto-boost."

Colossus looked back to see the still fighting Green Lanterns, "I see. Tell me, why did you save me? Aren't you ghost hunters or something?"

"Look at the Earth. Isn't it obvious that there's still the issue of Nekron?" King questioned, "We need every bit of weight on our side of the scale as possible."

"I won't be able to fight well with just my legs," Colossus noted.

Jack scoffed, "Like that would stop you from fighting."

Colossus burst out laughing, "Hahahahahahahaha! Good point! Let's go get him! Where are we going anyway?"

King pulled out a note that had been given to him before he was dropped off, "Oh great. That place. Bad memories from there."

* * *

Nekron held Amorpho down with his foot on the disguise ghost's back. Having laid his scythe down, Nekron now gripped Amorpho's right arm with both his arms, " **This is your arm.** "

A quick jerk of the Reaper's arm provide a loud snap followed by pain filled screaming by Amorpho. With his arm now pointed at an unnatural position, Amorpho couldn't help by crying out in agony. Once Nekron released his arm, the changeling rolled over and desperately clutched at his shattered limb. Covered in blood and feeling the pain of having dozens of bones broken, Amorpho couldn't fight back the tears of pain running down his face.

" **Now it's not** ," Nekron then silenced Amorpho by stepping on the disguise ghost's head and stepping over him. With the changeling now quiet, Nekron walked over to his scythe and then picked it. He admired it for a brief moment before swinging it viciously at the barrier.

Tired of waiting, Nekron did not hold back at all with his attack. A thick black arc of energy slammed into the shield and instantly shattered it. The Endless appeared for a brief second. Each of them had a shocked face before they disappeared into the spiritual realm, except for one. Extending his hands out, Nekron pulled Death towards him and held her up by the neck.

" **Hi,** " Nekron smiled at her.

Death desperately kicked at Nekron. This proved just as fruitless as Amorpho's attack.

" **Sorry, that won't work,** " Nekron noted, " **Nothing you can do will ever hurt me. The same goes for me, though. We share the same element after all.** "

Death could only glare at him.

" **But I am the better version of Death,** " Nekron noted, " **Is it not clear that death is just the goal? It's what everyone works their entire lives to get to. I'm just helping everything along. It's the inevitable end. Everything will die eventually. Why postpone it?** "

Death gave him a disgusted look.

" **You don't need to say anything. I know I'm right. You don't need to worry. I'll do your job for you** ," Nekron threw Death away and dismissed her from the physical realm, " **You can relax now.** "

Nekron took in the sight of the vulnerable Life Entity. His obsession was right within his grasp. Excitement surged through his chest. Bringing his scythe over his shoulders, Nekron was just about to trek over his last victim when he felt a hand grab his ankle. The Reaper looked and with a raised eyebrow, " **Really, Amorpho?** "

"No…I won't…let you…" Amorpho gasped out in pain as he desperately clutched at Nekron's ankle with his still working arm, "Not yet…Just need…to buy more time…"

* * *

Hotep Ra had torn open the canisters and contained the gas in a bubble of black energy. As he changed the molecules in the gas to make it effective for its new purpose, the three subjects walked over to an area clear of other people. Once everything was set, Hotep Ra moved the bubble over to the subjects while containing the gas to their area. All three of them burst into a coughing spurt and dropped to the ground holding their throats.

While nothing visibly changed for Richard, the same could not be said for the adults. Harriet's skin and hair turned to an ashen white. Thin black lines then appeared downward across her lips while a long black line ran across each cheek. The blackness also formed around her eyes which turned a crimson red. As this happened, Harriet's rather petite frame expanded to show a lot more curves and pronounced assets to her simple blouse and slacks.

Damon's change could be described as even more drastic, if not simpler. A large skin of silver concrete formed around the man. In seconds, a giant form replaced Damon. Stone muscles and body features curved to demonstrate the man's now great strength and dexterity. The only part of his body that wasn't as smooth was his head which was now cubed. The only other color other than the grayish silver on the man's body was his glowing red eyes.

Once the gas died down, Hotep Ra removed his bubble to expose the new meta-humans to the world. The other humans in the room all stood back as the terrifying new forms of Damon and Harriet stood. To everyone's relief, the two of them just examined their new bodies.

"God, you have to be kidding me," Harriet eyed her new figure. Her blouse and bra were struggling to hold back her now larger chest. The same thing could be said for her pants with her rear and hips. A younger, less mentally mature version of Harriet would have been delighted at the thought of obtaining such features. Now, though, it annoyed her, "This is like out of some teenage boy's comic book. Why in the hell did my boobs get so— **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!** "

A scream jumped from Harriet's throat unintentionally. As everyone covered their ears in pain, the entire room shook. Before any real damage could be done, Harriet clapped her hands over her mouth. Damon, who was the least affected by the scream, turned to her to speak. He quickly found out that he couldn't.

"Wow," Richard looked to the other humans, "It seems that the genetic alterations had a drastically different effect to both of your outward appearance and vocal cords. I'm intrigued by the possibilities of this. Can you two metamorph back to your original states naturally? I'm sure with a few tests and scans, there would definitely be a way to at least temporarily give you a more 'normal' humanoid appearance, although perhaps with a few different features than you had before—Woah! Someone please stop me! What the heck did I just say!?"

"It worked," Hotep Ra noted, "The kid's mental capabilities now work faster than a super computer while you two have become absolute powerhouses. My ring predicated that Damon could bench press a fully loaded semi-truck with ease. Harriet, your screams can literally cause steel to bend and kill a normal person with just a few seconds of hearing it."

"You knew all that and didn't warn— **AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!** " Harriet covered her mouth again. She then let out a muttered, "Sorry."

"Good. Everything worked. You can practice your powers on the battlefield," Hotep Ra turned to Richard, "Can you fix the Red X suit?"

"Why, of course. Fenton's design of fitting the human muscles to the skin is quite complex, but all the circuitry is very distinct and organized. Plus, some parts of the weapons system could actually be activated with the right power source. It should only take a minute for me to reconnect everything. Although, changing the design might take a second of thought—done! I have the perfect way to limit who can and cannot enter the shell of the—" Richard also covered his mouth, "Jeeze, man! I don't even understand the words coming out of my own freaking mouth here!"

Hotep Ra rolled his eyes, "Just fix the suit already."

* * *

Kid Flash was running over the ocean. The water below his feet seemed solid as he moved at speeds that wouldn't let him fall through the surface. If he wasn't focused on what was to come, he would have taken the moment to enjoy his newly found speed. Wally had always dreamed of doing this. Of course the first time he could actually do it was the same time that he had to save the world.

"Hello, Wally," Kid Flash muttered to himself, "Got to stay focused."

Now was not the time to take his eyes off the ball. Kid Flash had to focus on getting to his destination and the battle ahead. Even with the Speed Force, he didn't feel confident that he could do anything against Nekron. He had to try, though.

As he saw land appear in the horizon, Kid Flash gained a determined look. He was going in with a lot of faith in what Clockwork said. What would he do if the Master of Time was wrong or even lied about Artemis? He couldn't even fathom the idea of her not making it.

Taking a deep breath, Kid Flash shook off those thoughts. Right. Head in the game. Thoughts about who was lost in the fight could come later. He wasn't naïve enough to think that everyone would make it through this. Mourning could come after the fight, though. The world needed him to stay focused.

With a determined look, Kid Flash ran towards his destination. He was going into this fight almost completely blind. There was no way to know if he could win or if he would have to fight alone. He just had to believe that everything would out.

* * *

Poindexter's eyes turned to the side as the roar of a horn sounded through his pocket dimension. As soon as a portal popped up at the side, Mal stepped into the small dimension. He was quickly followed by Karin who looked in wonder at the sight around her.

"Woah…" Karin bit her lip as she tried to think of the scientific explanations for this small space.

"Poindexter," Mal addressed the nerd ghost.

"Glad everything worked with you," Poindexter noted. He quickly turned his attention back to his typing, "Sorry, but I can't take my focus off of this."

"That's fine. I was just going to use this as a rest stop while I wait for Jericho to…" Mal blinked when Jester jumped in front of him and rapidly began to shake his hand.

"Hi! I'm Jester! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Um…Same here?"

"I just wish it was in better circumstances…" Jester released Mal's hand, "You know. With me actually being alive and Nekron not threatening all life in the universe and all."

"What?" Bumblebee blinked at the strange shade.

"Oh! Hello!" Jester shook Karin's hand as well, "Nice to meet you!"

"Um…" Karin did not know how to respond to that.

Mal looked to Poindexter, "I take it that you're almost done."

"Almost there," Poindexter nodded, "You can go ahead and move if Jericho is ready."

Mal nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the location note that he had found with the Royal Flush Gang in Nirvana, "Alright. We can go now. I hope you know what you're doing with having everything go down there."

"It's the safest location I could think of," Poindexter shrugged.

"Mal!" Karin called out as Jester was now shaking both of her hands, "A little help here?"

Mal was about to help her when Jericho appeared in a burst of energy. The blonde haired man rapidly waved his hands. Nodding, Mal raised his horn, "One second babe. I have to do something first. It's kind of life or death stuff."

* * *

" **Buy more time?** " Nekron tried to kick Amorpho's hand off of his ankle but didn't manage to free himself, " **What are you talking about? Did I cause brain damage?** "

"No…They will come…" Amorpho breathed out, "My allies…The heroes…They will come…They will stop you…I just need to buy time…"

Rolling his eyes, Nekron swung his scythe down right at Amorpho's good shoulder. The blade of the weapon instantly stabbed through the flesh and allowed even more green blood to ooze down to the ground. Despite the pain, though, Amorpho still held on tightly to his foe's ankle.

" **Do you really think that people will really come? That they will even be able to make it here?** " Nekron scoffed, " **You saw the chaos I created out there. Even if there are survivors that are still capable of fighting physically, they're probably too struck by grief to even move. You're just struggling for nothing.** "

"No…" Amorpho coughed out blood, "I can't believe that…No matter…I know they will come…Hope is not dead."

" **Fool. Hope is dead. Danny Phantom is dead,** " Nekron twisted the blade in Amorpho's arm, " **And soon, you will be dead too.** "

"No…You're wrong…" Amorpho hissed from the pain, "He's alive…The proof…is all around us…You didn't kill…anyone here."

Nekron paused. Despite having beaten the entire Justice League, Light, and more mercenary individuals to a bloody pulp, Nekron did not in fact kill anyone. Even Captain Atom was still alive as long as the majority of his suit was intact. Still, Nekron did have an answer for that, " **There was no point in killing them now. It would be more fun to make them wait for their demise instead of just giving it to them.** "

"Liar," Amorpho gave a bloody smile that showed his missing teeth, "He's still in there…He won't let you kill them…"

" **I killed the Fright Knight,** " For the first time in a very long time, Nekron showed real annoyance and anger in his features.

"And that was what it took to wake him up in here," Amorpho gave a pained chuckle, "He created a mental block on you…Didn't he? You can't kill anyone, can you?"

Nekron violently pulled his scythe from Amorpho's shoulder. He then brought it back down at the changeling's head. Right before the blade made contact, though, it stopped. The same thing happened on Nekron's second attempt.

"See? I knew it…And everyone else will know it…They have faith in him…and his family…They will come because they believe in him…in them…Because…" Amorpho coughed out violently, "We all owe them a debt that can't be repaid, and we will fight for them until our dying breath."

" **And that dying breath will be soon!** " In a rage, Nekron pulled his scythe up and pointed it at the Life Entity, " **He might be able to stop me from killing normal people, but I will power through and take out the Life Entity! He won't be able to stop that! I am in control here! My obsession is stronger than his!** "

"Right now…Yeah…" Amorpho pulled Nekron's leg to shake him up a bit, "But not for long…They will be here…very soon."

" **Like hell!** " Nekron gathered black energy to his scythe. He then prepared to unleash everything he had at the Life Entity, " **Eventually, everything will die!** "

"Yeah…" Amorpho smiled as the sound of a horn rang throughout the cave, "But not today."

In a blast of energy, Nekron and Amorpho disappeared from the Life Entity's cave. The hanging Justice League were pulled along for the ride because of how Nekron's energy was hooked onto them. When the energy died down, the only people left were the villains and Constantine. The cave was silent, even as the form of Vandal Savage began to reform and Morgaine le Fey popped in from a portal to pull Dark Dan away from the previous battle area.

* * *

J.A.Z.Z. looked down at the new armor that she uploaded herself into. The new Red X armor looked almost the exact same as the previous armor before it was destroyed. There was only a small difference, and that was the armor was shaped more to fit a woman's build instead of Danny's more masculine build, "Well, at the very least I won't have to change my voice anymore."

"Alright," Hotep Ra nodded at the sight of the new fighter. He reached to grab his Black Lantern ring with his free hand, "Now we have everything—"

"YOU!"

All eyes turned to see the injured forms of Spirit and Cyborg at the entrance to the lab. With bloodshot eyes glaring at the Black Lantern, she lunged forward to attack the other ghost. She froze, though, when Hotep Ra removed his ring and crushed it in his hand.

Opening his hand, the mummy ghost allowed the ring to rise up in black smoke, "I see that Nocturne put you through a whole ordeal, but know that I never associated with him on my own free will."

Spirit seemed to digest this. She then looked around the room, "What exactly is going on in here?"

"It's a long story," Red X spoke, "And I don't believe that we have the time to go through everything right now."

Spirit looked like she wanted to say something, but she kept her mouth shut. She turned to Cyborg and nodded. He then stepped forward, "I'm going to need a few quick repairs."

"I can do it," Richard noted.

"You?"

"Yeah. I've recently gotten pretty great with this tech stuff."

"Alright, but—"

A roar of a horn brought everyone's attention to a portal that opened off to the side. Everyone blinked when Bumblebee stepped into the lab. She seemed confused by the strange mass of people in the room, "Um…I was told that I could get my suit fixed here?"

Richard smiled, "I'm on it."

Hotep Ra nodded, "Make it fast. We have to move as soon as possible."

* * *

"Shazam!" A blast of lighting transformed Billy into the recognizable form of Captain Marvel. He looked over to Lydia, "So…Where are we going?"

Lydia shrugged.

Captain Marvel raised an eyebrow, "You don't know?"

Lydia looked down the road to where they had left the recovering children, "I was kind of in a bit of a hurry you know."

"Fair enough," Captain Marvel rubbed the back of his head, "But how do we get to where Nekron is?"

A roar of the horn created a portal right next to them.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes. Yes, it does."

"Wait!" Box Ghost cried after them. He looked back to his wife and child, "Hun, I know that you'll be worried, but I have to—"

Lunch Lady silenced him by gently tapping a finger to his lips, "Go. I'll stay with Box Lunch and the other children. Kick Nekron's ass for me."

"Yeah!" Box Lunch cheered, "Kick ass!"

* * *

Ace stepped to the portal without a word.

"Woah!" Artemis's voice stopped her, "I have a personal rule about stepping into random portals."

"Don't worry. The guy who made it seemed nice when I met him," Ace mentioned, "I think you know him actually. What was his name? Mal?"

"Mal?" Rocket raised an eyebrow as she finished some last second repairs to her equipment and belt, "Since when could he do that?"

"Since he got the Horn of Gabriel."

Raven's eyebrows rose, "The Horn of Gabriel? How did he get that?"

Ace sighed, "Look. I really don't know. I just woke up, got dropped off here, and saved you. If you want to know, ask him after we save the world."

The other three women shared a look and nodded. That seemed fair enough.

* * *

Ravager's eyes widened as a familiar form stepped out of the portal in front of them, "Joseph?! What are you doing here? And why are you wearing hippie clothes?"

Jericho quickly raised a notepad that Poindexter had provided him, 'No time. I helped the Herald create portals across the globe by pinpointing your spiritual energy signals.'

"Are you high?" Ravage questioned, "Because I got the feeling that you're high."

Rolling his eyes, Jericho turned and jumped back into the portal.

"Hey! Wait! You do not just get to come back into my life without a word!" Ravager jumped into the portal after him, "Joseph! Big brother! Don't ignore me, damn it!"

Gizmo sighed as he stepped after them, "I'm way too desensitized to this shit now. Oh well. Onward to certain death!"

Silently, Black Bat followed after him. Nightwing, however, stayed behind for a moment. He looked back at Barbara, "Barb…I have to…"

"I know. Go," Barbara ordered, "I'll stay here. Not like I would be much help in a fight."

* * *

Vision had given up the moment she had been carried to the Life Entity's cavern. Trapped in the cocoon of dark energy, she could do nothing but watch as things played out. Despite her nature, she forced herself to not think of any possible strategies to get out, because there was no hope for her to think about escaping. From the moment that she met Nekron face to face, she knew that there was no way to stop him.

She had scoffed when she saw the Endless.

She rolled her eyes when the villains and Constantine arrived.

She shook her head during Nekron's fake defeat.

Hell, Vision could only close her eyes in pity when Amorpho appeared. Just hearing the beat down was painful. It was so sad to her. Nott for even one moment did she fathom the idea of turning this around in her favor…until the fell the pull of teleportation.

In a single instant, Nekron's energy holding her faltered. That was all she needed to break free. Once she was free, she immediately pulsed her energy into the sheet wrapped around her body and fused it to the private areas of her body. Despite what she thought before, Vision couldn't help but take advantage of the situation. She didn't know if she could do anything, but dying while trying sounded a lot better than dying while hung up like a rag doll.

* * *

Nekron landed with grace at the center of a large island. A quick look around the area revealed where he was. He was at the abandoned compound of the Sorcerer Initiative. That was a long way from the Life Entity. How exactly did he get here? And where did all his captives go?

Turning, Nekron saw Vision and a recovering Vlad standing over the still injured Amorpho.

"Gah…" Amorpho smiled up to them, "I did it…"

"You did, Amorpho," Vision nodded gently.

"Yes, I…" Vlad shook his head. In a burst of dark rings, he transformed into his Plasmius form, "You have our thanks."

Nekron was about to speak again when another sound of a horn sounded through the area. Different portals opened all around him. Different heroes, ghosts, and meta-humans stepped into the area. There was even a strange rift that brought in Nyx and some strange people among the portals. At the same time, a burst of water from the edge of the island brought the three Atlantians to the island. To his growing amusement, that wasn't the only direction new arrivals came from. Kid Flash ran in from the other side of the island, Dusk and his group flew in from a third direction, and Colossus came flying down from the heavens with King and Jack by his side. A fighter even came up from the earth in the form of Undergrowth. Finally, the new arrivals ended with one final burst of the horn. Mal appeared with Jester and Poindexter in tow. The nerd ghost was still rapidly typing on his keyboard while Jester floated right behind him.

" **Well, now this is amusing,** " Nekron chuckled, " **All of you survived this long just to come to fight me? Really?** "

No one responded. In fact, none of them reacted to the others around them that had joined the fight…or the obvious people that were missing from the fight. They couldn't let themselves be distracted by that right now. If they started lamenting on who was lost, they would never save who was left. So, instead, they all continued to glare right at Nekron.

" **As impressed and amused I am by this, I'm done playing around,** " With a wave of his hand, Nekron created two more shades. One of them made Lydia flinch. Dressed in a dark trench coat and top hat, Freakshow was a man with a long nose and ashen colored skin. On his arm was a familiar looking Gauntlet that had been destroyed years ago. Next to him was a voluptuous genie with deep green skin, " **Bet you forgot about them, huh? Well, I haven't forgotten a single person that had has died in this little story of ours. Now, Freakshow, Desiree, I wish that you would send all of these fools into the voids of space**."

"I think not!" Poindexter finally finished typing, "Now, Jester!"

Chuckling, Jester pushed his energy into Poindexter's keyboard. A wide energy blast spread out from them and continued out all around the world. In the blink of an eye, all the monsters and shades that Nekron had created disappeared in a puff of smoke. Nekron blinked as his minions disappeared.

"Hehehehehe!" Jester gave a thumbs up, "No more weak little minions for you to use, Nekron."

"And no more Black Lanterns either," Hotep Ra noted, "I was the last one. You have no more people to fight for you, Nekron."

Nekron looked around once more. Despite almost all of them being injured, everyone here had a determined look on their faces, " **HeheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is hilarious! Tell me, are you going to miraculously heal the Justice League now?"**

Mal shook his head, "I dropped them to safety. There was no way they could handle this fight."

Nekron looked to Amorpho. The Reaper was about to speak until another sound of the horn created a portal underneath the disguise ghost. Amorpho disappeared from his sight in the blink of an eye.

Sighing, Nekron looked up at the sky, " **What is it that you wish to accomplish? Have I not proven that none of you can possibly beat me? You had trouble with the Black Lanterns, and I am far stronger than all of them combined. What makes you think that you can possibly win? Even with such great numbers, most of you are barely standing as it is. There is literally no possible way to defeat me.** "

"That doesn't matter," Dusk pointed Soul Shredder at Nekron, "We can still fight. Even if we're not at full strength, we'll make do. We'll stop you no matter what."

"Because everything that we went through…everything that we lost…" Spirit clenched her fists, "It can't be for nothing."

" **I see. Well then…** " Nekron stabbed his scythe into the ground, " **I suppose that this is the end, no? Either you stop me, or I kill everything. After you, I can't think of any possible force that could stand in my way. As a reward for impressing me so much with your fortitude, I'll give you one final gift. I will use my full power against you.** "

Raising his hands up, Nekron pulled down all the energy that had collected into the sky. A massive column of energy surrounded him and empowered him. In a blaze, the sky was clear once more. The same could not be said for the earth. All the plants and inorganic objects on the island disintegrated into nothingness. The oceans seemed to recede away from the island in fear. All of the world shook for one moment before everything went silent.

Slowly, Nekron reached down and pulled his scythe from the ground. Each of his ten fingers were covered in Black Power Rings. The same could be said for the man's toes. At the same time, different rings seemed pierced into Nekron's face, one in each ear, two in each eyebrow, one in each cheek, one on his lip, and one in his tongue. In all, Nekron had thirty Black Power Rings on his person.

The Reaper of Death pointed his scythe forward, " **Come. You've all earned the pleasure of dying by your god's hands.** "

* * *

 **Next update: "Blind Faith" on October 24, 2016**

 **Once again, big thanks to jaguarspot for being this chapter's Beta.**

 **CHAPTER QUESTION: And so we finally reach the climax of the story. My question is very simple this time. What do you think is going to happen?**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	33. Blind Faith

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark."

Rabindranath Tagore

* * *

Chapter 33: "Blind Faith"

 _(Saturday-May 30, 2009)_

 _A younger, thinner Danny Fenton sat on small rowboat at the center of a lake. The weather was beautiful this day, and Danny felt content with a fishing rod in his hand and the steady snoring sound behind him. With school finally over, he was more than ready to enjoy some free time. Normally, he would have went out and spent time with his friends, but this rare fishing trip wasn't something he could just give up._

 _Suddenly, the snoring behind him stopped with a grunt. Danny smiled as he felt the boat shift, "Nice nap, Dad?"_

" _Oh…" Jack Fenton was an extremely large and tall man. The orange jumpsuit that covered him hid his thicker build while the fishing hat on the top of his head hid his slowly graying hair. He reached up a large hand to scratch a squared jaw, "Man, nothing knocks me out faster than processed cheese spread."_

 _Danny laughed at that. His Dad never changed._

" _Sorry, Dannyo," Jack sat back up and grabbed his fishing rod, "Didn't mean to leave you hanging like that."_

" _It's no big deal, Dad."_

" _No, we should, uh…" Jack pulled out a notecard, "Be bonding as father and son to increase our relationship while securing your dependability in the future."_

 _Danny turned around, "What does that mean?"_

" _I don't know," Jack tossed the card away, "If your mother asks, I had this long talk about expectations and stuff now that you're going to high school."_

" _Consider it done," Danny faced away, "Besides, high school can't be any worse than middle school."_

" _It doesn't seem like a big step, son, but that's the thing about life," Jack opened a metal foot container and pulled out a healthy apple that his wife had packed to make sure he ate something healthy. He had to eat some of it before going back to junk food, "It's all just a bunch of small steps. Then, years later, you'll look back and think, 'Wow. I can't believe my life was like that before'."_

 _Danny snorted, "I doubt it. Things hardly ever change for me. Same city. Same house. Same friends. Same family. Same life."_

" _I don't expect you to see it now, but one day in the future, you'll look back on this and think about how smart and handsome your old man really was about this."_

" _How did handsome come into the equation?"_

" _Had to fit it in somewhere, son," Jack took a bite of his apple, "The point is, you'll never know where you'll be in the future. We'll never know where we'll be one year from now."_

 _Danny rolled his eyes, "Come on, Dad. Things can't change so much in just one year. In one year, we'll be back on this boat fishing again."_

" _That does sound good," Jack quickly finished his apple and switched back to his cheese snack._

" _Hopefully by then, though, I'll have finally hit my growth spurt," Danny grunted out, "I'm sick of always being the small guy. Being weak sucks. No matter what I do, I don't get stronger or bigger. What makes it worse is how tall you and Mom are."_

" _You'll get there, Dannyo," Jack laughed out, "Believe it or not, when I was your age, I wasn't that much bigger than you."_

 _Danny's face lit up, "Really?"_

" _Yep. My growth started all at once, and the next thing I know…" Jack trailed off, "Well, being big and having power is something you have to get used to."_

 _Danny grinned, "Shouldn't take that much. I mean, everyone would be too afraid of you to mess with you. That would be nice."_

 _Hearing that, Jack was the one to turn around. He looked at his son's back for a minute before grabbing his metal lunch box. Jack carefully emptied it of food. Then, he turned all the way around to face his son, "Danny."_

 _Surprised by the serious tone he heard from his father, Danny quickly turned around, "Yeah, Dad?"_

" _There's something I should probably tell you now before that growth spurt happens for you," Jack gestured for Danny to turn all the way around in the boat. Once that was done, the older man continued, "I have no doubt in my mind that you're going to get a lot stronger. Got those good Fenton genes in you after all. But there's something you need to know about being strong."_

 _Danny sighed, "Is this a 'with great power comes great responsibility' thing? Because I know that one."_

" _No, it's not that," Jack held the metal box in front of him, "I want you to see this."_

 _Danny watched his father grip the box. To his shock, the metal quickly began to bend around the man's fingers. After a few seconds, Jack placed the box down and allowed Danny to see how he had deformed the metal._

" _Woah…"_

" _Have I ever hurt you, Danny?"_

" _What? No, of course not."_

" _No. I haven't. Even when you were a little baby. Even when you and I wrestled when you were small toddler. Even at your most vulnerable, I never once hurt you," Jack gestured to the box, "Yet I could easily do that. What does that tell you?"_

" _That…you have good control?"_

" _Right. But did you ever know that I could do that?"_

" _No."_

" _That's because I don't care about strength. Not anymore at least," Jack explained, "When I was your age, that's all I cared about too…you know, besides girls. I learned, though, that there are things a lot more important than my strength. And I would give all my strength up in a second for you, Jazz, and your mother. Some things just matter more. That's why I'm always careful with it. Having your own strength hurt someone you care about…It hurts more than anything. Does that make sense?"_

" _Yeah, Dad."_

" _Good."_

" _But, um, Dad?"_

" _Yeah?"_

" _What are you going to tell Mom about the lunch box?"_

" _Oh…That I was so enthusiastic to eat the healthy food that I accidentally bent the metal!"_

" _But didn't you just go on a big explanation about controlling strength and all that?"_

" _She doesn't know that, though."_

* * *

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

As expected, Colossus was the first person to attack. He rushed forward before anyone else even thought about moving forward to the Reaper. With a roar, he spun around and sent a massive shockwave empowered kick to his enemy. Without looking the least bit scared or worried, Nekron raised an arm to stop the kick. He just stood smirking as the shockwave that followed washed over him.

With a surge of energy, he sent Colossus skipping away like a stone. Before Nekron could do anything else, he was covered in a barrage of ectoplasmic bullets that rammed into him from every possible direction. The combination of the Royal Flush Gang, Gizmo, and the Exorcist Armor created a wave of bullets that normally would have given anyone else pause. Nekron didn't even look interested in them.

Without even moving, Nekron created several different corporeal gun creations from his energy. The loud bangs and gunshots that followed had all of his current attackers reeling with fractured armor and bullet holes. All the energy guns were quickly destroyed with a flash of steel from the more vulnerable and powerless members of the fighters. Despite being surrounded by trained assassins and ninjas, Nekron still didn't move from his spot.

Moving with the grace that could only be obtained from a lifetime of training, the hand-to-hand combatants all tried to take down their greatest enemy. Ravager swung her sword at Nekron's neck while Black Bat tried to stab him in the kidneys with a knife. At the same time, Harm tried to cut the Reaper off at the knees. With Nekron completely uninjured by the blades, Nightwing and Red X moved in with electric batons and gauntlets ready. All the electrified blows seemed to do absolutely nothing the Reaper.

In a burst of black, the close quarter fighters were surrounded by corporeal ninjas. The four fighters were immediately pushed back and beat down by the created shinobi. Before the beating could get too bad, the energy fighters of death were torn apart by telekinetic blasts. Ace and Miss Martian, the perpetrators of the previous attack, then turned their full attention and power onto Nekron. He was hit with a combined wave of telekinetic and telepathic force. Such a combination of sheer mental power should have turned Nekron's mind and body into mush, but the ancient ghost's mind was one held together very tightly.

Pushback from Nekron's shields instantly stopped Ace and Miss Martian's attack. They both collapsed to the ground desperately clutching at their heads. The Reaper smirked at their twitching forms. Before he could comment or follow up with an attack on the downed telepaths, he was completely covered from top to bottom with tiny creatures that used to exist as tattoos on Lydia's body and shadows that Nyx commanded to jump up from below Nekron. Both of the ghosts continued to hold their hands out to try and focus on controlling their hold on the Reaper.

Giggling in madness, Thorn appeared in front of the trapped Ghost of Death. Snapping her fingers, Thorn created several different knives and whips to cut into and slash at Nekron. With a hum of satisfaction at the sight, she pointed her hands at the stabbed wrappings that covered Nekron. The area around Nekron then began shift and twirl. She tried to tear the Reaper apart molecule by molecule.

After a few seconds of this tactic, black energy surged through the living tattoos and shadows holding the Ghost of Death. A wave of Nekron's power washed over the women. Nyx's and Lydia's already injured forms were instantly floored. Thorn, though, distorted the area in front of herself to stop the wave. She then tried to lunge at Nekron only to be caught by the throat and held into the air.

Nekron tilted his head to the side in confusion. He wondered why he never knew of this strange creature that was clawing at his arm and kicking at his sides. Not really caring too much now that the completion of his obsession was in sight, Nekron shrugged. He punched Thorn right in the face with a powerful strike and sent her skipping after Colossus across the island.

A quick flash of movement in his peripheral vision caused Nekron to point both of his index fingers down and form thick energy blades around his fingers. The Reaper then brought his hands up to block two different swipes of blades at his heads. His finger blades effortlessly stopped the two blades at his hand. He smirked as Dusk with Soul Shredder and Spirit with her hands held together into one large Spectral Claw tried to push forward to him.

After a second of pushing revealed that there was no way for them to overpower the Reaper, both half-ghosts brought their blades back and tried to swing at a differing angle. Nekron once again blocked him with his finger blade. In a blur, the halfas tried with several swings of their ghostly blades to cut Nekron in two. None of the attacks were successful at all. With one final swing, they brought the blades down and disengaged Nekron while making sure that his arms were far away from his head.

Dusk released one hand from Soul Shredder and formed a Burst Gauntlet. Spirit spun around and gathered energy into her real foot. In a blaze of green, they slammed their attacks into the sides of Nekron's head. With a fist on one cheek and a foot on the other, Nekron just looked forward to see Captain Marvel rushing forward to punch what appeared to be his vulnerable form. Scoffing, he reached up and grabbed onto the limbs that were rammed into the side of his head. At the same time, a large skeletal hand made of energy formed in front of the Reaper. It grabbed onto Captain Marvel and held him tight.

Using all three limbs, both real and fake, Nekron slammed his three newest attackers onto the ground repeatedly before tossing them away uncaringly. Before he could do anything else after this, he was met with a combination of Plasmius and Vision. Both of them were smart enough to realize the situation. No strategy would work on Nekron. The duo could think of nothing other than keep attacking. Even as Kid Flash rushed in at unbelievable speeds to help them, they realized that no amount of power, speed, or intelligence could possibly best the Ghost of Death. Nevertheless, they had to keep trying, because that was the only option they had left.

* * *

Richard Foley breathed out in horror at what he was looking at with the hologram in front of him. He clutched at the controller in his hands to the point that the plastic was cracking from the pressure. Still he forced himself to not break the controller in his panic. If he did, then there would be no way to control the Exorcist armor and see what was happening. So, he continued to rapidly press buttons to try to get the armor to move again despite its damage.

Another thing that didn't help his situation was the people around him. They weren't being noisy. Far from it actually. All the unconscious and beaten members of the Justice League lie around him. In any other instance, the new technopath would be freaking out about even the idea of being around such heroes. Right now, though, he had to focus on the task at hand. Geeking out could come later…if they all lived, which wasn't likely with how the battle was going.

"How…are they doing?" Amorpho's bruised and bloody head looked over Richard.

Said technopath didn't look away from the hologram being projected from his controller, "Very bad."

"I see…" Amorpho moved his head back to look up at the sky once more, "So everything I did could still be for nothing."

"It could," Richard didn't sugar coat his answer.

"Damn," Tears appeared at the corner of Amorpho's eyes.

"Don't give up. We still can—"

A low groan draw the two's attention. Superboy was pushing himself up. He blinked as he looked around him. The Kryptonian seemed to notice the downed Justice League members. Conner then looked at the only two still conscious people around him, "W-What happened?"

"How are you awake? The Leaguers are out for the count," Richard divided his attention between the revived Superboy and the hologram in front of him.

"Phantom is still in there…" Amorpho stated, "He's forced Nekron to hold back and not go for the kill…With you, though…He did less damage…Because he's your friend…"

Superboy eyed the hologram in front of Richard. He watched the fight with Nekron. There were so many of his teammates and friends in that fight, "Where is that?"

Richard pointed forward, "It's across the island—Wait! You can't go! You're still injured."

Superboy paused in his walk. As soon as Richard pointed, he had started to walk towards the fight. Looking back towards Richard, he spoke again, "The others are injured too. I have no clue what happened while I was out, but I'm sure most of it was really bad. If the others are still willing to fight, then I can get over a few bruises."

With that, Superboy leapt in the direction of the fight leaving the others behind with the still unconscious Justice Leaguers. Nodding to himself, Richard went back to controlling the Exorcist Armor. Meanwhile, Amorpho tried to move but couldn't. His wounds were still too bad. All he could do was look back towards the sky and hope things would work out, but the noises from the hologram of Nekron beating the remaining fighters down gave him the suspicion that perhaps everything that everyone went through on hope and faith alone would be fruitless.

* * *

 _(Sunday-May 30, 2010)_

 _Danny groaned as he sunk into the soft couch. With a cup of coffee in his hand, he turned on the television to immediately be assaulted by the news about the Guys in White and the ghosts. That's all there ever seemed to be on TV lately._

" _You sound old, Daniel," Vlad noted as he too reclined on the couch. Different papers and reports surrounded the man. His eyes were glued right on a laptop, though._

" _Just sore," Danny mentioned, "You'd be surprised about how much it hurts to die and come back to life. It still hurts even after five days of doing nothing but rest."_

 _Vlad hummed in acknowledgement. After the GIW War had ended, the half-ghosts had retreated to the billionaire's home in Wisconsin. With Amity Park still being occupied, it was their only choice really. Staying in the Ghost Zone wasn't ideal because they needed to show their human faces, especially with all the attention ghosts and ghost hunters were getting._

" _Well you better get over of it quick," Vlad handed Danny a note from Vision, "The time for rest is over. We have a lot to do, both as humans and as ghosts."_

 _Danny eyed the note, "Great. Have to go back to the UN. Hope they don't throw things this time."_

 _Vlad snorted, "That would be incredibly unprofessional of them considering that you're invited and won't go through a random portal."_

" _Yeah," Danny's eyes drifted to Vlad, "So when are we leaving for Amity Park?"_

" _A few hours after Danielle wakes up," Vlad explained, "We have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of work to do. With the Guys in White finally driven out of the city, we need to go back and establish ourselves once more."_

" _Right," Danny turned his attention to his coffee once more, "The next month is going to be a long one."_

" _Not as long as the last month at least."_

" _True. Who would have thought a year ago that…" Danny paused for a second, "Huh…"_

 _Vlad's eyes drifted to Danny, "What is it?"_

" _Nothing. Just thinking about how smart and handsome my old man really was."_

 _Vlad lifted an eyebrow, "How did handsome come into the equation?"_

 _Danny grinned into his coffee in fondness at the memory, "It's a long story."_

* * *

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Nekron held both Vision and Plasmius by the throats with a single hand each. He violently brought the two of them together so that their heads slammed repeatedly against each other. After doing this a few times, he then tossed the dazed ghosts away. What was a mild toss for Nekron would be considered a catapult's worth of throwing power. The other ghosts went flying away across the island.

Once that was done, Nekron felt a small push from his side. Turning to it, he found out that there was nothing there. Then, he felt another push from the opposite side. Once again, he turned to it. This time, he caught a yellow blur. Ah, it was Kid Flash. That made some sense. Nekron remembered being slightly concerned about the "Speed Force" that he used during Trigon's invasion. That was why he had ordered Blood to take care of the speedster, but that was before he had absorbed Danny Phantom. Now, not even the fastest person to ever exist could rival him.

Just as Nekron was about to turn his full attention to the speedster, he was surrounded by the illusions of circus equipment, performers, and animals. The Reaper instantly recognized the mirage. Jester had done this same thing in their last fight. Huh, it seemed as though the Jester he saw wasn't just for show. Perhaps it was the Mirror of Memories.

Ignoring the pushing feeling that came from Kid Flash's attacks, Nekron pulsed his energy to dispel the illusion. Once he was freed from the mirage, though, he found that he was surrounded by people that Nekron knew were dead. It was definitely the Mirror of Memories. Reaching a hand up, Nekron tried to dispel the shades only to be knocked off balance. There was no pain or damage, but that was the first time he had legitimately stumbled in the fight.

Another blur of yellow made it known that it was Kid Flash that was the perpetrator. Looking off to where Kid Flash ran off to, Nekron was surprised to see that the speedster wasn't turning around to come back. Instead, after a brief pause where he tried to deal with the shades of ghosts and heroes that had long since perished, he felt another massive push from behind him that caused him to stumble once more. Ah, the speedster wasn't turning around. That would slow his momentum. Instead, he circled around the entire planet to gain as much speed as possible.

Smirking, Nekron tried to spread out a mist of energy across the island in an attempt to create a trap to slow Kid Flash down. This was a stopped by a combination of spells by Raven and Zatanna that created a concentrated gravitational field around Nekron to push him down. This combined with Jester's shades and Kid Flash's attacks actually caused Nekron to become trapped.

Once again, Nekron was impressed. They had executed a beautiful trap. Dozens of the other fighters were rushing into what they thought was the vulnerable Nekron. It was truly a beautiful effort. Too bad that he could get out with ease.

In a blaze of black, the Reaper was covered in an energy outline of a skeleton covered in a cloak. He broke through the spell holding him with ease, causing the magic users to collapse from the backlash. A blast of energy surged off of the Ghost of Death and caused all the approaching fighters to be knocked back. Then, to Jester's shock, Nekron began to dispel the shades without even looking at them. The shades just dissolved as if they were dunked in acid. With a determined look, the memory of the ancient created even more illusions.

Nekron didn't even blink as dozens of Kid Flash illusions ran around him. Without even turning his head, the Reaper reached out and grabbed the vibrating speedster by the throat. Smiling at his foe, Nekron surged his energy from his hand and around the speedster. For a few brief seconds, the Speed Force around Kid Flash pushed back against the Reaper's energy. Slowly, it was pushed back into nothingness. Without the energy of the Speed Force to strengthen him, Kid Flash instantly fell unconscious.

Dropping the speedster, Nekron went to turn his attention to the others only to be met with the face of the new Harriet Chin. The new Meta-human wailed out in front of his face. Such powerful waves should have deafened the Ghost of Death, but he merely winced at the horridness of the unpleasant sound. He immediately grabbed Harriet by the jaw and broke it. As she dropped, Nekron noticed that he was surrounded by the new Damon Gray and Hotep Ra. It only took one massive blast of energy each to send them skipping across the island.

With his newest distractions dealt with, Nekron turned his eyes on Jester. Before he could move, a loud, angry roar sounded through the area. Superboy had lunged himself at the Reaper's back. Before he could get close, though, the clone was stopped. In a burst of black energy, he was smashed into the ground. Nekron then disappeared away from the downed Superboy. The Reaper then appeared in front of the shade. He rammed his hand into Jester's chest to grab the Mirror of Memories.

" **Hello, Jester. It's been a while.** "

Jester couldn't move anything but his lips, "That it has."

" **I was wondering why I couldn't create a shade for you. You prepared for this possibility, didn't you?** "

"Of course. Couldn't let you ruin the world's fun again. Especially with me under your control."

" **Hmm…** " With a violent jerk of his hand, Nekron pulled the Mirror of Memories out from Jester's chest, " **I'm tired of this trinket.** "

With a snarl, Nekron crushed the mirror in his hands. His energy surged and destroyed every protection the mirror had. In an instant, the Mirror of Memories was turned to dust. With a gasp, Jester began to fade away, "Don't…don't think you win…not yet…There's still hope."

Nekron watched as Jester disappeared from the world once more, " **Oh really?** "

Extending his arms out, Nekron sent out a massive wave of energy that surrounded the area. In a second, every fighter was floored and knocked out. As the energy faded, Nekron stood victorious.

" **Anyone else?** "

The response he received was surprising. Instead of silence, he felt several blasts of green energy ram into his shields. Looking up, Nekron saw an army of Green Lanterns approaching him from the heavens above him, " **Oh. Forgot about you.** "

* * *

Richard hissed out curses as he rapidly pressed buttons on his controller. Despite everything he tried, though, the Exorcist Suit was not responding. There had been too much internal damage. He would have to get close to the machine to fix it at this point. Getting closer to the fight wasn't an option, though. That would be suicide for him.

"Green Lanterns…" Amorpho breathed out as he saw the army descend from the sky.

Richard looked up in awe, "Wow. That's so cool. I knew there was a whole Lantern Corp, but I never thought…"

"Will they be any help, though?" Amorpho questioned.

Richard looked to the static holographic screen in front of him. He had no more connection with the Exorcist Armor. There was no way to know directly, "I don't know. Let me do the math based on Nekron's demonstrated abilities…The Green Lantern's base strength…Oh."

"What?"

Richard was extremely pale, "They have a 0.0000001% chance. So…virtually zero."

Amorpho summed it up pretty easily, "Damn."

Richard could not argue with that.

* * *

 _(Monday-May 30, 2011)_

" _Yeah!" Wally cheered as ran down the sand and into the ocean, "Freedom."_

" _Hey, Kid Mouth!" Artemis chased after him, "Ladies first! Or at least your girlfriend first."_

 _The other members of Young Justice watched their most energetic and noisiest couple. With the school year now done, the Team decided to take a day for themselves to enjoy the beginning of their summer vacation. As such, they decided to do a rare day at the beach._

" _Do all land dwellers want to go into the ocean like that?" Tula, one of the newest members of the Team, questioned._

" _Only on hot days, girl," Raquel explained, "Speaking of which, I'm getting in before I melt."_

" _I see," Garth, the other new member of Young Justice, nodded, "So this beach day is about being in the water?"_

" _Not completely," Zatanna set up a beach chair and began to apply lotion, "There's also tanning. But I can't reach my back…"_

 _Robin was next to her in an instant._

" _Good boy."_

" _Tanning?" Tula blinked, "What's that?"_

 _Phantom and Valerie were setting up chairs of their own. Unlike Zatanna, though, they also set up a large beach umbrella to shield them. Phantom quickly took a seat and closed his eyes, "People soak in the sunrays to tan their skin and look good."_

 _Valerie sat down next to her boyfriend and pulled a book out her beach bag, "For a ghost and someone with a darker complexion already, thought, that's pretty pointless. But we also like to enjoy the weather."_

" _I see," Garth rubbed his chin, "Is there anything else?"_

" _Sandcastles!" A younger Garfield grabbed the Altantians' hands and pulled them down the beach, "Come on! I'll show you!"_

" _Oh! That sounds fun!" M'gann looked to Conner, "Do you want to?"_

 _Conner looked at M'gann's pleading look and grunted, "Alright."_

" _Yeah!" M'gann grabbed the clone's hand and pulled him after their retreating teammates._

 _Kaldur looked around to see that he was alone. He then noticed Raquel waving towards him. Smiling, he walked towards her, "I believe a dip sounds nice."_

 _Valerie snorted at that without looking up from her book. Once she was finally alone with her boyfriend, she looked over to the relaxing Phantom, "I'm surprised that you didn't invite Dani or Joel."_

" _They already had plans," Phantom noted, "Besides, it's probably for the best. Nyx would have wanted to come with Dani, and Lord knows that she would have been throwing a ton of hints at Tula and Garth about our identities."_

 _Valerie looked up from her book and over to the Atlantians, "When are you going to tell them about the half-ghosts?"_

" _When they show that they're loyal to the cause," Phantom explained, "Garth had the chance to take up the mantle of Aqualad before, and Tula might not be cut out of this. I hope I'm wrong, but they have to prove themselves just like everyone else."_

" _Fair point," Valerie looked back to her book. She paused, though, when Phantom gently took her hand into his. Smiling, Val continued to read her book while holding her hands with her boyfriend._

 _After several minutes of this, she looked over to Phantom's face. He seemed to be enjoying the moment of rest that she practically had to drag him into taking. The sounds of his friends enjoying themselves was music to his ears. Despite this, though, he seemed to have a very far off look on his face._

" _What are you thinking of?" Valerie questioned._

" _Oh, just about how weird this is," Phantom snorted, "I wouldn't have ever imagined my life would be like this. Working with superheroes? Being good enough friends with them to relax on the beach?"_

" _Having a beautiful girlfriend?" Valerie teased._

 _Phantom let out a loud laugh, "That too. You know, I had a talk with my dad once about two years ago. He told me that I would look back and think, 'Wow. I can't believe my life was like that before.' Boy was he right. Being a kid without superpowers or responsibility…it seems like a dream now. So I have to wonder where I'll be years from now."_

" _I wouldn't worry about that," Val gently squeezed his hand, "Nothing we can do about the future right now. Just enjoy the now."_

" _You're right." Danny's face relaxed, "Shouldn't worry about that. Right now, I'm with the girl I love and the friends I trust with my life. Life is good."_

* * *

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Nekron just looked up boredly as the Green Lanterns rained down around him. Hundreds of concentrated blasts of willpower smashed into him. To the Reaper, though, this was less annoying than a light rain. Several different constructions of energy appeared and tried to cut through him. One brave Green Lantern actually flew close enough to try to attack Nekron personally. The Ghost of Death didn't even blink at the sight of all this.

Sighing, Nekron punched upward to the Green Lantern that was currently punching down at him. The force of the blow was so great that the warrior of Oa was sent flying far up past the other Green Lanterns. He soared through the clouds and sky until he eventually went into Earth's orbit. Despite the vicious show of strength, the Green Lanterns did not seem deterred. Instead, they kept pushing downward to Nekron.

"Keep going!" Kilowog roared, "We cannot let him win!"

Nekron was tired of all these distractions. He had already had his fun. Playing with bugs no longer amused him. It was time to burn them alive with a magnifying glass. Black energy surged off the Reaper in a massive wave. All the Green Lanterns were instantly pushed back. Still, they did not yield. In a few seconds, they wished that they would have, though.

A black energy construction in the shape of a massive skeleton rose up from Nekron's position. Fear instantly gripped the Green Lantern's hearts as the skeleton grew to three sizes larger than the island. It let out a roar that made the very sky above them tremble in terror. Out of instinct, they all fired energy blasts at the construction only to find that their attacks faded away before they even got close to the massive skeleton.

To their shock, the skeleton didn't move immediately. Instead, different clawed hands burst out from the bone shell. All the Green Lanterns were forced to desperately dodge the hundreds of limbs lunging at them. As all the Green Lanterns scattered, though, the energy construction moved. It waved its massive arms and sent dozens of the green warriors flying away. Still, they quickly returned to battle despite their new wounds.

Despite dominating the Green Lantern army single handedly, Nekron wasn't satisfied with the speed at which the battle was progressing. He decided that it was time to end this. His massive construction followed his commands and brought its boney hands together. A massive ball of black energy formed between the construction's hands. Instead of using it as soon as it was formed, the giant skeleton raised the ball of energy into the air where it continued to grow until it was the size of a miniature sun.

Once the ball of death energy was big enough for Nekron's satisfaction, it exploded and burst into a massive sea of energy that covered everything in the area for several dozen miles. The energy of the explosion swirled and twisted. It attacked every enemy of Nekron from every direction. Many of the fighters were actually repeatedly slammed into the ground as well.

After a few minutes of this, the wave of energy formed into separate hands that grabbed onto the Green Lanterns and threw them into the ocean. With that done, the energy hands faded away. Nekron's massive construction then began to fade as well. Once the blackness fell and faded away, Nekron looked over the area to see the entire army of bodies that he had defeated.

" **Anyone else?** " Nekron questioned as he looked around, " **Is Morningstar going to rise from hell? What about you, Presence? You want a shot? Oh, I know! Beatlejuice. Beatlejuice. Beatlejuice. Huh…Nothing? About. Damn. Time.** "

With that, Nekron waved his hand and created a rift that showed the Life Entity's cavern once more. Instead of stepping in, he reached in with his energy and pulled the Life Entity to him. Now that the Reaper had his obsession literally in hand, he wrapped his hands around the Entity's neck and began to squeeze.

* * *

Richard squirmed in pain. He had been hit by that last blast. The boy had never known this kind of pain. Everything hurt. Literally everything hurt. It wasn't an exaggeration. He could barely concentrate on anything else. The technopath barely managed to force his eyes open.

A quick look around revealed that everyone around him had been hit by that attack as well. All the Justice League heroes lie unconscious and defeated. The same could be said for Amorpho. Richard could only assume that the others in the battlefield were the same way.

There was nothing left. Only pain and suffering existed for them. Until they died, that is. All their fighting was for nothing in the end. Perhaps things would have been easier if they just gave up. Closing his eyes, Richard gave into unconsciousness. Being a hero wasn't nearly as fun as he thought it would be.

* * *

 _(Thursday-May 30, 2013)_

" _Hey!" Spirit climbed up on a rock on the top of Mount Justice. She sat down next to Phantom and looked off into the distance to the setting sun, "I've been looking for you. What are you doing?"_

" _Just enjoying the sunset," Phantom noted, "It's even more beautiful over the water."_

" _Indeed it is," Dusk noted from the other side of Phantom._

 _Spirit looked over to her two adopted brothers, "Is this a thing for you two?"_

" _Sometimes," Phantom shrugged, "When we're both free. Not like we plan to meet up. It just happens sometimes."_

" _I see…" Spirit nodded._

 _Phantom glanced over to his sister, "You said that you were looking for me?"_

" _Yeah, I was going to talk to you about the summer schedule, but…" Spirit leaned back and took in the sight, "That can wait."_

 _Dusk hummed, "That's the way I usually feel when I get up here."_

 _Spirit smirked, "Is that why you haven't asked Greta out yet?"_

 _As Dusk shifted uncomfortably, Phantom flicked Spirit upside the head, "Stop that. Don't embarrass him. Romance is a difficult thing. You can take my word on it."_

 _Spirit grumbled under her breath. Dusk, however, looked intrigued, "But you and Valerie have been dating for as long as I've known you. And before that you dated Ember, right?"_

" _Yes, but getting there was not easy," Phantom smiled at the memories of his own cluelessness and struggles with women, "I could give tons of stories about how bad I was with girls when I was your age. It was a slow process, and Val is still trying to fix it."_

" _Trouble in paradise?" Spirit questioned._

" _No more than every other relationship in the world," Phantom chuckled, "You'll understand when you get there."_

 _Spirit rolled her eyes, "Yeah. I can't see that. This whole puberty thing sucks. I'm already sick of it. Dealing with a boy at the same time would be way too hard."_

" _As a brother, I hope you keep that mindset. But as a realist, I know that you won't," Phantom noted, "After all…You never know where you'll be in a year."_

 _The two younger halfas blinked at Phantom's nostalgic look. Dusk nudged him, "Mentor? You okay?"_

" _Yeah…yeah…I just…God…" Phantom began chuckling, "Wow. I never realized how much things have changed. Damn, I'm eighteen now and in a serious relationship. Not to mention working with some of the planet's greatest heroes. Wow."_

" _You're just realizing this now?" Dusk questioned._

" _No. It's just when I look back at my life before the incident that gave me powers, I think, 'Wow. I can't believe my life was like that before'," Phantom had a broad grin across his face as he looked onto the sunset._

" _I doubt it," Spirit shrugged, "Things hardly ever change around Amity Park."_

" _Not like we'd want change anyway," Dusk noted, "Things are finally just plain good for me. I don't want things to change."_

 _Phantom's grin quickly disappeared. He turned his gaze from the setting sun to the girl at his side. Then, he looked to his other side to see the sight of his younger brother. Memories from four years ago flashed in his mind, "I don't expect you to see it now, but one day in the future, you'll look back on this and think about how smart and handsome your older brother really was about this."_

 _Spirit snorted, "How did handsome come into the equation?"_

 _Phantom looked back into the fading sun, "Had to fit it in somewhere."_

 _Dusk gave the older halfa male a worried look, "Are you okay? You seem worried."_

" _The point is, you'll never know where you'll be in the future. We'll never know where we'll be one year from now," Phantom noted._

" _I guess that's true," Spirit had to admit, "Can't predict what's going to happen in the future. Great. Now I'm going to get worried."_

" _Don't worry too much," Phantom swung his arms around both of them, "I know that you'll be able to handle anything that's thrown at you. You're strong. I have faith in you. And if you're ever in over your head, I'll be there to help. That's what family is for."_

 _Dusk gained a tiny smile, "Yeah."_

 _Spirit huffed amusedly and leaned into the hug, "Whatever."_

 _Still embraced, the three half-ghosts looked off into the distance. They watched as the sun set below the horizon and left them in the darkness that signaled the end of the day. Even as it grew cold, they continued to sit together, enjoying the moment and their company. Side-by-side, the adopted siblings endured the black night until it was time for them to move on once more. Phantom was the first one to stand and leave. He was soon followed by Dusk. Finally, Spirit rose and left as well. Even as she walked away, though, her eyes were glued behind her at the spot from which they had separated. Only a low rumble of the sky forced her back inside to avoid the wrath of the approaching storm._

* * *

(Monday-May 19, 2014)

Nekron laughed as he literally held Life by the neck. It clawed at him desperately as the Reaper choked out Life itself. Waves of white energy poured off the Entity onto Nekron. All of the life energy was absorbed immediately into the Ghost of Death's skin. Life could do nothing to push back Death this time. It made perfect sense, really. After all, every life must someday end. This was just the end for all life at once.

As the Life Entity faded, Nekron noticed the shift in energy around him. He could feel it. The life in the air was being sapped with each passing second. With a large grin, Nekron prepared to twist the Life Entity's neck as hard as he could. He would end this in one quick motion…or he would have at least if a small chunk of stone didn't bounce off the back of his head.

"S-Stop…" Dusk's voice broke the silence.

Slowly, Nekron's head turned to look at the half-ghosts which lay at the front of the mass of defeated ghosts and heroes. He saw that Spirit's hand was pointed forward to signal that she had thrown the small stone while Dusk seemed to be holding himself up with one arm.

" **I see…I forgot about that…"** Nekron kept his grip firmly on the Life Entity's neck, " **You both have Phantom's energy running through your systems. That gives you a bit of immunity to my powers. Will the annoyances ever end?** "

"Never…" Spirit spat out her words. She slowly put her arms beneath her and began to push herself up.

Dusk followed the other halfa's example and began to slowly get up, "It doesn't matter how badly you beat us. We'll keep getting up."

Rolling his eyes, Nekron threw the Life Entity to the ground. He fully turned to the duo. His hand surged with black energy. The power condensed so much that the half-ghosts felt pain from being within ten meters of the surging darkness, " **You'll stay down if I leave nothing left of you to get up with.** "

"That won't happen," Spirit finally made it to her feet. She wobbled unstably, but she did not fall.

Dusk had to place his hands on his knees to keep himself upright. He would have used Soul Shredder if it wasn't knocked far away from him, "Mentor won't let you kill us."

" **Fools,** " Nekron snarled at them, " **Phantom's nature may have influenced me a bit at the start, but I was seconds away from killing all life. I have overcome what was left of him. Phantom has faded into nothingness.** "

"I don't believe you," Spirit glared at him. Her bruised and beaten face didn't let her look very threatening, though, "I know Danny. He wouldn't give into you. He's been fighting this entire time. I believe that. I believe in him."

"He's always come through for us when things look their bleakest," Dusk felt the gazes of his defeated allies on his back. Despite the pain and injuries they suffered, they all fought to stay conscious, "When we need him, he'll come. That's how it's always been."

" **Not this time,** " The energy in Nekron's arms expanded out, " **Your blind trust in him is pointless.** "

"You're wrong!" Spirit took a deeper stance, "He's going to help us fight! I know it!"

Dusk clenched his fists, "I believe in him."

Spirit shook her head, "No. We believe in him. Everyone! Have faith!"

Dusk took a deep breath, "Have faith…"

Both Spirit and Dusk rushed forward at the same time, "IN DANNY PHANTOM!"

" **Faith is only for those with nothing else to fight with!** " Nekron roared out, " **NOW JUST DIE ALREADY!** "

Nekron thrusted both his arms forward to the charging halfas. In the blink of an eye, the two of them were covered in concentrated beams of dark energy. With the literal power of a Black Hole in the blasts, the energy of death began to try to pull them apart. In an instant, their forms were covered in absolute blackness with no light in sight to guide them out of it.

* * *

Nekron floated in the inner sanctum that was his mind. Well, it was really Phantom's mind, but he had taken control over it. What was once a recreation of Amity with the Ghost Zone floating over it was now an ocean of darkness that was covered by a stormy sky. Oddly enough, a miniature sun floated below the storm. Like everything else, the surging energy source was covered in thick darkness that had suffocated the flaring green and white energy that had once been Danny Phantom.

The Reaper sneered as he floated up to the energy source. This was the condensed representation of his power. Everything that was Nekron as a ghost was in that ball, just as it used to be for Danny Phantom. Before Nekron took complete control over the mind, Phantom's connection to both Death and the Life Entity shone through the darkness. Now, it only held Nekron's grip over both forces of existence.

He felt as Spirit and Dusk's energy signals faded away into nothingness. They never stood a chance. Like he said, there was nothing left of Danny Phantom in here. Phantom no longer existed in here. Everything in here was Nekron the Reaper of Death, the ghost that would kill all life.

 _Long live the Ghost King!" Fright Knight roared as his body dissolved, "Long live Danny Phantom, the greatest king to ever live! Long...live...the king..."_

Nekron tensed as his mind trembled at the memory. What was that?

 _"Come out...of...nowhere..." Tula's eyes lost their focus. Her body drifted sideways in the water as she floated lifelessly. Blood drifted up around the arrow of black energy._

Wait. That wasn't even his direct memory. Oh wait. He absorbed it when the girl died. But how…

" _Kal…dur…you…are…my…successor…" Aquaman muttered, "You…are…now…Aquaman…You…are…king…"_

Why was he remembering this? None of this was important. The lives of ants weren't important.

 _Tears popped out of the corner of Beast Boy's eyes, "She's smiling…I'm home, Mom."_

Nekron didn't understand. Why were such things flashing through his mind! He didn't want them to! Stop it!

" _And I love you, baby girl. More than anything."_

 _Nyx's loud sobs and cries continued to sound out through the area as Pandora dissolved in her arms. Once the Controller of Chaos was nothing but a puddle, Nyx finally allowed herself to collapse. She bowed her head to the ground and cried in mourning of her beloved mother. Even as Nekron's monsters appeared and the two nearby Royal Flush Gang members tried to fight them off, Nyx did not raise her head from the puddle of goo. Her grief was too strong for her to do anything else._

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

 _A slight breeze blew through the now silent area. As soon as the wind hit the old man, his form shook and fell apart into ash. The wind tore Youngblood's body apart. It then carried the dust that was once Youngblood away and scattered it across the earth never to laugh or play again._

STOPIT STOPIT STOPIT STOPIT STOPIT STOPIT STOPIT!

 _"See? I knew it…And everyone else will know it…They have faith in him…and his family…They will come because they believe in him…in them…Because…" Amorpho coughed out violently, "We all owe them a debt that can't be repaid, and we will fight for them until our dying breath."_

 _Spirit shook her head, "No. We believe in him. Everyone! Have faith!"_

 _Dusk took a deep breath, "Have faith…"_

 _Both Spirit and Dusk rushed forward at the same time, "IN DANNY PHANTOM!"_

 **No.**

Nekron was shocked when an arm shot out of the sun and grabbed him by the neck.

 **No more.**

The sun of darkness burst with white energy to create a perfect mix of white and black…of Life and Death.

 **No more pain.**

Darkness disappeared from the sky to reveal the swirling vortex that was the Ghost Zone.

 **No more suffering.**

Phantom's face appeared from the sun.

 **NO MORE DEATH!**

A fist rammed into Nekron's face. The force of the blow was so great that the Reaper was sent flying back to the sea of darkness below him. Covered in a meteor of white energy, Nekron was forced through the black ocean. The white comet then burst dispelling some of the darkness to the point where it was more of black mist instead of a sea, revealing the city of Amity Park.

When the white comet burst, Nekron was sent flying even further. He soared through a building and caused the structure to collapse. The Reaper was immediately covered in the rubble. This didn't last long, though, as he quickly pushed the rubble off of him with a surge of energy. Just as Nekron was free, though, he was punched once more. This time, though, the entire street collapsed from the force.

Nekron blinked as he was suddenly grabbed and held up by his neck, " **How!? I destroyed you!?** "

Phantom pulled Nekron close so they were nose-to-nose, " **You can't destroy me. Not as long as they still need me.** "

Nekron's face twisted into a snarl. He violently pushed back Phantom so hard that the half-ghost was forced to skid back all the way down the broken street, " **Bullshit! I destroyed you once, I'll do it again. You're no match for me alone!** "

With that Nekron rushed forward to attack Phantom with a fist readied to punch. Phantom met this move by charging forward with a raised fist of his own, " **It's a good thing that I'm not alone then, Nekron!** "

In a blaze of black and white, their two fists met. The final battle between life and death had finally begun.

* * *

For the first time since he absorbed Phantom, Nekron suffered damage in the physical world. Spirit and Dusk had rushed through the concentrated black holes. Spirit had rammed a knee into Nekron's face while Dusk sent an elbow to his stomach. The combined blows forced Nekron stumbling back while clutching at his new bruises.

Everyone looked on in absolute shock. None of them could comprehend how such simple moves could possibly hurt the Reaper. The answer to their questions was revealed as soon as Spirit and Dusk landed. Both halfas were covered in a white halo of energy that most of them had only seen on Phantom. Everyone, including Nekron, was shocked as the energy rushed around them and healed their wounds.

Both half-ghosts examined their white energy. Tears ran down their faces. It felt like a comforting arm had been placed over their shoulders. They could feel it. Danny was with them. He was the reason they survived. Their faith had been rewarded.

"You see?!" Spirit shouted to her allied, "There's still hope!"

"Get up and fight!" Dusk shouted, "Have faith! Danny won't let us fall!"

" **NO! He won't—AAAAHHHH!"** Nekron suddenly knelt over and clutched his chest. As he did this, white energy surged off of him. The white energy reached out to grab the downed Life Entity. In a burst of white, the Entity was pulled into Nekron and absorbed.

A miniature sun of life energy burst off of Nekron. Different beams of energy spread out and hit all the downed fighters. Instead of hurting them, though, the beams covered the injured warriors in halos of their own. Like the halfas, they were quickly healed by the energy of life.

For one final time, everyone was shocked as the energy shifted. Instead of staying in the normal halo of Ascended Ectoplasm, the energy condensed into a much smaller shape. That shape was something that had proved to be nightmarish to them during Nekron's Blackest Night. Now, though, it was their saving dream, because on each of their hands were…

White Power Rings.

With new energy surging through all of their hearts, all the friends and family of Danny Phantom held up their ringed hands to the sky. For the first time in this fight, they had real hope. Their minds were filled with a chant despite never hearing it before. Together, they all shouted their new creed of hope up to the heavens.

 _As darkness falls and all light dies,_

 _Hope surges up to end the cries,_

 _Life glares at Death's door with defiant eyes,_

 _Beware the Phantom, White Lanterns rise!_

* * *

 **Next update: "Brightest Day" on November 7, 2016**

 **Big thanks to jaguarspot for being this chapter's Beta.**

 **I'm a little surprised that no one guessed the White Lantern thing. I thought that the whole "Catalyst" thing would give it away. For the record, White Lanterns do exist in DC continuity. They only show up to combat Nekron and the Black Lanterns, though. Strangely, this group does not have an oath…so I made one up. And everything falls in place.**

 **I would like to take this moment to give props were credit is due. It is rare for me to be outright shocked by any form of plot twist anymore. I'm a cynic that things of every possible option in stories. Walking Dead did it, though. Hot damn. They had me put my guard down and tricked me. And Negan? The perfect villain personified. Praise to Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He was amazing in his first full episode. That man deserves an award.**

 **CHAPTER QUESTION: Were you aware of the White Lanterns before this chapter, and if so, then did you ever consider this as a possibility?**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	34. Brightest Day

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying."

Joan of Arc

* * *

Chapter 34: "Brightest Day"

(Sunday-May 17, 2014)

(The musical theme for this chapter is: Demons by Starset)

The explosion of white and black forced both Phantom and Nekron back with blinding speed through the city. Both of them crashed through several buildings before coming to a stop. Almost immediately, the both of them threw off the rubble and charged at each other once more. The blazing comets of dark and light met in the middle of the mental mindscape. As soon as the two of them met, a large shockwave spread out and shook the entire city.

Phantom threw a punch at Nekron's head. The Reaper managed to block the strike and then grab Phantom's wrist before pulling the halfa forward to him. Nekron then tried to elbow Phantom in the head. Using the minimal amount of movement necessary, the half-ghost ducked under the blow and ripped his wrist free. Phantom then slipped behind Nekron and grabbed his foe around the torso. With a grunt, he then tossed Nekron backwards.

Before the Reaper could fly too far, he flipped over and stopped his momentum in mid-air. In a surge of darkness, Nekron summoned his scythe to the mindscape. Covering himself in a halo of black death energy, Nekron rushed forward to Phantom as he was turning to face the Reaper. With a battle shout, Nekron swung his weapon towards Phantom's side.

The deadly blow was stopped by two broad swords made of ice. As soon as the scythe made contact with the swords, the elemental weapons exploded out and covered Nekron in a massive sheet of ectoplasmic ice. Phantom then followed up by throwing a powerful side kick to the Nekron icicle. Before the kick could make contact, dark energy burst from the Reaper and shattered the layer of ice holding him still.

Phantom grunted out as the energy formed into a large skeletal hand and grabbed onto him. The hand raised him up into the air. He didn't let the hand do anything else, though. With a burst of energy, the halfa shattered the energy hand to free himself. He then forced himself forward through the darkness to the Reaper once more. The half-ghost used one final burst of white energy to dispel the cloud of darkness hiding Nekron from his vision.

Letting loose a loud roar, Phantom swung a wild hook punch at Nekron's head. Phantom's punch was stopped when Nekron caught it in his free hand causing energy to surge out from both of them and shake the mental landscape once more. The Reaper used his other hand to swing his scythe at the half-ghost. This attack was stopped in a similar fashion as Phantom's previous punch. The scythe's momentum was halted when Phantom caught the weapon by the shaft and held it in place. This caused yet another surge of energy that caused the city to tremble.

Both of the ghosts snarled and pushed at each other. After a few seconds of a standstill, they slammed their foreheads together. Angry eyes met once more. Fierce white met deep black. Their energy blasted off their forms and joined them in their mental pushing contest. The energy washed over two halves of the city and began to push against their opposing sides. As this happened, the raging sun above them struggled as well. Black and white struggled for dominance of the energy core. For a while, it was at a standstill, but like always, life tended to grow tired as more time passed.

* * *

Nekron quickly recovered from the surprise damage he received from Spirit and Dusk. He could only look on in shock at the sight before him. White Lanterns? He knew that the Life Entity planned to use Phantom as the Catalyst to empower everyone with a power equivalent to the Ascended Ectoplasm, but this was not what he was expecting. Of course, he didn't really think about it much when he managed to possess Phantom's body. Oh well. It didn't matter. He had already shown that the Life Entity couldn't hurt him.

Thus, when all the White Lanterns pointed their rings at him, he just sneered. A massive blast of white energy flew towards him. He just stood in a relaxed position and prepared to absorb the beam of energy. To his complete shock, though, he couldn't absorb the wave of energy. With his guard lowered, Nekron was sent flying away by the flowing white beam.

After a few seconds of being flung through the air, Nekron sent out a surge of his own energy to dismiss the attack. Once he was freed, Nekron hissed as he felt the pain from receiving the powerful blow. He was covered in small burns. The force of the attack forced him way from the island. He now floated above the ocean looking over to the previous battlefield.

Why couldn't he absorb the attack? Was it because Phantom was fighting back inside his mind? That had to be it. Phantom now had complete control over the life energy. That was why the Life Entity was able to spread out its powers to the fighters and why he couldn't absorb the white energy. Damn it! He wasn't expecting this! For the first time since his defeat at the hands of the Ghost King's court, Nekron was injured and on the defensive.

Blinks of white in the distance revealed that the fighters were following after him. What was worse, it seemed that White Lantern rings had found their way to the downed members of the Justice League, Amorpho, and a young boy that Nekron remembered living in Dakota City. Damn…he had to calm down. He beat all of them once. Even with the power of the Life Entity behind them, Nekron knew that he could beat them again.

The Reaper was preparing to deal with the approaching army. Before he could build up any injury, he felt a fist ram into his stomach. This was followed up with several more fists and blows ramming into him from several different directions. Nekron noticed that a white blur was rushing around him. Kid Flash had obviously made his way to Nekron first. The younger speedster was quickly aided by the Flash. Both speedsters attacked Nekron at speeds that no normal person could possibly hope to follow.

Gritting his teeth to endure the pain, Nekron pushed out a mist of energy in an attempt to slow the speedsters down a bit. Before they could be effected by the dark mist, the speedsters rushed away. There was another reason for that, though. As soon as they moved far enough, a giant filled their places. Colossus rushed to Nekron. His arms, while not completely healed by the White Power Ring, were enhanced by white brace constructions. This allowed him to smash his fists against the sides of Nekron's head and cover it with a concentrated shockwave.

Disoriented by the attack, Nekron shoved Colossus away with so much force that Colossus was sent skipping across the water despite not receiving any damage. Before the Reaper could clear his head, he was rocked by another blow to the stomach. This one felt a lot different than the previous one, though. It wasn't just fast or strong. No, it was an incredible combination of the two.

Nekron focused his eyes to see that it was Superman that had done the blow. With a look of righteous fury across his face, Superman hammered Nekron with blows. The Ghost of Death went to reach down to grab ahold of the Man of Steel. Before he could, though, Nekron's arms were pulled up as he was grabbed in a Nelson lock. A quick glance behind him revealed that Superboy, aided by the Lantern Ring, was floating up and holding the ghost while Superman nailed him with punches.

Sick of the pain, Nekron broke the hold and grabbed the Kryptonians and threw them away. Nekron wasn't given a chance to recover from the previous damage, though. Several concentrated balls of energy rammed into his back curtesy of Vision. While he was arching from the pain of the attack, Frostbite and Plasmius attacked him from both sides. Nekron was trapped between walls of ice and pure plasma.

Before he could free himself, Nekron was surrounded by the close range fighters that had previously attacked him as a group joined by Batman. A blur of blades and White Power Ring empowered attacks rammed into Nekron from all directions. The combination of the blows shattered Nekron's restraints and covered the Reaper in various wounds. Before their foe could even think about recovering, the fighters flew away with the aid of their rings.

With his temper flaring, Nekron looked up to exclaim his anger. He froze when he saw that he was surrounded by an army of White Lanterns all pointing their rings at him. With a combined roar, they all fired blasts of energy from their rings and into the Ghost of Death. In the end, though, despite all the minor damage that they managed to inflict, the only thing that the attacks truly managed to do was make Nekron's anger rise.

* * *

After a few seconds of struggling, both Nekron and Phantom were pushed back. The halfa was more affected by the break of the clash, though. He was pushed off balance and stumbled to try to regain his balance. Unfortunately, Nekron recovered far faster. The Reaper swung his scythe at Phantom's side. Said halfa managed to bring his arm up to create a shield of energy to block the attack. He did managed to stop the scythe from cutting him into two, but that left him vulnerable at his other side.

Nekron's foot rammed into Phantom's unprotected side. This knocked Phantom away and sent him crashing through a building. He soared through the structure like a rocket. By the time he made it to the other side, Phantom managed to right himself. When he landed, the half-ghost created an energy dome to shield himself for the inevitable follow-up attack.

His actions were soon justified as Nekron appeared in front of him in a blur. The Reaper held his deadly scythe in his mouth. Both of his arms were held out wide to either side of the dome shield. Dark energy flowed around Nekron's hands like concentrated bombs. In seconds, the two bombs exploded. Energy rained down on the dome. The shield held up for a few seconds before collapsing. Luckily, Phantom managed to get out of the way before he could receive more injuries than a few burns.

Nekron quickly chased after Phantom as the hero flew away. Having taken the weapon out of his mouth, he swung his scythe and sent out arcs of energy towards his foe. Phantom managed to dodge each arc which allowed the attacks to fly off and cut different buildings in half. As the rubble collapsed around him, Phantom suddenly dropped down and landed straight in the middle of the falling buildings. Blue light surged off of him and froze all of area around him including the falling concrete.

With a roar, Phantom then blasted off a huge wave of white energy. The ice and everything it held immediately shattered. Phantom then controlled the ice shards to attack the Reaper. Nekron was forced to stop and block all the sharp blades of ice that were trying to cut him into pieces. His degradation ability flared and stopped the flying ice shards.

Once he no longer had ice to use, Phantom tried to rush forward to attack Nekron directly. To his shock, though, he was met with another arc of dark energy from Nekron's scythe. Phantom was hit directly by the attack. The arc quickly exploded and left Phantom in a smoking crater. Before the smoke could begin to clear, Nekron jumped on top of Phantom and swung his scythe down at the ghoul's head. Luckily, Phantom managed to catch the blade of the weapon between his two palms to avoid getting cut. This was the only good thing about the situation, though, because Nekron was quickly over powering Phantom and inching the scythe closer to the halfa's chest.

" **Did you really think that you could win?** " Nekron mocked the young man, " **Yes, you have power, but I am one of the first ghosts to ever exist. It took Pariah Dark and the seven ancient ghosts to beat me. You're just one little boy. I have more experience and battle knowledge in one pinky finger than you have in your entire body.** "

Phantom glared up at the Ghost of Death, " **I've been the underdog in almost every fight I've ever been in, and I still win.** "

" **But this is different. I'm stronger than all your previous enemies combined. And you're alone in this. No one is here to help you. Face the facts, Phantom, you aren't getting out of this fight alive!** "

* * *

After a few seconds of being bombarded from all sides by the beams of white energy, Nekron had enough. From all the rings that covered his body, he fired out a curved burst of energy that danced around the beams and knocked the White Lanterns back. Once the attack from all directions finally stopped, Nekron began to move. He covered himself in a cocoon of his death energy. The cocoon then rocketed around the area.

Nekron's shell rammed into several of the White Lanterns like rapid speed pinball. Each blow sent the target flying. As the cocoon flew around, dark hands burst out and separated from the cocoon. The skeletal hands went to strike the enemies that Nekron neglected. This led to a near firework show in the middle of the ocean. All the White Lanterns tried to fight back, but the chaos and inexperience of using the White Power Ring led to difficulty keeping up with Nekron's wild attacks.

Once all the White Lanterns were knocked off balance, Nekron's cocoon stopped bouncing around the area. The cocoon slowed and began to unravel. The Reaper was soon free and was gathering energy to his scythe. He then rapidly swung his weapon wildly around him. Dark arcs of energy jumped off the blade of the weapon. The arcs flew in every direction and rammed into the White Lanterns with the force of a semi-truck. All the arcs continued to fly around and spin around to create a massive black cyclone.

The cyclone flung the White Lanterns around like ragdolls. At the center of the spinning energy was Nekron. He continued to swing his scythe around madly. Once he was satisfied with the damage that the dark storm had done, the Ghost of Death stopped moving his weapon and snapped his fingers. This caused the entire cyclone to explode out and send the White Lanterns flying.

Nekron sneered as he watched the dark smoke and energy fade, " **Fools! You still can't win! It doesn't matter if you have the blessing of the Life Entity! Death always wins—"**

The Reaper was cut short when a large tentacle burst from the sea below him. Aquaman was raised from the ocean by the head of and giant squid. The Atlantian was quickly joined by his fellow undersea fighters. Powered by the White Lantern rings on their fingers, the Atlantians flew up to Nekron to attack the Reaper while he defended himself from the giant squid's large tentacles. The Ghost of Death managed to defend himself and block all the blows. He was, however, forced to extend all of his limbs to stop the various attacks.

Seeing that Nekron's back was now exposed, Kaldur shouted out, "Now!"

Nekron's eyes widened as he saw Spirit and Dusk appear behind him. He hadn't noticed when the half-ghosts didn't appear in the army of White Lanterns attacking him. They must have planned this out with the Atlantians while the Ghost of Death was distracted. The Reaper quickly braced himself to endure the incoming attack. To his shock, the pain never came, though. Instead, the half-ghosts lunged at him and phased into him as if they were going to overshadow him.

* * *

Nekron's grin continued to grow wider as his scythe inched closer to the halfa on the ground. Despite Phantom flaring his energy constantly to push the Reaper off of him, Nekron did not budge. His own energy quickly began to smother the half-ghost's ectoplasm. The blade of scythe was now hovering right above Phantom's chest. The blade's tip touched the top of Phantom's skin and allowed a trickle of blood to ooze out of the small cut.

Just before Nekron could take the final plunge and take complete control of the mindscape once more, he was suddenly struck away by twin blows. The force of the attack made him skip away and crash through several vehicles that were more for just show than anything in Phantom's mind. Nekron finally came to a stop after several skips and landed straight on his back in the middle of broken cement. While the Reaper was recovering, one of Phantom's saviors held out a hand to the downed half-ghost.

"You looked like you could use some help," Spirit noted.

Phantom grabbed onto Spirit's hand and pulled himself up, " **You have no idea**."

Dusk forced down the relieved smile he had at seeing Phantom's face, "Sorry, but I don't think we have time for a proper reunion."

" **You're right,** " Phantom eyed Nekron's form as the Reaper stood back up, " **We got work to do.** "

"Work?" Spirit popped her knuckles, "This is gonna be a pleasure."

Once he was fully standing, Nekron glared down the street at them, " **I realize my mistake now. I thought that Black Lanterns would be enough to deal with you two. I should have dealt with you myself. That's a mistake I'll fix right now.** "

The three half-ghosts were not intimidated by Nekron's words. They stood side-by-side in the center of the mindscape. Their eyes were as hard as steel. A stream of confidence rolled off of the three of them. Together, they could survive anything. Three different Haunting Auras flowed off of them and combined into one. Hope, Cheer, and Endurance all stood as one. For a split second, the images of the Endless flashed behind them.

A small noise sounded through the mindscape. That sound had been Nekron taking a step back. For the first time in his existence, Nekron had flinched in fear. The reason for that was very simple, though. Despite choking Life itself, he had never truly faced the will to live personified. The three beings brought that full attribute into existence, and that actually scared Nekron.

* * *

Nekron took deep breaths as the feeling of overshadow faded. He could feel Spirit's and Dusk's energy mixing in with his own. Damn it. They would ruin everything. His only chance was to pull them out. Dark energy surged his free hand. Nekron was about to reach into the ectoplasmic core in his chest when the Atlantians and giant squid attacked him once more.

Anger flared through his chest. Mere minutes ago, he had been a hair's breath away from completing his obsession. For some reason, though, he was getting pulled further away from that with each moment that passed in this battle. No more. He wasn't going to let them win.

Dark energy exploded off Nekron. Instead of pushing the Atlantians back, though, the energy spread across the entire area. It didn't attack any of the other fighters either, though. Instead, the energy hung in the air and created an extra gravity affect. Even with the White Power Rings, the extra weight slowed them down to the point that it was difficult to move.

Nekron was quick to take advantage. In a burst of speed that would have been hard to follow even if the heroes and ghosts weren't moving in slow motion, Nekron cut through all the Atlantians and giant squid with his scythe. In a spray of blood, all of his enemies fell into sea. With those enemies taken care of, Nekron turned his attention to the various other fighters across the area.

The Reaper's form blurred and disappeared. He reappeared in the middle of his many enemies. His scythe flashed. In seconds, several of the fighters were cut open by the weapon. The blade of the weapon easily cut through the protection that the White Lantern Ring provided. Like the Atlantians before them, they collapsed into the ocean below. Their rings were already working on healing them. With how deep the cuts were, though, the process would take a while.

Eventually, Nekron was stopped after cutting through dozens of the fighters. The three fastest fighters, Superman, Flash, and Kid Flash, managed to keep up with Nekron despite the extra weight around them. Even then, though, they struggled not to get cut down. Eventually, though, Nekron's impatience anger caused his aggression to grow even more to the point that he just unleashed a massive arc blast that sent all three of them flying.

With the real threats dealt with, Nekron turned his attention to the remaining fighters. They were all struggling to move, but it was a useless fight. With a bloodthirsty grin, he focused his energy into his weapon. The blade of his scythe extended to a massive length with an unbelievable sharpness. Nekron brought his weapon to the side and prepared to swing it across to all the fighters. Their eyes widened in fear as they realized that they were going to be cut into two.

* * *

Nekron retreated backwards at his top speeds. He held his scythe in both of his hands and was swinging it widely in a defensive manner. Each block stopped the precise swings and stabs that Spirit did with her Spectral Claws. Spirit's speed and intensity made it so that Nekron wasn't given a chance to counterattack. After a few more seconds of this, though, the Reaper of Death prepared to power through this situation with a surge of ectoplasm.

Right before he could do that, though, Phantom appeared behind him. Nekron was forced to spin and take a hand of his scythe to block the elbow flying at his head. Phantom didn't stop there, though. He continued to throw a barrage of strikes at Nekron. Spirit did the same from the other side with her Spectral Claws. Nekron was forced to divide his attention which allowed his foes to slip in more than a few blows that covered the Ghost of Death in more than a few bruises and cuts.

Before Nekron could plan anything to deal with them, Dusk rushed forward with his Burst Gauntlets ready. The youngest half-ghost rammed both of the Gauntlets into Nekron's stomach. In a blaze of white ectoplasm, Nekron was sent flying into the air. He didn't get too far because he used his scythe to destroy the surge of ectoplasm that was pushing him.

To his dismay, Phantom and Spirit had followed after him while he was sent flying away. The only upside for Nekron was the fact that both halfas were in front of him this time. Nekron thrusted his scythe forward to create a shield of darkness. Phantom's punch and Spirit's kick instantly shattered the shield with their enhanced powers. Their blows then continued forward to ram into the scythe's side.

In a surge of darkness, Nekron pushed them both away. Once he was finally given some breathing room, he noticed something about his scythe. The rapid attacks empowered with the white energy of life had chipped away at the Reaper's chosen weapon. Various cuts and dents covered the scythe. At this rate, it would break. He could fix it before that happened, though. One small burst of ectoplasm would…

Nekron was suddenly forced to raise scythe up to block Dusk's surprise attack. With the skill gained from a lifetime of training, Dusk expertly swung his Scribe Staff towards the Ghost of Death. Nekron managed to block all the blows, but the cracks on the scythe continued to grow. Oddly enough, Nekron didn't need to push Dusk back. The youngest half-ghost did that on his own. He placed his feet on the Reaper's chest and pushed himself away. Dusk flew away at breakneck speeds much to Nekron's surprise and confusion.

He wasn't given the chance to ponder on it, though. Phantom almost immediately took Dusk's place. He quickly grabbed onto the scythe. The hero then surged his energy. A massive burst of white energy blasted off of him and washed over his enemy. Nekron was quickly to push back with his own surge of energy. Once again, the energy of life and death met in a fight of dominance. This time, though, the damaged scythe was in the middle and suffering from it.

To Nekron's surprise, Phantom suddenly stopped pushing and ducked down. Nekron waivered mid-air. He quickly recovered just in time to raise his scythe to block Spirit's next attack. She spun around and sent a devastating kick down to the scythe. Her kick was accompanied by the arc of ectoplasm that cracked the scythe even more.

Once again, Nekron was surprised when Phantom reached up and pulled her away. They were out of Nekron's reach in seconds. Before Nekron could wonder why they would do this, he felt a massive surge of energy across the city. Turning, Nekron saw that Dusk had used his White Lantern Ring to enhance his Twilight Cannon. The weapon was now larger than the buildings around it.

" **Oh shit!** " Nekron's reaction was understandable.

" _White Lantern Twilight Cannon..._ _Stability: Set. Energy Level: 100%. Target: Acquired._ "

Nekron desperately brought his scythe up and poured all of his energy into it. He wasn't fast enough, though.

" _White Lantern Twilight Cannon…FIRING!_ "

An entire half of the mental city was covered in a white explosion. Nekron's scythe shield couldn't possibly stop it. The weapon shattered and quickly disintegrated into dust. With nothing to protect him, Nekron was covered in tsunami of white life energy.

* * *

Nekron brought his weapon to the side and prepared to swing it across all the fighters. Their eyes widened in fear as they realized that they were going to be cut into two. Just as Nekron's attack was about to make contact with its first victim, the scythe shattered. The Reaper's eyes widened as his personal weapon turned to dust and floated away with the wind. It seemed that whatever happened in the mindscape influenced the real world fight. Damn, he had to turn his focus inward more if he had hope of winning this fight.

Despite their own surprise, the White Lanterns couldn't give up their chance to attack the Reaper while his guard was down. In a blur of white, three extremely heavy hitters rocketed toward the Ghost of Death. The revived Captain Atom was the first to make it to Nekron. As he flew towards his foe, Atom sent out a beam of radiation enhanced by the White Lantern Ring. Once he was close enough, Captain Atom stopped his beam and elbowed Nekron viciously across the face.

The force of the blow was so strong that Nekron actually was forced to do a few flips in the air. His mind was rattle so much by the force that he couldn't even comprehend how great the White Lantern's healing ability should be to empower the Captain's suit back to full power. Before Nekron could stop his flipping, Captain Marvel appeared in front of him.

Using the speed of Mercury, Captain Marvel hit Nekron with every type of attack that he could possibly throw. The Reaper was rocked by this combo. Before he could recover, Captain Marvel grabbed onto the ghost that was responsible for all their trouble and began to spin him around in a big circle. After a few seconds of rapid turning, the agent of Shazam tossed his enemy away and right into the hands of Damon Gray.

The new meta-human Cinderblock used one massive hand to keep a hold onto the Ghost of Death. He used that hand to repeatedly pull Nekron forward and back while using his other hand to strike the stunned Reaper. Each blow provided a satisfying crack that pleased everyone that suffered at the hands of Nekron.

* * *

The explosion of white ectoplasm that covered half of the mindscape was almost immediately snuffed out by a strange surge of darkness that washed over the city. All the Black Lantern rings that covered Nekron's body shined with a renewed focus. Once all the white explosion was suffocated, the dark energy combined to create a giant, black skeleton that stood so tall that it reached far above the buildings.

The giant skeleton immediately rushed forward through the rubble of the city. It reached Dusk and the Twilight Cannon in seconds. Before Dusk could react, the construction grabbed onto the weapon and pulled it into the air. It immediately tore the cannon into scrap. As the Matter Make faded away into nothingness, Dusk tried to retreat from the giant skeleton. He wasn't allowed to get far, though.

Dusk was forced to swerve and dodge as a giant, skeletal hand swatted at him. Before he could even do anything else, the hand swung at him again. In that instant, Dusk channeled a house fly and dodged around the hand once again. This continued several times until he was finally caught. Once Dusk was in its hands, the giant construction smashed the youngest halfa down repeatedly to the ground. Luckily the White Lantern Ring protected him, but he wasn't getting free any time soon.

While that was going on, Spirit and Phantom were pulled apart by a dark mist. Phantom was tossed away from the mist and through the rubble. Spirit, however, was kept in the center of the darkness. She couldn't see, but her Premonition was screaming at her. The intentions of dozens of warriors appeared all around her. She was forced to block and dodge more blows than she could process at once.

The female halfa struggled to fight through the construction warriors and out of the darkness. Unfortunately for her, she could not get out of the mist as it moved along with her. As such, she was stuck fighting the constructions. Like Dusk, she was hardly in danger, but there was little chance of her escaping the mist.

Phantom pushed himself up from the rubble. He looked around to see both Dusk and Spirit trapped in their own traps. It was easy to see that Nekron was trying to separate them. Before Phantom could move to help either of his adopted siblings, Nekron landed right in front of the hero and kicked him away.

A few skips later, Phantom turned and landed on his feet. Nekron was rushing toward him once more. Phantom knew that this situation was not in his favor. He saw a chance to stun Nekron, though. Shifting his legs into a deeper stance, Phantom took a deep breath and then unleashed his famed Ghostly Wail.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**

Nekron was immediately forced back by the physical soundwaves. He immediately covered his head and ears with his arms. While he protected himself, his rings glowed once more. A black mask appeared behind Phantom. The mask latched onto Phantom's head and face to muffle the wail. Nekron was quick to react to this. He rushed forward and grabbed onto the halfa's face.

The Reaper will quickly slammed Phantom onto the ground. The mask quickly disappeared, but Nekron's hold onto Phantom's face and jaw kept him from starting up his wail once more. Once again, Nekron had Phantom at his mercy.

" **No siblings to save you this time!** " Nekron covered his free fist in swirling darkness and punched downward at Phantom's head, " **This is my mind now!** "

* * *

With a roar, Nekron surged his energy and shoved Cinderblock away. As Damon was sent splashing into the ocean, Nekron grabbed at his head and tried to recover. With a lot of his attention focused inward, though, he was having trouble clearing his mind after those devastating blows. What was worse was the fact that none of the fighters were going to give him more time, especially because the previously injured White Lanterns were surely recovered at this point.

To gain more time, he covered himself in a large dark orb to shield himself from the White Lanterns. This managed to block the charging Wonder Woman and Nyx. The women bounced back and quickly recovered. They immediately pointed their power rings at the orb and unleashed a torrent of energy. The dozens of other White Lanterns quickly aided them. In seconds, the dark orb was bombarded from all angles by the white energy attacks.

Cracks immediately began to spread across the orb. In seconds, the shield shattered. Nekron was once again exposed to the open air and bombarded by the beams of energy. Every bit of recovery that Nekron managed to obtain was ruined as he was once more stunned. Eventually, he had enough of this. His rings surged and began to send out beams of their own to fight against the White Lantern attacks.

After a few seconds of this struggle, Nekron was suddenly pulled out of his attack. This was quite literal, actually. Troia had thrown her Lasso of Truth around the Reaper's Torso and pulled him off balance. She was quickly aided by Zatanna and Ace who used their abilities to trap the Ghost of Death further with a magical trap and mental force field respectively.

Nekron blinked as the other White Lanterns retreated. He would have questioned why they were doing such a thing, but the answer appeared before he could really process the question. Black Canary and Harriet Chin in her new Silver Banshee form appeared in front of him. Both women grabbed onto his trapped form.

The Ghost of Death's eyes went wide as he saw the two of them open their mouths. He would have braced himself, but he literally couldn't this time. As such, he was forced to float there as the women began to do their respective cries. Normally, each woman's individual wails were enough to deafen a person. As both their voices came out, though, they combined into something far more powerful.

Nekron twitched in agony as the sound waves combined and washed over him. Every nerve on his form screamed in pain. The combined traps that held him in place remained strong, though, so he could still not do anything to stop the attacks. Despite how much it hurt, though, Nekron did not suffer any permanent damage. Something, however, was ready to break.

To Nekron's shock, all of his Black Lantern Rings vibrated from the combined wails. Cracks formed all over the rings. In seconds, the rings shattered into tiny pieces and greatly weakened the Ghost of Death.

* * *

" **No siblings to save you this time!** " Nekron covered his free fist in swirling darkness and punched downward at Phantom's head, " **This is my mind now!** "

Before Nekron's fist could make contact with Phantom's head, the energy in his hand faded away. The Reaper hissed out in pain and stumbled back. His various rings quickly turned to dust causing all of his constructions to fade away. Before he could ponder the ramifications of what happened, Nekron was punched in the face by a recovered Phantom.

Phantom's hand grabbed onto Nekron's cloak to keep him from flying far away. He rapidly punched his captured foe before surging blue cryoplasm to the Ghost of Death to keep him from moving. Once Nekron was immobilized, Phantom got in close to unleash his Ghostly Wail onto his enemy once more. This caused the ice to immediately shatter as Nekron trembled in agony.

Nekron blacked out enough for a few seconds to pass without him noticing. After the wailing finally stopped, Nekron found himself under the rubble. He would have freed himself but a hand grabbed onto him and pulled him out of the broken concrete. Nekron was pulled up to see the face of Dusk. His vision was quickly blurred when the youngest halfa's forehead smashed into his nose.

Before Nekron's vision could recover, he was flipped over. As he soared through the air, he was kneed in the back of the head by Spirit. Nekron flipped over allowing Spirit to grab his legs. She then slammed Nekron unto the ground before tossing him to the side and into the waiting arms of Phantom. The hero quickly grabbed onto the Ghost of Death before the dark ghost could recover.

Nekron recovered enough to see Spirit and Dusk flying toward him while Phantom held him still. Those two were at fault for this. He had to get them out right now.

" **NO MORE!** "

Dark energy surged through the mindscape as Nekron's rage reached its speak. The Ghost of Death put all his focus on the two half-ghosts and grabbed onto them. For a split second, the entire mental city was covered in darkness as the younger half-ghosts were whisked away.

* * *

After a solid minute of being beaten down mercilessly by the White Lanterns, Nekron yelled out in outrage. A massive surge of ectoplasm burst off of him and pushed all the heroes and ghosts away. Once they were a good distance away, the Reaper did something that shocked his enemies. He raised a hand covered in darkness high into the air. Then, with defiant roar, he stabbed that hand into his own chest.

A mere second later, Nekron pulled Spirit out from his chest showing that he overcame her overshadowing. He quickly used his other hand to do the exact same thing with Dusk. Panting in exertion, Nekron glared hatefully at the half-ghost. He swiftly tossed them to the side like unwanted trash.

" **ENOUGH!** " Concentrated darkness covered Nekron like a rocket and sent him flying high into the sky, " **I AM DONE WITH THIS!** "

Before even the fastest of the White Lanterns could react, Nekron was quickly beyond their reach. Once he was almost outside of the Earth's atmosphere, Nekron stopped his ascent. The Reaper focused all that energy upward above him and concentrated it into a ball. He then pushed even more energy into the orb. It rapidly grew until it was the size of a city.

Nekron took a deep breath. All of his remaining energy had been pushed into this. It was time to finally complete his obsession. He might not be able to defeat the White Lanterns in a fair fight…he might not get to kill the Life Entity with his bare hands…but he would end everything with this. This attack would destroy the Earth in a single burst. The explosion that followed would kill everyone in range, including Nekron and the divided pieces of the Life Entity.

" **Goodbye, Life** ," Black smoke left Nekron's mouth as he spoke. With a flick of the wrist, he sent the giant orb of death falling down to destroy all life in the universe once and for all, " **It's time for the age of absolute death.** "

Far below Nekron, the White Lanterns could only look on in horror at the sight of the meteor of death falling down at them. Even the normal humans could feel the energy coming off the attack. The result of that thing hitting the Earth would mean game over. At the same time, though, none of them knew how to stop it.

A hushed silence fell over the crowd of White Lanterns. Many of them pondered what to do. Some of them just embraced each other in fear. One of those people was Vision. The logical ghost immediately realized that there was no way for them to stop the attack. It was an actually impossible act. There was no real logical way to react to it. As such, she did what her heart urged her to do. She gently reached out to grab onto her new husband and adopted children.

Plasmius's eyes turned to his new bride. He had never seen his wife so resigned before this moment. She had completely given up. At the same time, the younger halfas were still far too disoriented from being pulled out of their overshadowing to even comprehend what was happening. The oldest half-ghost quickly realized what his wife had noticed. This had to be the end. At the same time, with his wife and adopted children so close…he couldn't bring himself to give up.

To Vision's confusion, Plasmius pulled away. Combining his White Power Ring with his own ectoplasm, he sent out a beam that flew high into the sky and met the orb of death. It didn't slow Nekron's attack down even a little. Nevertheless, Plasmius continued to fire out his beam attack. Vision looked on in surprise. Her husband's actions were completely irrational. Wouldn't it be better to die in the arms of his loved ones instead of in a useless fight?

…No…That wasn't right. Giving up was never an option. Even in the face of death, they had to fight on against this threat. That was their family's dogma. If they had to die, they would die with pride and honor. Releasing the youngest halfas, Vision quickly copied her husband. She was immediately joined by the other ghouls be her side as well.

Soon, all the ghosts were following their lead. Then, the heroes pointed their rings skyward and sent out a beam of white energy. Not only that, the heroes with ranged powers fired those off as well. The attacks ranged from heat vision all the way to sound wave attacks. All the attacks flew skyward and met with the orb of death. Unfortunately, their desperate struggle did not stop the orb of death, but they did slow it down.

And that was all they needed.

* * *

Once Spirit and Dusk were gone, Nekron rammed the back of his head into Phantom's nose. The ghoul was forced to let go of his foe and stumble back. A follow up blow to the stomach sent Phantom flying back further. He bounced once in the rubble before flipping over and landing on his feet. Once more, they were alone in the mindscape. The only big difference this time was that the entire mental city was just a pile of rubble and the two ghosts were completely exhausted by their fight.

" **You lose…you realize that right?** " Nekron spoke out first, " **No more people to help you.** "

" **But they helped tire you out, though, didn't they?** " Phantom argued, " **They did their part. Now it's time to do mine.** "

Nekron chuckled, " **Oh? Confident now, are we? So not only do you think that you can beat me…You think you can beat me on a time limit.** "

Phantom was somewhat aware of what was happening outside his mind, " **It's not about thinking that I can beat you. It's more that I don't have any other option.** "

" **There is one more…** " Nekron grinned, " **Die.** "

" **That's not an option right now.** "

" **So you won't die for them?** "

" **I'd die for them in a second. But I can't die right now. If I die, they die. They're the ones that always mattered…** " Phantom's eyes hardened, **"For them…for the people that matter to me, I'll sacrifice everything that I have. Body, soul, and spirit…None of that matters if I can't protect my family."**

Nekron scoffed, " **How touching."**

" **Laugh if you want, but I will beat you no matter what. For them.** "

" **For them. Bah, that's all that ever comes out of your mouth it seems,** " Dark energy rolled off of Nekron, " **But what would happen if they fought against you?** "

To Phantom's shock, the image of Red Huntress appeared behind Nekron. A beam like the ghost hunter's old wrist cannon fired out and smashed into Phantom's shoulder and forced him to stumble back clutching at his new wound.

" **When one of my shades die, I can't use them in the physical world anymore…** " Hundreds of images appeared behind Nekron, " **But they never truly leave me. This is my final card, Phantom. Top this.** "

In the blink of an eye, Phantom was overwhelmed by the various people from his past. Friends, family, and foes all began to beat him down. Within seconds, the already exhausted halfa was beaten down even further. Bruises, cuts, burns, and tears appeared all over his form. Nevertheless, he did not give up. He did not fade.

" **It won't work…** " Phantom whispered out, " **They're with me. They've always been with me.** "

The shades stopped.

Nekron's eyes widened, " **Huh?** "

" **My friends…my family…You can't use them against me anymore,** " Phantom's eyes flashed, " **Even if they die, they never leave me. They're not yours, Nekron. They never were.** "

The shades all faded and then appeared behind Phantom as the halfa forced himself to his feet.

Nekron took a step back in fear.

" **You mock me for doing everything for them, but there's a reason for that,** " All the shades disappeared in a blaze of energy that quickly covered Phantom's form, effectively healing and empowering him from all the fatigue and damage he received. In a blur, Phantom appeared in front of Nekron and punched the other ghost in the stomach. Nekron was forced to keel over in pain.

" **My obsession is to protect them."**

A punch across the face forced Nekron to stumble back.

" **Since the beginning, they have always been the thing that kept me fighting."**

Nekron tried to throw a punch of his own. Phantom quickly caught the fist in his own. He immediately broke the enemy's wrist and forced the ghost to his knees.

" **They are the reason that I will not let you win!"**

The Reaper trembled in fear as the forms of Death and the Life Entity appeared on either side of Phantom. They both placed a hand on the halfa's shoulder and pumped energy into the half-ghost. Phantom then channeled his energy into his right fist.

" **They are the reason…** " Phantom snarled down at Nekron's terrified form, " **YOUR PLAN WAS DOOMED FROM THE START!** "

Danny Phantom then punched Nekron the Reaper with all the force and energy that he had. A white light spread across the entire mindscape. All at once, everything that was Nekron was beaten back and suppressed. This was signified by the sun above, as the white life portions of the sun quickly smothered all the black death energy into nothingness.

* * *

The black orb of death inched closer and closer to the struggling White Lanterns. They all sent out every last drop of energy that they could to slow down their destruction. It was a losing battle, though. Nekron's attack was mere feet away from them. In seconds, they would be disintegrated. Still, none of them gave up. They continued to push against the orb of death in a desperate attempt to save everyone.

Just before the orb was about to make contact with them, it stopped. They looked on with relief as their beams finally pushed through the darkness. Slowly, the white energy spread through the orb and snuffed out the danger that was once Nekron's attack. Once the orb was glowing a beautiful white energy of life, they pushed the orb upward back up to its original creator.

Exhausted from his physical and mental battles, Nekron could do nothing as the orb sailed back up to him. The attack quickly made contact with him and covered him an explosion of white. The pure energy of life tore through his darkness and corruption and left him a screaming mess. Once the light finally died down, a burnt and beaten Nekron fell from the heavens.

Cheers erupted from the White Lanterns. They had done it. Together, they had overcome all the odds and defeated the most powerful—

" **AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!** "

Energy erupted from both the Reaper and the White Lanterns. In seconds, they were all covered in a swirling vortex of black and white energy. The torrent continued and swept all the White Lantern Rings from the heroes and ghost's fingers. As the rings flew off their fingers, the energy that had been keeping them conscious slipped away and allowed the fighters to slip into peaceful slumber. All the rings floated up to Nekron and combined to form the Life Entity. Once formed in the physical world once more, the Entity clapped its hands and surged its energy to cover everyone in a sea of white energy.

* * *

Phantom stood at the center of his mental city. The real Amity Park's center was far different than in his mind. His center had always been Fenton Works. Restored and strengthened back to peak form, Phantom looked over the city triumphantly. The blazing white sun above him shined a bright light over his city to celebrate his victory.

" **Hehehehehe…** " Nekron lay broken and beaten at Phantom's feet, " **Well done, kid. It seems that the Life Entity and the Endless chose well.** "

" **It seems so,** " Phantom looked down to his defeated foe, " **But it wasn't me that beat you.** "

" **Yeah, I know. It was them,** " Nekron snorted.

" **You're damn right it was,** " Twin ice blades appeared in Phantom's hands.

Nekron looked away, " **Go ahead. Finish me. Maybe the third time will be the charm.** "

Phantom stopped his motion of raising his swords, " **Excuse me?** "

" **What? Do you think that killing me will get rid of me?** " Nekron sneered, " **Yeah, that worked real well the first time didn't it?** "

Phantom lowered his swords as he realized the truth, " **You can't die. Even if I destroy your physical from, your consciousness will still exist as long as people are alive and your obsession exists.** "

" **You're damn right! Hehehehehe!** " Nekron seemed pleased by the horror on Danny's face, " **And I'll do even better next time. Another one thousand years. Just think what life will be like then. You sure as hell won't be around anymore.** "

" **Yeah…I won't. The future generations will have to deal with you…again** ," Phantom clenched the swords in his hands tightly, " **More people will die because of you. Hundreds…maybe thousands…** "

" **And there's nothing you can do about it,** " Nekron noted in glee, " **You only got two option here, kid. Kill me and let me reform once you're long dead and gone…or try to restrain me in your mind. And I doubt I have to tell you the dangers of doing the later.** "

" **No matter what…I can't stop you…** "

" **Nope. You can't kill the Ghost of Death.** "

Phantom thought about that for a second. He looked up to the blazing sun above him, " **You can't kill him, but you can take away his obsession.** "

" **Huh?"**

" **No ghost can exist without an obsession…an anchor,"** Phantom reasoned, " **We have the same anchors…Life and Death…** "

" **What are you—Hey! What the hell are you doing?!"** Nekron yelled out as the halfa rocketed into the air.

Phantom ignored the Reaper. Instead, he focused on his new target. He flew towards the sun at his top speeds. Memories of all his adventures flashed through his life. Years ago, he never would have imagined that his life would have been like this. Now, though, he couldn't imagine his life any other way.

With a battle roar, Phantom plunged his swords into the sun that represented his core. He pushed his consciousness into the core. The halfa felt everything that was his powers. It was so beautiful and good, but there was a taint in it. That taint was Nekron, and nothing of Nekron could be allowed to exist.

Using his complete control over his powers, Danny Phantom did the one thing that he had never done before this day. He just let it all go. The sun faded away into nothingness. A once swirling green sky shifted to a normal blue. What was once a perfect mix between a ghost and a human's mind was now completely missing anything paranormal. This was only further emphasized when both Danny Phantom and Nekron the Reaper faded away from the mindscape for the last time.

* * *

 _Danny Phantom's eyes flashed open. He now stood on the Sorcerer Initiative island once more. The unconscious members of his family and friends lie all across the land. They all had peaceful looks on their faces as the exhaustion of the event took its toll on them. All of them deserved to rest._

 _Suddenly, Phantom arched his back like he was in agonizing pain. The form of Nekron in his original body was violently thrown from his chest. Nekron tumbled across the ground before stopping on his stomach. Phantom continued to twitch in pain as the Life Entity and Death stepped out from his body as well._

 _The Entity turned to Phantom, "_ _ **You did well, chosen. You have earned your rest, as I have earned mine. Farewell.**_ _"_

 _Death shook her head as the Life Entity faded away from their vision, "_ _That thing has no sense of tact._ _"_

 _Phantom smiled, "Life doesn't have time for that."_

" _True. But the dead have all the time in the universe,_ _" Death looked to Phantom. She gave him a strange look of absolute pride and terrible heartbreak, "_ _Danny…What you did…for everyone…for me…there are no words to describe my gratitude, but I just...I have grown to care for you._ _"_

 _Phantom smiled, "I'm not going anywhere."_

" _True, but it won't be the same. I'll miss…this…_ _" Death stepped forward and hugged her avatar, "_ _It was nice having someone to defend and appreciate my work. Goodbye, Danny. I'll miss you._ _"_

 _Phantom hugged the woman back before she too faded like the Life Entity, "And I will miss you…more than you can ever know."_

 _Nekron coughed as he pushed himself to his knees, "_ _ **What…What did you do? I feel so weak…**_ _"_

" _I thought about what you said before," Phantom explained, "I can't kill you, but I can erase you."_

" _ **Erase me?**_ _"_

" _Yeah," Phantom stepped forward until he was right in front of the kneeling Nekron, "You're obsessed with Death. But what happens when a ghost loses their obsession? They fade. So that's what I did. I took the thing most precious from you. I took your connection with Death away from you while we were still connected at our cores."_

" _ **But…if you got rid of my connection to Death…that would mean that you…**_ _"_

" _That's right. I gave up my connection to Life and Death. They were the real source of my powers, so…," Phantom's form began to change. His white hair grew darker by the second. Once neon green eyes shifted back to their original blue. His skin changed back to its original paleness as his clothes shifted from their normal color scheme to their reverse, just like his original hazmat suit had changed colors when he originally got his powers, "I gave up my powers to stop you once and for all."_

" _ **No…"**_

" _Yes," Danny glared at Nekron, "Now go. Fade back into the nothingness where you came from. You'll never bother this universe again."_

" _ **But…But I don't understand! It doesn't make any sense!**_ _" Nekron shouted up at Danny, "_ _ **You had the blessings of life and death since birth and the powers of a god at your fingertips to show it! Everything you were and worked for revolved around your powers! For you to give up your powers is like a ghost giving up everything! Your obsession! Your happiness! Everything that you were! Nobody would give that up!**_ _"_

" _Don't you know?" Danny's hard eyes showed no signs of deceit or regret. He stood tall and proud in the choice he made, for he had stood by his convictions until the very end._

" _ **Know what?**_ _"_

" _I am nobody."_

 _Danny said that with such seriousness that Nekron could barely believe it at first. Then, he thought about it for a second. The Reaper remembered everything he learned about Danny Phantom over the years. He remembered all the memories he took from Danny while their minds were linked. Everything finally clicked into place. Despite everything that Danny Phantom achieved, he still always believed that he was just some guy that was lucky enough to get superpowers, "_ _ **HeheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**_ _"_

 _Danny didn't react when Nekron reached up and grabbed him by the shoulders. He just continued to look down at Nekron with hardened eyes as the Reaper shook with laughter. After a few minutes, Nekron's laughter died down. Just in time for his own form to fade away._

" _ **Well, in the end, at least I fulfilled the desire to meet my own end. That's an upside. But you know…**_ _" Nekron met Danny's eyes once more, "_ _ **If it had to be anyone that beat me, I'm glad it was you. Good job, kid. Good job."**_

 _With that said, Nekron the Reaper of Death faded away forever. He left nothing but Danny Fenton as the sole person left standing after the brutal event known as the Blackest Night. Surrounded by all his sleeping friends and family, Danny allowed a few tears to roll down his eyes. It was all finally over._

* * *

 **Next update: "Carry On" on November 21, 2016**

 **Big thanks once again to jaguarspots for being this chapter's Beta.**

 **Thank you for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	35. Carry On

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave."

Baltasar Gracian

* * *

Chapter 35: "Carry On"

(The musical theme for this chapter is: Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance)

(Friday-May 30, 2014)

G. Gordon Godfrey looked towards the camera with a hardened expression on his face, "Eleven days. Less than one month. Despite what seems like a lifetime ago, that's actually how long it's been since the Earth's 'Blackest Night'. The wounds remain fresh and painful from the hundreds, no thousands of lost ones in that short time. Unfortunately, time continues to march forward whether we like it or not, and we must continue to push onward. But let us give one more respectful moment of silence before getting to the hard issues."

Godfrey lowered his head and paused for a few seconds. Once the moment had passed, he raised his head to show that his hard look had only grown sterner.

"Many are to blame for the tragic events. The ghosts from which Nekron originated. The so called heroes who fell in minutes. The government that failed to do anything to come close to stopping it. Perhaps even us, who inadvertently brought Nekron to life in the first place," Godfrey sighed, "But how do we go about punishing those that have failed? That is not an easy question to answer. My first thought would be to go after the ghosts, but they were quick to respond to the fallout as soon as the dust settled."

The image of Vision standing in front of a podium replaced Godfrey's image.

" _I and the…remaining members of the Council have recently come to a decision based on what happened during Nekron's attack. In the end, only trouble has come since our worlds were connected more permanently. Very little good has occurred from it,_ " Vision took a deep sigh, " _As such, we have decided that it would be best to separate our worlds. All ghosts are going to be required to return to the Ghost Zone. We will use Fenton Works' new Dimensional Stabilizer to then sow the rifts between our worlds closed. They will stay this way until the time is right for our two races to reunite once more. I will now be willing to take questions._ "

The image of Godfrey appeared once more, "Vision went on further to explain how those ghosts that remain on Earth will be required to register as citizens of wherever they stay. Those that fail to do so will be considered criminals. It is only because of this that I'm not willing to demand further from the ghosts. Right now, we need separation. But with the ghosts out of good old Godfrey's target range that only leaves elected officials and the Justice League to take the blame."

Godfrey looked to the side camera, "Unfortunately, the shift in leadership and organization with both make them a very hard target to hit. Batman has stepped down as chairman of the League, and the UN is electing new officials as we speak. So change is finally happening. All it took was for the death of thousands to make it happen. Hooray.

"So you must be thinking, 'G. Gordon, who do we blame? Who do we punish?' Well, the answer is that perhaps everyone has been punished enough. Now you might be shocked. G. Gordon Godfrey is saying to let things rest. That's completely not in his nature. But think about it. Aquaman is dead. Many of the more prominent ghosts perished. Several heroes have become MIA after the final battle. And Danny Phantom…" Godfrey fought to hide a wince like he has been struck with a whip, "Danny Phantom gave his life to put an end to the threat of Nekron forever. Add on the near countless other casualties and yes…G. Gordon Godfrey things that it would be best to just move on from this terrible catastrophe."

* * *

"You don't have to do this, you know," Nightwing stood with the majority of the other members of Young Justice near the edge of the Cave's main center. They all faced the Zeta Tubes, or more specifically, a single person standing in front of the Zeta Tubes, "You'll always have a place on the Team."

"I know, but Danny Fenton isn't a hero," Danny argued as he looked across at his friends, "Danny Phantom was. And he's gone…for good this time. I think it would be better if I just step away. A lot less drama for everyone. Especially with how sour the Justice League is after the Joker incident."

Superboy crossed his arms angrily, "They'll get over it."

"He's right, Bro!" Kid Flash shook his head, "Having Young Justice without you…It wouldn't be right. Hell, you're the one that named it."

"And you'll carry the name for me now," Danny smiled.

"You can't just leave now. We already lost too many members as it is," Miss Martian noted bitterly.

Everyone paused at the alien's words. They all knew that she was referring to Beast Boy, yet there was also the still fresh wounds over the deaths of Robin and Aquagirl. Not to mention how many of their members were retiring. Raven…Troia…Black Bat…Dusk…and now their leader.

"And what would you have me do?" Danny questioned, "No way in hell am I changing the Red X suit back to its earlier design. The public knows that the Exorcist Armor is affiliated with me. And just hanging around to hand out missions…It wouldn't feel right."

"There is always training," Lagoon Boy suggested, "You know more about how the Team operates than anyone. And we will need to train up new recruits now that—OW! Neptune's Beard!"

Rocket glared at La'gaan after elbowing him in the ribs, "Insensitive much?"

"What? I am not wrong here," Lagoon Boy snapped back, "I am mourning Rob, Tula, and Little Green like the rest of you, but I have to face facts."

"He's not wrong," Danny quickly went to defend the freshman member of the Team, "You're going to need some new people. The first step is to talk with Gear and Mal…er, Herald."

"I think having Nekron as his first fight scared Richard," Artemis let out a sigh, "He refuses to join the Team."

"And Mal, well…" Bumblebee bit her lip, "He's been gone since he took Jericho back to…wherever Jericho came from."

"More will come then," Danny noted, "Until then, things should be pretty light. Unlike us, the Life Entity didn't heal the Light and its allies. Most of them are probably still licking their wounds. That will slow down their organization's recovery time even more."

"Don't remind me," Constantine grunted. The exorcist was covered in bandages and casts, "The bloody thing could have least dulled the pain when it sent us flying to the surface. Landed straight back in my apartment. Got blood every Goddamn where."

Zatanna gently placed a hand on his shoulder, "But you're alive, and you'll heal."

Constantine's eyes shifted to Zatanna's stomach for a second, "I suppose so. Still don't appreciate you tricking me into joining this Team while I was drugged up, though."

Zatanna giggled, "I'll make it up to you later."

"Still, you could still stick around for mission coordination, Danny," Nightwing rubbed his temples, "Both you and Kaldur are leaving me out to dry here."

Aquaman took a deep breath, "My new position requires me to work as a member of the Justice League. I apologize for abandoning my responsibilities here, but…"

"You don't have to say anything more, Kaldur," Nightwing raised a hand to calm his friend, "We get it. You have a lot to deal with right now. I'll manage."

"Yes, luckily Garth is willing to help handle a lot of the things in Atlantis, but…" Kaldur shook his head, "Never mind that. We all have new responsibilities. I am sure you will do fine, Nightwing. I always knew that you would eventually lead this team. It was inevitable."

"And don't think that you'll be alone," Barbara punched Nightwing gently from her wheelchair, "I can handle mission coordination."

"You see, you don't need me here," Danny smiled at them, "Trust me. This…this is for the best. Right now, we all need to change things. Maybe once things settle, I'll come back with a more active role. But right now, I need to handle some things first."

"So…You'll be back?"

"Maybe," Danny stated. In his mind, though, he thought about how often maybe meant no.

With that, Danny gave his final goodbyes. One more round of hugs and farewells later, he was standing in the center of the Zeta Tube. The teleportation device roared to life as Nightwing typed at its controls. Danny smiled as he took in the sight of the Mount Justice for one final time. He remembered all the time he spent here training and spending time with his friends. It was effectively his second home after Amity Park, and he knew that this was the last time he would ever see the Cave again.

 **Deleting Recognition: Danny Phantom B04**

* * *

Spirit looked down at the clipboard in her hands as she stood on the rooftop next to Lydia, "So you're not going back to the Ghost Zone?"

Lydia shook her head. She looked over her shoulder to see Gizmo doing even more scans on Ace. There was no time to waste with the disease, "No. She needs me."

Spirit couldn't argue with that. She had heard about Ace's medical situation, "I know this is a stupid question, but…Any chance of getting you to register?"

"And draw everyone's attention to my friends so they can be arrested?" Lydia shook her head.

"I understand," Spirit nodded, "But you do realize that we won't be able to come to your defense, right?"

"I know," Lydia examined Spirit's features, "I see that this whole situation must be hard on you."

"It's necessary," Spirit admitted despite the sadness in her voice, "The humans are afraid. The ghosts are on edge. The Green Lanterns are pissed. This is the best way to avoid a mass persecution of ghosts. Humanity is one thing, but if the Guardians of the Universe get the idea of arresting ghosts to prevent a second Nekron..."

"Indeed. Nekron's attack built up a lot of fear and anger," Lydia crossed her arms, "Just for safety reasons, are there any ghosts I need to be on the lookout for?"

Spirit sighed, "Dusk."

Lydia raised an eyebrow, "The youngest halfa? Why isn't he registering?"

"I don't know," Spirit admitted, "But I always knew that he didn't like the fighting thing…and with Fright Knight dead…Danny without powers…and his stability handled…Guess he didn't have enough reason to stick around or register. But I'm not worried about him. He can handle himself, and he knows that he can come home. I just hope he finds whatever he's looking for."

Lydia smiled, "That's a good way to see it."

"Yeah," Spirit nodded, "If you ever need help out there, I'd look for him."

"Noted," Lydia blinked as Spirit flinched, "I'm sorry. Is something wrong?"

"A friend used to say that a lot," Spirit took a deep breath, "But not anymore."

Lydia quickly caught the meaning of her words and decided to move on, "Any other ghosts not going to the Ghost Zone or registering?"

"Well, Dark Dan obviously. Wherever he is. Hotep Ra disappeared," Spirit listed, "And there's both Johnny 13 and Thorn—ah!" Blue mist burst from Spirit's mouth.

"Rose. Kitty's real name is Rose."

Both female ghosts were surprised when Johnny 13 floated up to them from the street below.

"Johnny…" Lydia said in acknowledgement.

"Hey," Johnny 13's eyes were firmly locked on Spirit, "You're the one that my…my son liked, right?"

Spirit clenched her fists, "Yes."

"I see. Then I should thank you for looking after him," Johnny's expression fell, "Better than I ever did."

"You died," Lydia argued, "Then Youngblood sealed your memory if what I heard was correct. There's nothing you could do about it."

"I could have been more careful on my bike. I knew that Charles was coming, but I was stupid," Johnny 13 shook his head, "I own up to that. I've lost every chance to make things up with my son, but…Rose is still out there. Kitty is still out there. There's more to Thorn than a monster. Remember that if she ever decides to punish you."

"You think she will?" Spirit questioned.

"Yeah. That's why I came here to warn you," Johnny noted, "I don't remember everything from when I was alive, but Charles' death and Thorn's resurrection brought some things back. When Rose turned into Thorn…she became very possessive. Like it or not, you stole Charles's heart. She might not like that."

Spirit's face scrunched in through, "I'll keep that in mind."

Lydia felt curiosity bubble in her chest, "What will you do now, Johnny?"

"I'm going to find my girl," Johnny noted, "She's all I got left. Time to be responsible and make up for my mistakes. I'll track her down to the ends of the Earth if I have to. I'm going to fix what I can. It's all I can do."

Spirit felt respect grow for the man, "Good luck with that. I mean it. No offense, but…even Nyx was unnerved by Thorn."

"I know. That's why I need to be around her. I can help bring Kitty back out of her," Johnny pointed a thumb over his shoulder, "Well, I should get going. Got a lot to do. Keep an eye out, kid, and Lydia…best of luck with the girl. I…I honestly wish her the best."

"Thank you," Lydia watched as Johnny floated down back to his bike that was parked at the edge of the street, "I should get going as well."

"Yeah," Dani nodded, "Stay safe, Lydia."

"You too, Danielle."

* * *

Joel sat on a rock at the bottom of a large mountain that reached up to the heavens. He looked over to see his two closest friends from Young Justice. Cassandra crossed her arms and stared at him, "Any way that I can convince you to help me?"

"You know my stance on fighting, killing, and revenge," Joel responded, "Even ignoring that, I want to stay away from my father, not fight against him. But I won't stand in your way."

"Ra's Al Ghul has to be stopped, and the only way to do that is to kill him once and for all," Cassandra noted.

"With that view, no wonder thou decided to leave Gotham," Donna leaned against the mountainside, "But I cannot blame thee. Even if I find her views on some things…off-putting, I still love my mother. If someone killed her, I would hunt them down and cut their heads off."

"That's what I plan to do," Cassandra gave Donna a side glance, "What about you? I can't convince Joel, but you…"

"No, I shan't be helping thee as well," Donna shook her head, "I need to return to Themyscira for a time. I need to deal with…the loss of Jason…and the events of the Blackest Night. Need to find my warrior spirit once more."

"I can understand that," Cassandra looked over her shoulder to see Rose Wilson waiting for her, "Guess I'm stuck with Ravager then."

Joel glanced to Rose, "You trust her?"

"Believe it or not, we bonded during my time as a spy," Cassandra explained, "And she wants to get away from her father and the Light, so…yeah, I trust her."

"Just be careful," Donna warned, "She doesn't seem like the most stable of individuals."

"She isn't, but that's exactly what I need to take down the Shadows," Cassandra stated, "By the way, she wanted to ask you if you've seen her brother, Joel."

"Me?"

"Yes, she thought that you would be the one he'd be drawn to because, and I quote, 'They're both a bunch of hippies who love peace more than war'," Cassandra snorted once she finished quoting her friend.

"Well, I didn't even know about this Jericho before the final fight with Nekron, and I haven't' seen him since," Joel mentioned.

"I see, well if you do, tell him that Rose wants to talk."

"Will do."

Donna looked over to Joel, "By the way, what dost thou plan to do now, Joel? I figured thou would want to return to thy home as well."

"No, I need time away. Figure out some things," Joel stood. A white ring appeared around his head. It traveled downward to transform him into his ghost half. This also summoned Soul Shredder to his back, "With Soul Shredder with me, I don't have to worry about my stability any more. So, now I can just think…about everything. Might go on some adventures, though. The Fright Knight told me plenty of stories about legendary weapons like a sword that steals souls."

"So…" Cassandra's lips turned upward, "Joel the Treasure Hunter? That's what you want to be?"

"Maybe," Dusk shrugged, "No need to decide now. I got all the time in the world now."

"It might seem that way now, but time marches quickly," Cassandra counted, "My parents taught me that—"

"Oi! Cass!" Rose yelled over to the group, "Can we go already!? I'm sick of being here!"

Cassandra sighed, "Time to go."

Donna nodded, "I should take my leave as well. It's a long trip back home."

"Bye," Dusk smiled, "Until we—Oof!"

Donna hugged the halfa in a tight embrace, "Take care of thyself, Joel."

"You too, Donna," Joel held Donna with one arm and held the other arm to Cassandra, "Not too tough for a group hug, Cass?"

Cassandra huffed and walked into the hug, "Of course not."

After a few minutes, the three heroes exited the embrace and went their separate ways. Cassandra joined Rose, and the two of them disappeared into the darkness. Donna flew off to the distance to meet with her sister's invisible plane. Once they were gone, Dusk turned his attention skywards and floated up the mountain to its peak. As he flew, he noted both the peace in his heart…yet there was also a strange solitude knowing that he never got to say goodbye to Jason.

…Of course, he also wondered why no one had reported seeing the shade of Jason Todd during the Blackest Night…

* * *

Danny stood at the top of Fenton Works. The wind of the fresh summer swept through his air. His eyes focused on the city before a buzzing from his pocket caused him to pull out his phone. Different texts showed that it was almost time for the ghosts to leave. He had already said his goodbyes, though. Being that close to the Ghost Zone before it was locked shut…It was too painful for him.

A swirl of pink behind Danny caused the young man to turn. A bandaged and limping Jinx appeared before him, "Hey."

"Hey yourself," Jinx stepped up to Danny. She quickly embraced her boyfriend. Danny paused when he felt her hug him. Slowly, he reached his own arms around her and hugged her close, "I'm so glad that you're safe."

"Me too, Jen. I'm so happy that Nekron didn't use me to hurt you," Danny pulled away and smiled.

"Yeah…Sorry for not calling sooner, but I was unconscious for a while...recovery was slow…and Dad regenerated slowly," Jinx explained.

"I bet," Danny chose his words carefully, "Nekron literally tore him to ash. Didn't know if even an immortal could come back from that. Guess that regeneration of his is pretty unworldly."

"So…" Jinx bit her lip, "You remember what happened?"

"Perfectly."

"I see. Should have guessed…" Jinx walked past Danny to look over the city, "So I guess we need to talk, don't we?"

"Yeah, that's why I called you here," Danny stepped beside his lover.

"Hmm…" Jinx looked down, "Déjà vu. It was almost four years ago when we had a conversation just like this. Right after you found out about my secret."

"I know. That's why I thought that this would be a good spot for this. Plus…" Danny crossed his arms, "This is technically my property. After everything that's happened, I think it's time to move out of Masters Mansion. Live under my own roof like an adult. This seemed like a good option…but I was also thinking of just moving out of Amity Park."

Jinx raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Yeah. Without my ghost half, I don't have an obsession tying me here," Danny explained, "And it's not like I could defend the city without powers. I think some distance would be good. You know, a nice beach house somewhere warm and sunny. But it would be lonely."

Jinx's lips twitched upward, "Unless you have a beautiful girl with you."

"That's exactly what I was thinking."

"But moving like that would put me way out of the way of all the action," Jinx noted.

"It would put both of us out of the way," Danny looked to Jinx, "Jen, I want to make this work. But trying to do that while you're still fighting against my family…It's impossible. This is the only way I can see us working out."

"I see…"

"Jen, please think about this," Danny gently reached up to gently cup her cheek, "I love you."

Jinx stared into his eyes, "I love you too, Danny, but…"

Danny instantly pulled his hand back, "But?"

"But I can't just give up doing what I love. I love my job. I love being an assassin," Jinx noted, "Just because you literally can't be a hero anymore doesn't mean that I'm willing to give everything up."

"That's the only way it could ever work," Danny noted, "I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I know that if your loyalty to your father is stronger than your loyalty to me…I can't be in a relationship like that."

"Danny…"

"You remember Valentine's Day?" Danny took a step back, "You presented a choice to me. I'm going to do the same with you. If you stay with me, then I swear that I'll do everything I can to make you happy. We'll live quiet lives away from all the commotion. Imagine it, waking up next each other every morning to the sound of the waves. We could spend our days relaxing away from everything. And then one day…We could even start our own family."

Jinx looked away in thought.

"Or…" Danny explained, "You can walk away. No screaming. No hate. No complaints. We'll be done, and you can go on with your assassin career. And I'll…I'll figure out what to do with my life as it comes."

Jinx looked back to Danny, "We'll be done? Just like that?"

Danny sighed, "You knew this was coming, Jen. We can't just pretend like everything will work out anymore. Not after everything with Nekron."

"And why do I have to make the choice?"

"Because I'm the one with no powers anymore," Danny gently reached out a hand to her, "So? Will you run away with me?"

Jinx stared at the hand presented to her. The life Danny offered seemed like a dream. If anyone could pull it off, he could. Plus, her dad always did let his children make their own life choices. She could take her lover's hand and live a peaceful existence for the rest of her life. Of course, she had no delusions that things would be perfect. Danny would always be drawn to Amity Park and his family, but that was understandable…even if she didn't exactly want to see her birth father. Still, that dream life was almost everything she ever wanted in life when she was younger.

That was then, though, and this…was too late for such dreams.

Jinx took a step back.

Danny let his hand fall. His face remained stern despite the heartbreak he felt, "I see…"

"Danny, I…I can't give up what I am," Jinx noted, "If I changed myself…would I be the woman you fell in love with?"

"No," Danny turned to look over the city, "I suppose not."

"But we don't have to break up!" Jinx argued, "We love each other!"

"Yes, but sometimes love is not enough," Danny stated.

"You're not being fair," Jinx argued bitterly.

"No, I think that I am," Danny forced himself not to get upset, "I wasn't asking you to fight against your Dad. That would have been unfair like you asking to fight against my family."

Jinx was silent at that.

"I suppose that's it, isn't it?" Danny put his hand into his pockets, "Goodbye, Jinx."

"I…Goodbye, Danny," Hiding the tears in her eyes, Jinx turned and began to walk away to get a safe distance to teleport.

"By the way, Jen…"

Jinx paused. She turned to look at Danny's back.

"You do know that I expect you to keep my family's secret, right?" Danny's voice was stern, "If you don't…I'll have to take drastic measures."

"And what will those measures be?"

"I'm just asking you this…" Danny looked over his shoulders and gave Jinx a look that made her step back, "Don't make me have to kill you."

"Understood."

In a swirl of pink, Jinx disappeared leaving Danny to his solitude. With her gone, Danny let out the sob that he had been holding in. His heart trembled as he reached up to violently rub at his eyes. He wheezed for a few seconds before calming himself. Taking a deep breath, Danny pulled out his phone and made a call.

"Yeah…She chose to walk away…I'm fine…Okay, I'll get over it…Yeah, I guess that means I'll be sticking around…Exactly…Tell our friend that I'm going through with the plan. It's time to shake the establishment."

* * *

Dani stood at the back entrance of Axion Labs with her friends. They stood in an area where they could be alone and say their final goodbyes both to each other and the friend that was lost.

Cyborg gently knelt down and placed the old picture with all five of them on the ground next to candles, "You two don't have to go. You know that, right?"

"We know," Raven noted, "But if we had to make a choice and with the dimensional drifts being locked…"

"Who knows when we'll get the chance to go back to our homes," Nyx crossed her arms, "And with my Mom…gone…plus Vision and Frostbite staying, the Ghost Zone needs some form of leadership. A new Council, and I'm gonna be a part of it."

"That I get, but…" Cyborg looked to Raven, "Do you really have to return to Azaroth full time? Trigon crossed over those dimensional planes even with the Stabilizer active."

"It's not fair to compare my abilities to him. Besides, the stabilizer was mostly there to keep the ghosts safe," Raven explained, "If I want to go with my Mom and study to grow stronger in Azaroth, then I have to do it now."

"But you can study here—" Cyborg paused when he felt Dani place a hand on his shoulder.

"What would you do if you were in their shoes, Vic?" Dani questioned, "If your mom died or was moving far away like that."

Cyborg sighed, "Yeah, I get it, but I don't like it. I mean…we just lost Chuck…"

All three young people lowered their heads in mourning.

"It's probably for the best," Dani whispered. She couldn't stand to see one of her closest friends die for her again.

"Everything will work out," Nyx pumped her fist, "Things will cool down, and Vision will turn the Stabilizer off. Then, we can all meet up again even more awesome then before."

"That's right. I look forward to seeing how you grow," Raven blinked as her phone beeped. She pulled it out to look at it, "Oh…It's time. I have to go meet my mom."

"And I should head inside," Nyx agreed.

"We'll miss you," The four friends quickly shared hugs.

When Nyx hugged Dani, she lingered in her embrace, "Thanks again, Girl Scout. For everything."

"You don't need to thank me."

"I know, but…" Nyx paused. She seemed to be thinking about something, "Oh, screw it!"

"Wh—Mmmh!"

Everyone went wide-eyed as Nyx grabbed onto Dani's face and pull her in for a kiss. Dani didn't fight it out of sheer shock. After a few seconds, Nyx pulled away and giggled, "Knew it."

With that, Nyx turned and flew into the building. Dani began to stutter as Cyborg was just frozen in shock. Raven just blinked, "Huh. Didn't think she'd actually do it."

Dani's head whipped to Raven, "Y-You knew?"

"Yeah. I saw how she looked at you."

"B-But I'm not…"

"I know, and she knows too," Raven mentioned, "That's why she never did anything."

"So she's…Wow I never knew."

"I don't think that's accurate. Labels really don't fit her. Nyx is just Nyx," Raven smirked and looked to Cyborg, "But she is very open-minded to A LOT. You should keep than in mind."

Cyborg collapsed backwards with a clang and bang.

"And with that, I'm off," Raven disappeared in a swirl of magic leaving the shocked Dani and Cyborg alone.

* * *

Dusk sat at the very peak of the mountain. He looked off into the horizon to see the sun setting. The sky blazed with orange and red, and that was reflected in the snow below him. It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, "Your sister wants to see you by the way."

Beside Dusk, Jericho continued to play his guitar. He shrugged as if to say that the time wasn't right yet.

"He wanted to meet with you," Mal noted as he stood behind the sitting duo, "Said that he wanted to see the guy that I thought was better suited for the horn."

Dusk looked over his shoulder, "Said?"

"Wrote, really," Mal chuckled.

"Hmm…" Dusk returned his gaze to the horizon, "Is that the only reason you came to see me?"

"Nope, I felt the flow of the universe."

"What?"

Smirking, Mal threw a strange device at Dusk. The halfa caught the device and looked at it to see that it was a communicator. With that done, Mal turned and used the Horn of Gabriel to create a portal, "Come on, Jericho. I need to take you back to Nirvana before they close the rifts between the dimensions."

Nodding, Jericho hopped up and stepped into the portal. Mal quickly joined him. As he did, he called back to Dusk, "Until next time, Joel."

Alone once more, Dusk looked at the communication device. Slowly, he pressed the button at the side and spoke, "Hello?"

" _Oh…Hi. Didn't think you'd call so early. Should have prepared really…"_

Dusk raised an eyebrow, "Who is this?"

" _You probably remember me as Gear. You know, the kid that became a technopath during the Blackest Night thing_."

"Yeah," Dusk did remember that, "You okay?"

" _Oh, definitely…kind of…not really."_

"Do you need my help or something?"

" _Technically…yes. But not in the needing saving way. You see, I…_ " Gear took a deep breath, " _I got these powers now, and I just KNOW things now and I learn more by the second. It's so much, and I feel the need to use it._ "

"Didn't Young Justice offer to train you?" Dusk questioned.

" _Yes, but I don't want that. I don't want to be a hero like them. Not right now at least. Fighting people like Nekron…I can't do that again._ "

"To be fair, no one there had ever faced anything like that before," Dusk noted.

" _Still…I'd prefer to take baby steps. The Herald guy came to me and said you might be able to help with that,_ " Gear explained nervously, " _He suggested that I could help you. You're going to be traveling, right? Well, I could help make things easier with hacking while you work on information I give you. Tips and stuff on crimes. That way, we can both be free agents._ "

Dusk thought about that for a second, "That sounds nice actually. Alright, I'm willing to try it."

" _Great! I know we have to go by codenames and stuff, but my name's Richard Foley. It's really nice to meet you, Dusk._ "

Dusk smiled, "In private, you can call me Joel."

* * *

Danny walked down the stairs from the top of Fenton woks. As he stepped through the home area of the building and walked to the lab entrance, he was stopped when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He turned to see who it was, "Spectra. Good to see you. I thought you'd be in the lab by now."

"I wanted to talk to you alone first," Spectra pulled her hand back and lifted her other arm to show a thick folder of papers, "I profiled everyone you wanted. Everything is in order. At first, I was intrigued by what you had in mind, but now I find myself scared. You're going to create the greatest army imaginable if you abuse what I've prepared for you."

"You're doubting my integrity?" Danny raised an eyebrow, "There isn't a whole lot to suggest that I'd abuse this."

"I didn't forget stories you told me when you first spoke of your powers," Spectra adjusted her glasses, "Dark Dan."

Danny did not look pleased by that, "That's different, and you know it."

"Really? I know you just went through a great ordeal. You lost plenty of loved ones, your powers, and I'm assuming your girlfriend," Spectra saw Danny's face shift, "Oh, don't be like that. It was obvious that you were going to give her an ultimatum. She obviously chose the less ideal option."

"She did. For once, I let someone else make a choice in my life. I already decided to go through with this," Danny pointed to the folder in her hands, "And I'm going to need those notes to do it…Along with you if you're willing to stick around."

Spectra sighed, "If I don't agree, you'll just replace me with someone less qualified. That will cause even more problems…Fine. But only to make sure that every stays the way it should."

"Thanks," Danny stuck a hand out, "Can I have those?"

Slowly, Spectra raised the folder and handed it to the man who used to be a half-ghost. With a quick thanks, he turned and returned to his trek to the main lab. Spectra was right behind him, but she still had a worried look on her face.

Danny and Spectra stepped into the lab to see Silas Stone, Amorpho, and Red X facing towards two tubes filled with liquid and the two new meta-humans. Above Harriet was the tag 'Silver Banshee,' while Damon had 'Cinderblock' written across the top of his tube.

"Any progress?" Danny stepped beside his friends.

Red X nodded, "Our tests show that there is a transformation aspect of their mutation. They should be able to change back and forth at will after extensive training. Although, there is an 82% chance that there will be some changes to their original forms."

"I guess that's better than being permanently stuck like that…" Danny glanced to his previous battle armor. He would have questioned why J.A.Z.Z. would be in the suit at this moment, but the AI seemed to be enjoying her time in physical form, "How long will that take?"

Silas shrugged, "Impossible to say. We'll just have to run more tests to get an estimate."

"Fair enough," Danny raised the folder in his hands, "What did they say about joining the project."

Amorpho pointed to Cinderblock, "Damon readily agreed. Harriet was a bit more reluctant, but she eventually said that someone had to keep Damon from doing more stupid stuff. As for me…well, I'm still here. I want to make a difference again. A real difference."

"Great," Danny walked over to a large table and pulled out different files from the table, "That makes nine with you, Red X. That's a good number for right now. Any more and I'd have to struggle with keeping everything in check."

The others quickly joined him by the table. They all turned to a large screen which activated to show their new partner in their endeavor.

" _So have you decided?_ "

"Yes. I am set on doing this. I already sent you the paperwork."

" _Indeed. I see that now. Very well. Do you have the files of who you want to recruit?_ "

"I do. We can get started. I already have a leader ready to organize the group," Danny reached over and patted Red X on the shoulder.

" _Oh? Is that why you chose such a strange name?_ "

"Indeed, Miss Waller," Danny smiled, "Although, considering the missions they'll be taking, I thought it would be appropriate that Task Force X's nickname might as well be the Suicide Squad."

* * *

Vlad blinked as he tried to process the fact that Nyx had rushed through the lab and into the Ghost Portal without a word, "What was that about?"

Vision shrugged, "Perhaps she and Dani had a passionate goodbye and she was hiding her tears?"

"Fair enough," Vlad looked down to his clipboard and checked Nyx off the list, "And with Undergrowth and her, that's everyone accounted for."

"Indeed, we…" Vision blinked as Dani helped a near static Cyborg into the room, "What happened to him?"

"Long story," Dani sighed, "Just keep going while I snap him out of it."

"Okay…" Vision coughed into her hand, "As I was saying, we should prepare unless there's any last minute problems to address."

"Torch still says that the ghosts should have taken custody of the human Black Lanterns," Torch mentioned, "It'd be safer that way."

"We talked about this, Torch," Dora gently placed a hand on his arm, "We were lucky enough to be allowed to keep Nocturne and my brother. Asking for Rogue and Blood was too much. Besides, they'll be locked up in Belle Reve for a long time. And with them comatose and without powers, it's not like they will be much more of a threat."

"Yeah, yeah…" Torch grumbled.

"You two sure that you'll be okay?" Ember questioned, "This is going to be the first time ever that one of the Ancient Six isn't around to keep the Ghost Zone in order. You'll have a hell of a job on your hands."

"They won't be alone," Poindexter adjusted his glasses, "I will be there to help. And I believe that Pandora's daughter will want to continue her legacy as well. Not to mention…"

"Beware!" The Box Ghost grinned, "Just kidding. I will make the Ghost Zone a safe place for my family. The five of us will work together for that goal. But it wouldn't hurt to have either of you two with us…"

Frostbite shook his head, "My people and I are needed in Atlantis now more than ever. The new king is inexperienced and the city is weak from the Blackest Night."

"And I want to be here with my husband," Vision gently took Vlad's hand in her own, "Our age is over. It's time for you to step up in our place."

"Of course, if things ever get too out of hand, you could always wake Colossus," Vlad suggested.

Dora bit her lip, "If we can you mean. Poor man exhausted himself during the Blackest Night, but even then…He's not the order and stability type. So we'll just have to struggle on our own. I know that we can do it, though."

Vision nodded, "I believe in you."

Torch grunted, "Well, no point in putting it off. Time to go."

"Always in a rush," Ember rolled her eyes and embraced her brother, "As soon as I get you back, you're forced away from me again. Geeze."

"You could always come to the Ghost Zone with Torch," Torch suggested.

Ember pulled away, "You know why I can't do that, Trever. My obsession is out here. Not in there."

Torch nodded, "True. Good luck then, Ellie. Torch is sure that we'll meet again."

"Of course we will," Ember looked to Dora, "Look after him, will you?"

"You know that I will."

With their final goodbyes, the ghosts stepped into the Ghost Portal for a final time. Vlad quickly worked the controls before permanently shutting the machine off. He then went to the Dimensional Stabilizer and set it to completely close the dimensional rifts. In a burst of energy, the machine separated the two worlds and closed the passage between them, thus starting a new age for both dimensions. For better or worse, they'd have to live with the decisions they made.

* * *

Dusk was now standing and looking up at the stars above him. There was no pollution or artificial light up on the mountain to hide the heavens above the earth. He could see everything with his awe-filled eyes. That wasn't why he was standing, though. Once again, he was visited by someone coming through a portal. This time, though, it wasn't a friend.

"It's almost like déjà vu," Dusk turned around and lowered his gaze, "Don't you think, Dark Dan?"

Dan sneered as he stood outside of the portal created for him by Morgaine le Fey, "Indeed it does, little boy."

"Except this time, you have friends and I don't," Dusk looked past Dan to see two companions on the other side of the portal, "I expected le Fey, but Hotep Ra? I thought you wanted to be a ruler? Why work with two destroyers?"

"In order to rule an empire, one must first conquer," Hotep Ra noted, "I will one day rule my own empire, but I first need to conquer. So who better to work with than a man that can fight off an army and a woman that can seduce entire kingdoms into ruin?"

Dusk shook his head, "It looks like your Black Lantern ring did corrupt your mind after all if you think that's smart. But I guess that's not the point of this visit. What do you want Dan?"

"Well, I first want to chastise you," Dark Dan glowered at the youngest halfa, "You failed to heed my warning in the most spectacular of ways."

"Some of that is the fault of your companions," Dusk argued, "You do remember that they worked for Nekron once?"

"True. I haven't forgotten that, but you…" Dark Dan looked like he wanted to rip Dusk's throat out, "I gave you one simple task. Stop the half-ghosts from killing, and then you break the order yourself. Killing Klarion…You idiot. I know you had that blade on your back. You could have just banished him."

"I know, and I will live with my decision for the rest of my life," Dusk noted, "In a way, if I had control, then perhaps Walker couldn't have used the Witch Boy as a distraction, and Pandora would still be alive. So, I'd be willing to have Nyx chew my ear off, but not you."

"Hmm…"

"So you're pissed at me. That makes sense. I was a gamble that didn't pay off," Dusk took a deeper stance, "Are you here to kill me for it?"

Dark Dan paused for a second, "I thought about it. Taking you out would be a blow that would change a lot of variables in my favor. But ultimately, I decided against."

"Why? What do you have to gain out of it?"

Dark Dan stared at Dusk, "Pride and curiosity. For the rest of my existence, I would look back and think that I wouldn't have succeeded in this universe if not for Nekron weakening everything. There are so many variables that I cannot predict. You proved that…and so did my other self. He gained a power twenty years early. There is something off about this universe that makes it different. I want to conquer it at its strongest, not at its weakest. So its pride and curiosity that keeps you alive today."

"You do know that those are sins that always come before the fall?" Dusk questioned.

"Indeed, but that makes this interesting," Dark Dan chuckled, "So I decided to make this even more interesting. I give you one more warning, Joel Fenton. Prepare. Do absolutely everything that you can to prepare, because I am different than the other foes that your family defeated before."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Because I don' want to bring a deluded sense of justice to the universe. I don't want to rule it. Hell, I don't even want everything to die," Dark Dan smiled widely, "I want to watch everything suffer. I want everything to beg for something as merciful as a death. I want to watch everything suffer for all of eternity. And my goals aren't just in this universe. No, I will do this to all timelines. To all possible realties. The damage I will cause will be far worse than what even Nekron could have conceived, because I will get the one power greater than Death and Life combined and watch enjoy watching everything scream in agony."

"Power greater than Death and Life?" Dusk was confused, "What power is that?"

"Anti-life."

"Isn't that just death?"

"No, kid!" Dark Dan's sick glee only grew, "It's much worse."

"Hmm…You won't succeed."

"I won't?"

"No, because…" Dusk unsheathed his blade and pointed it at Dan, "My family and friends won't let you."

"Kid, your family is in ruins. Your friends are scattered. Earth is weakened and will be easy to dominate," Dark Dan mocked, "That isn't much of a threat."

"It might not seem that way, but there are people left with our will," Dusk glared at Dan, "Even if the Phantom Family is gone, our will isn't. New heroes will rise and inherit it. They will grow stronger than we ever were and will stop you. They will be our legacy. They will carry on without us, and that's something that you'll never overcome."

"We'll see about that," Chuckling, Dark Dan turned want walked back into the portal, "When I'm done, you're legacy will be nothing but pathetic ashes."

The portal closed. Dusk was once again alone. He sheathed his blade and looked up once more. The light of moon shined down brightly onto his form, "No, it will be even better than even I can imagine."

* * *

(Sunday-January 27, 2046)

 _And so ended the story of the Phantom Family. We weren't all together for long, but I think it was one of the most memorable times in history. It definitely was one of the most influential, because everything that happened after that was a result of our actions…and our disbanding._

 _For years, people asked why we drifted apart. All I can say is that Nekron's Blackest Night took its toll on all of us. In many ways, we lost what made us so strong in the first place. Danny never worked on the hope for a better future. Joel couldn't endure the hero lifestyle anymore. And I…I just lost the joy in my life. That's something that Luna tells me all the time…She's not wrong._

 _It didn't help that things didn't get any better. Just as things were about to calm down and heal, the Light recovered in a big way. Although it took a while to find a suitable replacement for Ocean Master, the Brain and Klarion quickly got replacements that were even worse than they were. The Team felt that in a big way not too long after the dust settled after the Blackest Night._

 _Then there were the threats from the heavens. The Reach. The Tamaranian Empire. Apokolips…God, Apokolips. I remember the first time I saw Darkseid. I get a permanent reminder of it every time I look at this blasted fake arm of mine._

 _In the end, though, it was Dark Dan that brought the end to everything. He was always the Ultimate Enemy, perhaps even more than Nekron. Not in raw power, mind you, but he always had bigger goals in mind that killing everything. After all, there are far worse fates than death._

 _You can trust me on that._

-From the personal memoirs of Danielle Masters

"Yeah," A small sigh came from soft pink lips, "I can't argue with you there, Grandma."

Neon green eyes with slits down the middle turned from the crumbled page to the binder that was currently being used to hold all the pages of the memoires. Once the final page was placed with the others, Luna reached to brush an extremely long strand of white hair with pink highlighted tips behind her ear. Her heart shaped face was set in a fixed frown as she stared at the memoirs along with the different books that Danielle Masters had written about her adventures up to the events of Nekron's Blackest Night.

A hand covered by fingerless gloves moved the four books to the side. She had already read all of them at length and had a good understanding of how things were before….before everything fell apart. With the books read and memoirs put back together, Luna turned her attention to the other papers on the desk.

…A long list of all known meta-humans and potential heroes…

…A base outline of the events of 2016…

…And blueprints to a very special machine…

"Ah…" Luna bit her lip, "So that's what you wanted to do…"

"Luna! Luna!"

Luna didn't react as a brown haired boy zipped into the room at amazing speeds, "Yeah, Bart?"

"I was worried. You were gone for a long time," Bart noted, "Come on, Box Lunch says that we need to get going."

"No."

"Um…No? You're planning on telling Box Lunch no?"

"Of course I am. Not like I ever listened to her before anyway," Luna began stacking all the papers on the desk, "I have a plan, Bart."

"Oh God…" Bart's face fell, "Every time you say that, we end up on mode with the League…"

"This is different. We're not going to deal with our crappy version of the League…" Luna nodded to herself as she thought, "We're going to need someone who remembers that time…Someone who would go along with this…Neutron. We need to bust him out of the penitentiary. Shouldn't be too hard now…"

Bart's eyes widened, "Are you insane?!"

"No. Just ambitious," Luna took a deep breath, "We're going to change everything, Bart. Make sure everything turns out good for as many people as we can. We'll save everyone…reunite the Phantom Family…stop Young Justice from falling…and prevent the Great War from happening on Earth. We'll just need to stop the Reach before they get a foothold and make us vulnerable to Dark Dan."

"And how do we do that, Luna?"

Luna grabbed the blue prints from the desk. She turned around and held them up for Bart, "Don't call me that. Every half-ghost needs a second name. Call me Legacy. We'll need to think of a codename for you too."

Bart looked at the blueprints. His eyes went wide as he read the name of the machine Luna planned to build. The Fenton Time Machine.

* * *

(Saturday-May 31, 2014)

Dark Dan stood on an asteroid floating through the darkness of space. His eyes were glued on an abandoned planet off in the distance. Behind him, Morgaine le Fey and Hotep Ra floated in a bubble of magic.

"Just to make sure things are clear…" Hotep Ra's eyes darted from Morgaine to Dan, "Neither of you are in charge of me. We're equal partners in this."

"Of course!" Morgaine le Fey giggled, "Partners…that will stab each other in the back in an instant."

"Not as long as we need each other," Dark Dan argued, "With what I have in mind, I need someone that can manipulate politics. She and I are too dominant and mocking to do that. You, though…You know how to convince people into anything. Just look at what you did with those meta-humans."

Hotep Ra nodded at that, "Fair enough, but don't expect me to trust you. When the time comes, I'm going to take my Empire whether you hand it to me or not."

"Of course," Morgaine's soft lips moved upward into a smile, "I must say, I'm glad that I agreed to help you. This is going to be so entertaining."

Dark Dan couldn't argue with that. Slowly, he reached into his chest. He grabbed the things he planned to use on Nekron before the Reaper revealed his control over them. The idea of overpowering the Ghost of Death was doomed from the start, but it all worked out in the end. He not only now had the greatest weapons to ever exist in the Ghost Zone; he also had the last trace of Nekron's power left in the universe. All without the Reaper's will to fight against it. It seems like his actions during Trigon's invasion really paid off.

With a grin, Dark Dan pulled out the relics from his core to look at his prize. In his hands sat the items that he stole from the Ghost King's castle while Nekron was unable to see his movements during Trigon's invasion. His grin grew as the green and black energy shone off the weapons and covered his features.

The Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire.

Laughing, Dark Dan slipped the source of Pariah Dark's power onto his finger and head respectively. His power surged to levels that mortals couldn't even begin to comprehend. With a roar, he pushed his hand out towards the abandoned planet in front of him. His energy surged, and the planted disintegrated in a matter of seconds.

" **No one will be able to stop me now** ," Dark Dan gloated, " **It seems the universe will indeed see the 'First Prophecy' be fulfilled. After all, there was always more than one Phantom to fear.** "

 _Beware the Phantom_

* * *

 **The End**

 **Conviction – A story by The Struggling Warrior**

 **Beta - jaguarspot**

 **Stay tuned for Bonus Chapters "Behind Conviction" and "Luna Legacy" to be published on December 21, 2016 and January 21, 2017 respectively**

 **Note: As the greatest threat falls, an even worse enemy rises…The Ultimate Enemy still waits in the background. I want to thank everyone for sticking with me through this. When I originally started Obsession, Conviction was just a mess of ideas I wanted to try. Now…It's a reality. Fun fact, originally, I planned to have Danny sacrifice his life to defeat Nekron. I was dead set on having it happen, but there was a huge plot hole I couldn't reason around…Luna. Granted, she could still exist even if Danny was dead, but…Well, you'll see as her story is told. In the end, though, I think this will actually work out better. Danny can still move to the background and let Dani, Joel, and Luna take the lead in Desperation, and even be given a role I always dreamed of doing.**

 **Young Justice: Invasion will not be the same at all.**


	36. Behind Conviction

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions."

Leonardo da Vinci

* * *

 **Behind Conviction**

(Friday-September 13, 2013)

Dark Dan burst from Clockwork's domain and flew out into the swirling Ghost Zone. Once he was a good distance from his former prison, the dark Phantom permitted himself to look back. The sight caused him to pause in his flight. His eyes widened in shock as the darkness of Nekron covered Clockwork's home and brought it tumbling down.

Dan couldn't believe it. Nekron defeated Clockwork with ease. That was something that not even he could do back in his original timeline. This made it clear that this timeline's Nekron was far more dangerous than the husk of Nekron that Dan dealt with when he was younger.

"Damn…" Dark Dan hissed, "He's dangerous."

Clockwork was right. Dan couldn't just run. If Nekron's power was based off of death, then he would gain more power as people died. That was bad. If any of those heroes or villains died, then Nekron would gain too much power. Eventually, he would get stronger than Dark Dan could ever hope to be, and then running would prove to be pointless.

"I need to stop him from killing people," Dark Dan realized, "And I need to find a way to get as much power as possible."

* * *

(Friday-September 13, 2013)

He flew through the Phantom Zone as fast as he could. There was a dimensional tear in this hell hole for the first time in years. This was his only chance to be free.

There! He could see it! A strange man covered in armor was dragging a dying boy through the portal while a tentacle monster was chasing them. They were still so far away, though. He wouldn't make it. That didn't matter to him, though. He had to try. If not then he would be stuck here for even longer.

"Come on!" The man roared. He watched as an explosion went off and the portal closed before he could get close, "NO! DAMN IT!"

Despite the pain from the explosion, the monster turned its attention to the man approaching him. With a roar, it tried to grab him. It didn't last even a second. In a blaze of red, the monster was torn apart and scattered across the Phantom Zone.

Once the monster was dealt with, the man looked around desperately, hoping that another portal would open up soon. That wasn't the case, though. Once again, he was trapped without a way to escape.

General Zod looked up and let out a roar of frustration, "Damn you, Kal-El! I'll get out of here one day, and when I do, that pathetic planet of yours will be turned into dust!"

* * *

(Friday-September 13, 2013)

Nyx smiled. She didn't want to smile, but she did it anyway for one simple reason…her _father_ had ordered.

"Hehehehehehe!" Klarion clapped his hands together joyfully, "Finally, I got it right! It's about time! Now the real fun can begin."

"Yes, father," Nyx wanted to die in that moment.

"We're going to tear everything apart! The chaos will be beautiful!" Klarion giggled, "And you're going to be the key to all of it! I'm so glad that everything worked out like this! You're even better than a single dumb old monster…You make them with ease!"

'You're the monster!' That's what Nyx wanted to say. What she actually said was, "It's all because of you, dad. You're the best."

"I am, aren't I?" Klarion patted Nyx condescendingly on the head, "And you're my greatest creation. I can't wait to use you properly. You're going to get me all the power I could ever want."

Nyx never wanted anything more in her entire life than to bite off Klarion's fingers. Despite her mind screaming at her body, though, she just continued to smile.

'Please! Someone help me!"

* * *

(Friday-September 13, 2013)

Harm bowered before Morgaine le Fey, "Mistress, you have Harm's deepest thanks for rescuing him from that hellhole."

"Oh, Harm," Morgaine eyed the scarred man, "You should know that I don't want your words as thanks. I want actions."

"Of course, Mistress," Harm nodded, "As promised, Harm will lead the charge to provide you with all the entertainment you could ever want. The war of the ghosts shall be bloody and tragic. It will be the perfect story for you."

Morgaine smiled, "Indeed it will be."

* * *

(Saturday-September 14, 2013)

Danny sat alone in his room and thought about the results of the day. Despite what happened with Victor, the worst thing that happened to him that day had nothing to do with his escapades at Axion Labs. It turned out that Clockwork's entire domain had been destroyed and that the Master of Time was put into a coma. There was even worse news, though…

Dark Dan was free.

Anger surged through Danny. His knuckles popped and his teeth grinded as his whole body clenched. This wasn't good. He had to stop Dark Dan. If he didn't, then the monster would take everything from him. The other problems that occurred the previous day didn't nearly amount up to how much danger Dark Dan posed.

Harm could be dealt with later. It wasn't like he was going to cause any problems that could be worse than what Dark Dan could do.

* * *

(Saturday-September 14, 2013)

Victor looked in the mirror his parents had provided him, "No…what have you done to me?"

Silas flinched, "Son…I'm sorry…I—"

"YOU TURNED ME INTO A FREAK!"

Elinore gave him a desperate look, "We save your life, Victor. If we didn't—"

"SAVE MY LIFE?! MY LIFE WAS IN DANGER IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"Please, we're sorry. I know that we were wrong, but—"

"GET OUT!"

"Son, be reasonable—"

"I DON'T WANT TO BE REASONABLE! I WANT MY NORMAL FACE BACK!" Tears ran down from Victor Stone's one real eye. He was now a metal freak, and it was all his parents fault.

* * *

(Monday-September 16, 2013)

Dani blinked as she looked to the changed Victor.

Victor flinched, "H-Hey, Dani…I-I didn't want to see you yet. I…I know that I look bad, but…"

"You don't look bad."

Victor frowned, "Yes, I do. I'm more tech than human now."

"Really?" Dani reached up and gently placed a hand across the side of his face that was still flesh. She slowly moved his head to emphasize his human side, "You still got the same eyes. You're still you. The only thing that's different is your container."

Victor felt his face heat up, "Dani…"

"Besides, your new body is kickass!" Dani grinned, "What weapons do you got in there?!"

"I…I don't have any weapons."

"Well, then…" Dani removed her hand from his face, "We're going to have to fix that, aren't we?"

Victor felt his still human heart thump in his chest. For the first time in days, he really felt human, "Yeah…we are."

* * *

(Saturday-September 28, 2013)

Morgaine le Fey smiled at Harm and the ghosts that they had captured, "You have done an excellent job, Harm."

Harm bowed before the sorceress, "Thank you, Mistress."

"Our preparations are almost done. Once the little boy is done with the machine, the entertainment will finally begin," Morgaine hummed in satisfaction.

"Harm cannot wait to kill all the ghosts," Harm grinned sadistically.

"Speaking of which…" Morgaine giggled, "I have a special job for you, Harm. Once everything is set into motion, there is a special ghost I need you to capture for me."

"Special ghost?"

"Yes, have you ever heard of the Spectre?"

* * *

(Saturday-September 28, 2013)

"I can't believe this!" Klarion glared at Nyx as he marched around her, "You weren't supposed to show yourself!"

Walker watched as this went on, "I'm surprised that you kept your cool back there."

"It was only because Spirit was there. Better not to give Nyx any more outside stimulus," Klarion examined the unmoving Nyx, "They were friends. She had a connection to people in Amity Park. That must be why Nyx disobeyed me. The original Nyx was rebelling. I would be proud if I wasn't so pissed."

"So…stimulus can free her under the right circumstances?" Walker questioned with clear interest in his voice.

"That's right. A down side to having a servant that's naturally chaotic and rebellious," Klarion smirked, "That's why I need to make sure she knows who's in charge."

Black electricity danced from Klarion's hands. In seconds, Nyx's screams flooded through the area. Walker just watched impassively. The only reason he cared about this was because of their roles in his true master's plans. If Nyx rebelled, the Sorcerer Initiative would be a bust. So, this was definitely for the best. It didn't hurt that it was amusing to him as well.

* * *

(Saturday-September 28, 2013)

Dark Dan huffed as he looked over the mountainside. He did what he could. Not many of the heroes would listen to him. Dusk was an exception, though. The strange little halfa was the one least likely to kill. A quick warning to try to save lives might light a fire under his ass. That was going to be needed to stop whatever le Fey and Nekron had planned.

He just wished that he could have been more specific. Unfortunately, the Black Lanterns would definitely be keeping an eye on all the active halfas. They were important to Nekron's plan, after all. Dusk was probably the least valuable overall, though. If he learned too much, then the Black Lanterns would definitely had eliminated him.

"That's all I can do to prep the heroes without learning more about the next part of the plan," Dark Dan realized, "Now I need to prepare myself. Time to get some real knowledge on this new world. I wonder what exactly changed from my timeline…"

* * *

(Saturday-September 28, 2013)

Nekron looked down to his followers with satisfaction, " **I would say that today was very productive. Altantis has been properly scouted, and le Fey is one step closer to enacting her plan.** "

Nocturne looked up from where he knelt, "What about Dusk, Master Nekron? Dark Dan interacted with him."

Aragon gained a vicious grin, "Should we kill him?"

" **No, no…not yet at least. Dark Dan was careful not to give too much away. Besides…** " Nekron let out a chuckle, " **Dusk is more useful alive than dead. After all, he's a born killer. Even if he denies it.** "

* * *

(Wednesday-October 30, 2013)

Cain felt his phone vibrate. He had been waiting for this call, so he immediately brought his phone up to his ear, "Yeah?"

" _I know where Amorpho is,"_ Fenton's voice flowed through the phone.

"Where?"

" _You're not going to like it."_

"Where?"

" _He's infiltrated the current base of Ra's Al Ghul."_

Cain frowned, "I see…"

" _You have to find him and stop him. I'm sending Madame Rogue too. Whatever le Fey has planned needs to be stopped. Like it or not, things will go bad quickly if Ra's dies without a successor."_

"Yeah, I get it. Just thinking about how ironic that I'm going to save the guy that I refused to work with," Cain explained, "I'll make sure nothing happens to him."

" _Good…I got to go. I'll make sure your payment gets into your account once the situation is settled."_

"Got it…" Cain silently ended the call, "Hmm…Maybe I can recruit Shiva to help me. It'd be good to see the wife again."

* * *

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

Ace eyed the ghost in front of her, "Why weren't you going crazy like the other ghosts?"

"I'm stronger than them, and I…" Lydia paused for a second, "I'm used to being around someone that could control ghosts."

"Pst! Ace!" King rushed over and whispered to Ace, "That's Freakshow's old flame. Be careful around her."

"Freakshow…" Ace remembered the strange man, "Why stick with him?"

"Because I loved him, but…eventually he changed," Lydia noted, "I couldn't stick by him through his violence and madness."

Ace tilted her head, "Why tell me that?"

"Because you know pain. I can see it in your eyes," Lydia explained, "You look like you need help."

Ace did not respond to that.

"Will you let me help you?"

* * *

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

Dark Dan was covered in bruises and cuts as he floated high in the air. His fight with the Black Lanterns did not go his way. A fight between him and a single Black Lantern would be a bit of a challenge. Three Black Lanterns were far too much for anyone, though.

A change in the energy caused Dan to pause, "Damn it. Too late. Spectre died…"

"What did you expect?" Hotep Ra questioned.

Dark Dan growled, "I expected the youngest halfa to heed my warning. Everyone is just useless. No point in this useless struggle."

"There is a point," Nocturne pointed his ring at the alternate Phantom, "Master Nekron will be pleased if we capture you."

"Not likely," Dark Dan's form disappeared into a burst of energy just as the Black Lanterns shot energy blasts at him. It was time for a change of plans. He wouldn't be able to fight Nekron like he was now. There had to be some way to gain even more power.

* * *

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

Klarion's control and orders were now close to absolute at this point. There were a few loopholes that Nyx could abuse, though. One order that Nyx found that she could readily interpret at her leisure was the command to do everything in her power to improve the Sorcerer Initiative.

Nyx could work with that. It wasn't too much of a stretch to assume that collecting magical items would help improve the Sorcerer Initiative. This was what she took advantage of when she was scouting during le Fey's attack.

Challenging Troia and taking the Lasso of Truth was the simple part. The hard part would be using it to her advantage to get Klarion to break the spell over her by making him reveal the truth through contact with the lasso.

Then...well, she would figure that out when she got to it.

* * *

(Thursday-October 31, 2013)

"Well…" Lex looked to the monitors that showed his companions, "That was interesting to say the least."

"Interesting?" Ra's raised an eyebrow, "I doubt that you'd be putting it so lightly if you were the one knocked unconscious during the attack."

"Hehehehehe…" Klarion giggled, "It could have been worse. At least you didn't have the mild inconvenience of dying."

"And at least you have the luxury of viewing death as an inconvenience," Ocean Master noted lightly.

"Good points," Ra's acknowledged, "But there is still the question of why this happened. It obviously had something to do with le Fey, but what?"

"Your death or capture would have been devastating to the Light and the League of Shadows," Queen Bee suggested, "Perhaps she wanted to watch how the fallout would be?"

"Perhaps...but it is impossible to say right now. We'll have to wait before we can interrogate le Fey until we can decide," Savage said with a solemn look on his face, "Until then, you should up your security and be careful, old friend. If we lose any members, then our plans will be set back by a lot."

* * *

(Friday-November 1, 2013)

Damon Gray considered himself a rather hardened individual. Despite everything he had lost in his life, he didn't let other people see his pain. No one knew just how much losing his wife and raising a teenage daughter was difficult for him to cope with...especially when the teenage girl was a super hero.

There was no amount of strength or stoicism that could prepare him for the death of his daughter. It was something that was always a risk with her line of work, but Damon always tried to ignore that because Valerie had long since made up her mind. Thinking about it was always his worst nightmare. Now his nightmare had come to life.

He sobbed as he looked down at her broken body. He didn't care if anyone saw him at this point. The only real reason why he tied to be strong was for Val. There was no reason left to pretend anymore.

Right now, he wanted to blame someone for this. Danny was the first thing to come to mind. The heroes were next, followed by the villains even if the murderers had been dealt with Danny. Finally, there was himself.

Deep down, he knew that blaming someone was wrong. Val would chew his ear out for cursing others. The only one that ultimately made Valerie's choices was herself. No one could have changed her mind. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't have stopped her.

So, Damon decided to stop blaming others and thinking about what could have been. Instead, he focused on the reality in front of him. His daughter was dead, and the only thing he could do was cry. So that's what he did.

It would be another long night.

* * *

(November 5, 2013)

Amorpho always knew that he wasn't strong when it came to fighting. He didn't have any talent in close quarter combat. Still, he took great pride in the knowledge of how dangerous his powers could be. If he impersonated the right person, then he could turn the world upside down.

He had never once thought about someone using that power to their advantage. He took comfort in the knowledge that his powers had never been used for evil. Morgaine le Fey changed that. He had almost brought the League of Shadows into anarchy. Causing assassins to go wild across the world had to be at the top of the list of things that could start World War Three.

Even if that catastrophe was avoided, though, he still had to live with the knowledge that he had influenced three of the most dangerous villains on the planet. The consequences for that would be on him.

It was all because he was too weak to resist the mind control. Well, he was going to make sure that would never happen again. No matter what he wouldn't let himself be influenced again by anything other than the greater good.

No matter what, he was going to be useful and make a real difference to make up for his failure. Even if it killed him.

* * *

(Saturday-January 18, 2014)

The Sons of Trigon and Agent Z all bowed before their master. Trigon seemed pleased with what they had accomplished, " **You have done well, my loyal followers.** "

Trigon's sons all glowed under the praise of their father. Agent Z was far more critical of their own work, "The heroes proved to be extremely creative and meticulous in their preparations for us. We only just barely succeeded in our mission. Next time, they might come out on top, and if that happens during the day of your ascension to the mortal world…"

" **That won't be an issue. The mortals are predictable. Threaten those they care for, and their wills will crumble,** " Trigon noted, " **And my daughter seems to have grown very close to the leaders of our enemies. Taking the half-ghosts out will effectively kill two birds with one stone.** "

* * *

(Saturday-January 18, 2014)

Fright Knight crossed his arms and leaned against one of the walls of Vlad's office, "The encounter with the devil's forces did not go as planned."

"That is an understatement," Vision stroked her chin in thought, "Trigon did not just have raw power like we thought. The strange abilities of his sons are hard to predict. It will be hard to know their exact limits without being able to experiment with them. The only thing we can work with is theoretic."

Vlad smiled, "Luckily, my dear, you are the queen of theory. I'm sure you'll use this as an opportunity to better yourself and find a weakness in Trigon's force."

Vision's right hand slipped down to brush against her robes, "Indeed…"

* * *

(Friday-February 14, 2014)

David Cain looked down at the paper in his hands and then back up to check that this was the right door. It was best to be careful, especially on this day. He didn't want to walk in on something that he couldn't unsee. Raising a hand, Cain knocked on the door. After a second, it swung open, and Cain was pulled inside before the door was slammed shut.

He was immediately pushed into the wall. Soft lips smashed into his own rougher mouth. Cain quickly caught on and fought the assaulting mouth with his own. He used his superior physical strength to move his assaulter away from the wall and further into the room. Luckily, Shiva was pleased with this and did nothing to halt his actions.

Once they made to the bed, David finally pulled away, "Now that's a greeting. I'm guessing that you missed me?"

Shiva chuckled and moved her hand downward, "Not as much as you've missed me apparently."

"I won't deny that," Cain gently brushed a hand across her cheek, "Damn, you're beautiful. I wish we could be like this every day."

"We will soon, love," Shiva gained a wanting tone in her voice, "Once my mission in the Shadows is over, and Cassandra is safe, then we can be together every day."

"That day can't come soon enough."

"Agreed. Now, no more talking. I want your mouth to be put to better use."

"Yes, Ma'am."

* * *

(Friday-February 14, 2014)

Harriet eyed the menu in her hands, "Hmm…The crab sounds good. What do you think?"

Damon was silent.

Harriet lowered her menu and looked across the dinner table to her date for the night, "Damon?"

Damon blinked as he was dragged from his thoughts, "What?"

"I was asking you about the crab," Harriet gently explained.

"Oh…" Damon slowly nodded, "That sounds good."

Harriet let out a small sigh, "Ok. I get it. You're just not into this."

"What? No…Well, yes…err, it's just weird," Damon admitted, "I haven't been on a date since my wife died. I was too busy with work and…Valerie…"

Harriet decided to guide the conversation away from his dead loved ones, "That's understandable. If you don't want to continue this, we can call it a night."

"No, no, Danny set this up for a reason," Damon noted, "He didn't want me alone tonight. It would be…too depressing for me."

"Danny does know a lot about losing people he cares about," Harriet agreed.

Damon rubbed his forehead, "Yeah…"

Harriet saw his expression, "If it makes you feel better, this is far from the worst date I've ever been on."

Damon raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Yeah. There was this one time in college where Maddie set me up with one of Jack's friends. He was actually one of the most agreeable of them, but…well…Maddie and Jack were both kind of dense when it came to relationships. They never realized that the guy was gay…"

The night continued like that. While there was no real romance in the evening, a friendship was started, and that was enough for them right now.

* * *

(Saturday-February 15, 2014)

Fright Knight sat on the couch in the living room of Master Mansion and looked to the worried Vision, "You are concerned about Lord Phantom choosing to start a relationship with Jinx."

Vision turned to the Fright Knight, "And you aren't?"

"I trust my liege's ultimate judgment," Fright Knight explained.

"So do I," Vision argued, "But that girl…She's related to HIM."

"I know, and that does hit close to home," Fright Knight admitted, "But they have the choice to be together, and we must accept it."

"It won't last," Vision argued, "They exist on two different sides. This won't end happily for them."

"Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean that some good won't come out of it."

* * *

(Saturday-March 1, 2014)

Ra's sighed when Phantom and Jinx exited the Light's meeting, "So, we're going to be missing three of our leaders from the Sorcerer Initiative."

"Not to mention all the assets and funds we sunk into the program," Lex shook his head, "The loss for this project is drastic. It will take a long time to rebuild our organization back to full power."

"I know that it might be too soon, but we must start thinking of who could replace those three," Queen Bee mentioned.

Savage nodded sadly, "We need to start compiling data as soon as this is over. But…I do have an idea of a good replacement for the Brain…"

* * *

(Monday-March 3, 2014)

All members of the Phantom Family stood the memorial room. They often went there individually, but it was rare that they all spent time there together in this room. There was a very good reason for this. The only times they ever came together in the Memorial Room was when someone died. That was the very case in this instance.

There was plenty to mourn right now. But there was one specific member of their family lost in the fight. It was that being's stone that they all stood in front of.

 _Cujo: A good dog_

Joel stepped forward and laid a bouquet of flowers in front of the stone. He then stepped back with his family. Like them, he had tears in his eyes. They all remembered the times where Cujo ran through the halls and filled them with joy. The words on the stone rang painfully true for all of them. Why must the most innocent and pure die?

* * *

(Monday-March 3, 2014)

Cassandra looked up to her father. Shock and fear covered her features, "They took her?"

"Yes…" Cain was still cursing himself on the inside.

"They'll kill her," Cassandra went very pale in that moment, "W-We need to find her!"

"Don't worry," David knelt in front of his daughter, "I'm going to find her and drag her out of Ra's grasp."

"What about me?" Cassandra questioned, "I can't just stand around twiddling my thumbs."

"Your mother did all of this so that you could be safe. Letting you come with me would be spitting on everything she sacrificed," David argued, "You go with the heroes like planned. Once I find and save your mother, I'll send word to you."

"But…"

"No buts. I'm using the father card here," David looked at his daughter, "I know that I couldn't be around a lot, but it was strange circumstances to say the least. I love you, Cassandra, and I…"

Cassandra rushed in for a hug. That was the first time her father ever got to say that to her.

"…I'll find her," David promised, "Or die trying."

* * *

(Monday-March 3, 2014)

Jericho floated through Nirvana to a more secluded space that was harder to navigate. He had felt a disturbance in the flow of energy here. It was a larger burst of psychic energy combined with enormous amounts of magic. The combined force of the energies must have teared through the wall separating the mortal plane from Nirvana. From the looks of it, eight strange beings were transported from that tear in dimensions.

For a few minutes, Jericho tried to awaken the strange beings. He started with the normal humans and then moved onto the ghosts. Nothing he tried worked, though. It seemed like their bodies were in some kind of forced suspended animation state. The strange combination of mental and magical energies must be behind it. They probably wouldn't wake up until they left Nirvana.

After realizing that it was pointless, Jericho went back to playing his guitar. At least he would have company for a while.

* * *

(Saturday-March 8, 2014)

That bastard.

That absolute, pathetic, piece of shit.

How dare he?

Sending Shiva's body like this…what was he trying to do? Was it mockery? Was it the fool's pathetic sense of morality in murder? Did he think giving David the body of his dead wife would pacify him?

Cain reached down and gently traced the bullet hole in his wife's head. It was one clean shot. She didn't suffer in death. That didn't matter to Cain, though. Dead was dead.

"N-No…" Cain sobbed. Hot tears rand down his face, "Damn it, woman…you can't leave me…Goddamn it!"

Hugging his wife's corpse, Cain knew that it was time to do something drastic and stupid. That was the only way to pacify his own crazy instincts and save his daughter from his own fate.

* * *

(Wednesday-March 12, 2014)

Cassandra held her father's letter to her chest and heaved out a sob. Both her parents were dead. How was she supposed to deal with this? Just a month ago, she believed that her parents would run off into the sunset and make her a younger sibling. Now, though, all that was dust.

"Mommy…Daddy…" Cassandra didn't bother to wipe the tears running down her face.

The Shadows…Ra's Al Ghul…He did this. She would make him pay. Cassandra would cut out his heart and…

No.

She couldn't do that.

This was what her father was trying to warn her about in his death. Facing Ra's just out of hate was just stupid. She needed a plan. She needed time. And she needed plenty of people on her side when the time came. Until then, she would wait. Then…

She would beat Ra's Al Ghul to death with her own bare hands.

* * *

(Wednesday-March 12, 2014)

Vlad had his face in his hands, "All this time…I had a daughter…I can't believe it."

Vision placed a hand on her love's shoulder, "Vlad, you can't blame yourself. There was no way of knowing…or even suspecting. Did you even know that half-ghosts could have children back then?"

"No…I didn't do research on it for a long time…" Vlad admitted, "But that doesn't change anything. I spent twenty years obsessing over gaining family, and I always had it."

"Family is more than blood," Vision argued, "Daniel, Dannielle, and Joel are as close to my children as they ever need to be."

"I know, but…I feel so terrible…"

"That's because through all the manipulation and hurt there was always a good man. You just needed people to help bring it out," Vision gently hugged her fiancé, "If June couldn't see that, then she didn't ever really know you. And her daughter lost out because of it."

Vlad sighed, "I want to fix this, but I don't know how. Perhaps there isn't a way…"

"Vlad…I don't know what to say to you…" Vision noted, "Like it not, there's no way to undo June's choices. We just have to live with them."

"I know. Right now, I can only hope things work out between her and Daniel. That's the only way to make sure that I don't have to eventually go to war with my own daughter."

* * *

(Wednesday-March 12, 2014)

Savage raised an eyebrow, "Your father? June never said who he was. Based on your powers, he obviously was a ghost. She must have known. But June didn't ever care for such details. From what I inferred, though, she never expected to get pregnant from him."

"I see…"

Savage frowned at Jinx, "Why are you asking this?"

"Just curious. It's my genetic father after all," Jinx tilted her head, "Weren't you ever curious, though?"

"Yes, but the only lead I ever had was your powers. The only ghost that has similar powers isn't a genetic match, though," Savage explained, "From there, it was a complete dead end. For all I know, the ghost is already dead."

Jinx nodded. Her ancestor didn't know her birth father's true identity. Well, that was fine. This meant that Danny's secrets were safe at least, "I see. Well, thank you, Dad. I know you don't like talking about this."

"Don't worry, Jennifer. I am glad that you're taking an interest in your genetics."

* * *

(Wednesday-March 12, 2014)

"Are…are you Sheila Haywood?" Jason stared down to the drunk woman on the sidewalk.

"Yesh…Whash it to ya?" Shelia glanced up to the young man, "Ya work for Tony? Tell hims tha I'll get hum hish moneys in a month…"

"No, I don't work for…um, Tony…" Jason fidgeted uncomfortably for the first time in a long time.

"Oh…Then gosh awane…" Shelia collapsed to the side, "I ain't buying…"

"I'm not selling anything, I just…I wanted to meet you," Jason took a deep breath, "I'm your son."

Shelia looked up to Jason from her spot on the ground, "What…Do you want a cookie?"

Jason felt his heart twist. This wasn't how he wanted this to go, but this was his mother. He didn't want to miss having her around like Joel and Cassandra. So, he decided to push onward and make this work…No matter what.

* * *

(Tuesday-April 1, 2014)

"What do we do about the Trigon problem?" Savage questioned his companions.

"Is there much we can do?" Luthor questioned, "We no longer have Klarion to keep us up to date on the shifting demonic energy."

"Perhaps this problem is best left in the hands of the heroes?" Queen Bee suggested, "That way we don't have to risk any more of our assets."

Savage sighed, "I disliking relying on the foolish heroes, but you are correct. Trying to fight against Trigon would just waste away our remaining assets. For once, the Light shall stay out of this crisis."

* * *

(Thursday-April 10, 2014)

Constantine eyed Jason Blood, "You do know that this plan will banish every full demon on the planet?"

Blood nodded, "I am completely aware of the consequences of the spell."

"But that includes your demon," Constantine argued.

"Even better," Blood noted, "I have lived for far too long through far too much. If this is the way to end my curse, then I should be grateful that I have the added bonus of defeating Trigon as I do it."

"What about your students?"

"Hmm…There comes a time when one's students must move on and surpass the teacher."

* * *

(Friday-April 11, 2014)

Dark Dan grinned as he held the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage in his hands. Finally, he had the power he needed. With le Fey's help, he stole the Skeleton Key and entered Pariah Dark's castle without anyone noticing. Nekron wouldn't stand a chance.

"This better be worth it," Morgaine le Fey mentioned from behind him, "I'm missing a lot of entertainment for this."

"Oh, it will be worth it. Trust me, but we're not done here," Dark Dan noted, "We have to hide our track and get the key back to its hiding spot. Otherwise, this will all be for nothing."

"Well, let's hurry it up, then," Morgaine le Fey stated in annoyance, "I want to be done with this already. Entertainment in the far future doesn't interest me as much as the present."

* * *

(Saturday-April 12, 2014)

Aquaman eyed the blade that now replaced his hand. He kept losing more and more as the year moved forward and the emergencies passed. This was far better than losing his son, of course. He'd give both his arms to bring his child back. Hell, he'd give everything. Unfortunately, life didn't work like that.

Still, things were not looking good for him. At this rate, he might not even make it through the year. His brother was dead, and Mera…His queen would not be able to rule without him. That left only one person left to lead if something happened to Aquaman. Kaldur was the default heir to Atlantis at this point, even if he didn't realize it.

Kaldur would have to accept that role, or it would be the end of Atlantis. There was one problem, though. If Kaldur learned the truth of this parentage on his own…

"I have to tell him."

* * *

(Monday-April 21, 2014)

Barbara awakened feeling absolutely terrible. The sickening white of the hospital room ceiling was the first thing her blurry eyes saw. What happened? How did she end up here? She hadn't had a mission or been on patrol in days. There was no way for her to be hurt like…The memories suddenly came flooding back to her.

 _Barbara froze when she opened the door._

 _"Candy-gram!"_

 _All the color fled from Barbara's face_

 _"Good to see you laughing! That saves me some time! Now give Uncle J a big smile for the camera!"_

 _Barbara tried to move, but at that distance with so little warning, she never had a chance. A loud bang sounded out through the apartment. The bullet caught her in the stomach and continued all the way to her spine. Barbara instantly crumbled to the ground in agonizing pain._

 _"Oh come on! Down already?! Show a little spine!"_

Oh no. She had been shot. Oh damn! She couldn't feel her legs! This couldn't be happening! The machines around Barbara flared. Nurses and doctors rushed into the room. They all attempted to calm the woman down to no avail. The only way to calm her down again would be to give her feeling in her legs again.

* * *

(Monday-April 21, 2014)

Batman glared down to the barely breathing woman. Jason died for her? She was a terrible woman that only ever drained resources from society. She cheated, lied, and generally didn't care about other people. Hell, she sold her own son to settle her debts.

Yet…he still understood what Jason tried to do. God only knew what he would do to get his own mother back. That was why he permitted Jason to try to reconnect with his mother. It was yet another mistake that he would have to carry on his shoulders.

"Jason gave his life for you…I hope you live a long time," Batman spoke to the comatose mother of his ward, "But I hope that you're never happy."

* * *

(Monday-May 20, 2014)

"Is that what the world was like when Nekron was around the first time?" Queen Bee questioned her companion.

Savage sighed, "Unfortunately, yes."

"Damn," Luthor just shook his head. He had no other words.

"This is a big problem," Ra's noted, "Thousands dead. Ghosts cut out before our plans can really start. And Phantom…"

Savage gained a hardened look, "We did lose him, but we still have our insurance. Now is the time to start really investing into Project Legacy."

* * *

(Monday-May 20, 2014)

Destiny looked across the table to his siblings, "We lost a lot in the fight with Nekron."

"Speak for yourself, old man," Destruction let out a grunt, "I didn't lose my chosen like you and Miss Black and White."

Death's glare made Destruction regret that comment, "Be careful, Destruction. Remember the last time I lost my temper with you?"

Destruction just looked away.

Desire smirked, "Oh~ She's mad that she lost her favorite~"

Death's gaze shifted to Desire, "The same goes for you, sister. Do not forget my power."

"Jeeze, will all of you calm down," Dream rubbed his tired eyes, "Death, you should be used to ending things eventually. Desire, you didn't even have a favorite."

Desire's smile turned wicked, "Not yet, you mean."

"I don't like that look," Delirium whispered sadly, "Last time you had that look, Darkseid was conceived."

"Oh, I know~"

"And you all think that I'm bad," Despair grimaced, "She's even worse than me."

"Enough," the eldest Endless spoke out, "This bickering is pointless. Like it or not, Death's chosen was the key to stabilizing the universe, and now he's out of the picture. I do not like how things are going. We need to be prepared for the worst."

"You act like everything is set in stone," Dream tilted his head to the side, "But your favorite passed on his legacy to the speedster. Things might change."

"They probably will, but not in the first timeline because someone," Destiny glared at Desire, "Decided to try to pull a Helen of Troy."

"Psh! I wouldn't call it that!" Desire rolled her eyes, "He won't even do anything. It's so boring…"

"Yes, that's the point," Destruction placed his face in his hands, "You never think these things through."

"Uh, yeah I do," Desire's eyes glinted, "After all, my own chosen wouldn't have ever existed if that dark future never happens."

* * *

(Thursday-May 29, 2014)

Vision laid down three bouquets of flowers in front of three stone tablets in the Masters Mansion Memorial Room. She then took a step back to stand by her companion. Frostbite said nothing as they both gazed at the reminders of who was lost.

 _Scribe The Ghost Writer: Author, reader, and ally_

 _Fright Knight: Undying, loyal knight_

 _Pandora: Harbinger of justice and mother_

"It's so hard to accept it," Vision noted to her longtime companion, "All three of them are gone."

"They had to go eventually," Frostbite reasoned, "It was never clear who would go first."

"But for all three of them to go in the space of such a short time. Two of them because of Nekron," Vision sighed, "It's disheartening. What is in store for us, Foster?"

Frostbite snorted, "It's been a long time since you called me that, Viola."

"Sorry. I suppose the moment brought it up."

"Don't apologize. It brings me back to simpler times," Frostbite smiled at his memoires, "I believe we only met once before Nekron."

"Yes, I was the princess and you were the beast. At least that's what our birth father said," Vision nodded her head slowly, "Even back then you were hairy."

"Hahahaha! That I was!" Frostbite shook his head, "We haven't talked about that since we were in Pariah Dark's court. What about them? Did you ever meet one of them before Nekron?"

"I met Author. He was still a squire at the time. Birth father only ever mentioned Pricilla and Sebastian, though," Vision noted, "I was always jealous when he mentioned them. For some reason, I thought that they stole some of his love away. I only realize now how stupid I was."

"Hmm…" Frostbite gained a far-away look, "I always wondered why they got to live somewhere that wasn't a frozen wasteland. Took me a while to realize that it was just a roll of the dice."

"Our original fates may have been chance, but our coming together in death was anything but luck," Vision mentioned, "Things have changed so much…Our birth father has changed so much."

"Maybe not as much as you think. Savage obviously still cares about family. Just look at how much Jinx looks up to him," Frostbite argued.

Vision nodded.

"Did…Did you ever tell them? Considering that Vlad had relations with one of Savage's descendants and now the Great One is with Jinx…" Frostbite trailed off.

"I will tell Vlad soon, but Danny…" Vision shook her head, "He doesn't need to know. That would make it even weirder for him when he eventually breaks up with her."

"That's probably for the best. Your adopted son dating your niece? That's just weird, even if there aren't any blood ties between them."

* * *

(Saturday-May 31, 2014)

Using the dust that was still settling after that interesting fight with Nekron, Thorn made sure to disappear without a trace. Fortunately, she didn't have any enemies…(Hahahaha! Not yet at least!)…to try and track her down. So she had room to move around for a while. She decided to retrace the steps of how she got sealed up in the first place.

It seems like her son…(Oh! I remember cute little Charlie!)…really did love his mother. He even went so far as to follow her into death to make sure she was happy and sane. Then, he died, and Thorn was back.

(Is that a good thing, though?)

Shut up, you.

(But our baby is gone! We gave everything for him! You gave up being around for him.)

…

Before she knew it, Thorn had found herself drawn to the place where Youngblood stayed while in Amity Park. It was a tiny shack in the middle of nowhere. Trash and clutter filled every open space. He didn't seem to like to keep everything clean. (He never changed). At the same time there was nothing really personal around the room. It was like he didn't have anyone he cared about…(Oh! There's a hidden compartment under the bed!)

Thorn pulled out a picture along with a few written notes. Interesting. It looked like Youngblood… (Charlie!)…had a girl he cared for…perhaps even enough to die for…Someone he loved more than his mother…

Thorn's eyes gleamed, "Danielle Masters…"

* * *

(Saturday-May 31, 2014)

"There you are."

A tiny green lizard looked up to the man that loomed in front of him.

"I knew that I would find you after I heard about what happened. Out of everyone, you would be the one least content with death."

The lizard tilted his head to the side.

"Do not act like you do not understand me. Please change into a more appropriate form."

The lizard nodded. Its form twisted into a large beast that looked like a chimaera with the body of a lion, the horns of a ram, and a tail that swirled around like a snake.

"Very good. Do you remember anything?"

The chimaera shook his head, "No…well a little. I remember someone crying and begging me not to leave. Then, I woke up here in this strange place."

"This is the Ghost Zone."

"Ghost Zone? So I'm a ghost? I'm…dead?"

"We both are. Unlike you, though, I remember everything that happened before we died. That is why I sought you out. You and I are the only ones that fought on to become ghosts."

"The only ones? There were others like us?"

"Yes. We used to be heroes. I am willing to leave my legacy as it is, but my loved ones still need me. I cannot leave them for the peace of the afterlife yet. But I need help. That's where you come in. I know that I can trust you."

"So…if you remember me…then you know my name?"

"I do," The green haired man nodded, "But it would be best not to bring up our past times. Not too quickly, at least. It might shell shock you."

The chimaera tilted his head to the side, "Then what do we call each other?"

"Based on my powers, you can call me Neptune," Neptune raised his hand to allow artificial water to dance between his fingers, "As for you…what do you wish to be called?"

"Well…I change shape a lot…Why not call me Changeling?"

* * *

(Sunday-June 1, 2014)

Torch frowned down at the paper in his hands, "New ghosts, eh?"

"Yes, sir," Bullet nodded, "There are plenty of them after the Blackest Night incident and very few of them understand the rules you have set."

"Torch sees…" Torch looked over to Dora, "What do you suggest."

Dora looked across Torch's office in the Ghost Prison and pondered, "I think that it would be best to address this with the new Council."

"First meeting, eh? Sounds good to Torch," Torch turned to Bullet, "Prepare messages for all the members."

"Yes sir," With that, Bullet turned and left the office.

Dora sighed, "This is going to be difficult."

"We knew that at the beginning, but you'll do great as leader of the Council," Torch noted.

Dora blinked, "Me? I'm the leader?"

"Um…Yeah? Did you expect Torch to do it? Please. Even Torch knows that's a bad idea. Also…Nyx's too young. Poindexter wouldn't be willing. Undergrowth is an even worse idea than Torch. And Box Ghost is…Box Ghost."

Dora looked pale, "So…I'm in charge?"

Torch saw her worried look. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry. You are a born leader. Torch believes in you. And you won't be alone. The entire Council will support you."

"You really think I can be in charge of the entire Ghost Zone?"

"Torch can't think of anyone he would trust more to do the job."

* * *

(Monday-June 2, 2014)

Colossus didn't sleep well like he usually did. The reason for his lack of peaceful sleep was a direct result of the end result of the Blackest Night. While he did manage to get one of the greatest fights of his life, he lost a lot in the process. His time left in the physical realm had drastically shrunk. That was fine. The giant had known that he was closer to death than to life even before the fight in space.

What really made Colossus turn in his sleep was what happened to his greatest rival. Danny Phantom had lost his powers. That was even worse than death. If Phantom died, then that meant that Colossus would have been closer to knowing that his final fight would never happen. With this result, though, there was a mocking temptation in the air that kept Colossus from giving up hope.

So, he held onto his life, knowing that his greatest fight might never happen. Sleeping would extend his life, but it was for only false hope and dreams of forcing the power back into Phantom.

* * *

(Saturday-June 7, 2014)

Tim Drake sat in a large study in Wayne Manor. His seat was very soft and comfortable, but the gaze on him made him want to fidget. No matter what, though, he had already decided that he would not back down no matter what.

"Master Drake," The aging butler…Alfred…Yeah, that's what he was called…poured some tea into his cup.

"Thank you, sir," Tim stated politely and brought his cup up to his lips for a sip.

"So…" Bruce Wayne glared at him, "Alfred tells me that you knocked on my door claiming that you know I'm Batman."

"Yes, sir," Tim nodded, "I figured it out a few years ago by comparing some footage of you and the original Robin with footage from the Flying Graysons."

Despite the situation, Bruce gained a bit of an impressed look, "I see…And why haven't you said anything about it for such a long time?"

"I never had a reason to say anything. I always believed that you are best for Gotham," Tim unnoticedly impressed Alfred as well with his manners and wordplay, "But recently, I noticed that you have become far too brutal with the populace."

"I see…" Bruce shared a look with Alfred. The butler had been saying the same thing for weeks.

"It has to do with the death of Robin and Joker, doesn't it?" Tim placed his cup down, "Their deaths affected you a lot."

"Perhaps…But there's nothing we can do about that…" Bruce stated bitterly.

"You're right. What's done is done," Tim nodded, "But Gotham still needs the Batman you used to be. And the Batman needs a Robin. Without a Robin, Batman begins to stray from the path of justice."

"Your point is?"

"I'm the only one that knows your secret. I'm the only one that can help you…help Batman," Tim took a deep breath, "So please, train me to be Robin."

Alfred's eyes widened, "Master Drake, you do realize what you're asking."

"I do."

Bruce did not seemed amused, "So you want to be a hero?"

"Not at all," Tim answered honestly, "I always wanted to grow up to be a detective. It's fun for me. Being a hero…that doesn't seem fun at all. But I feel like I'm the only one that can do this. If there were anyone else to help you, I wouldn't have shown up at all. But with your other protégés missing, and Nightwing working more in Bludhaven…You need someone to help you out in the field, and I'm the only person that could do it right now. So despite what I want, I'm stepping up because the world needs me to do it."

Bruce gave Tim a hard look before nodding, "I see…We'll start your training immediately."

* * *

(Sunday-June 8, 2014)

"Where are we?" Deadshot questioned while looking around the white dome room. He had been on his way to death row when dragged here. Realistically, this was better than being dead. That didn't mean he wasn't suspicious of what was going on right now.

"Like I would know?" Harley Quinn sat on the ground with a pouting look on her face

Killer Frost had a cold look on her face, "I got dragged out of my cell for this? Being around you clowns has to be classified as inhumane torture."

Harm ignored the other criminals and continued to mediate on the ground. Their words were just buzzing distracting him from his quest of purity and inner peace.

Captain Boomerang gave her a frown, "Really, love, tell us how you really feel."

"I feel like turning you into an icicle!" Killer Frost snapped, even though she knew that her inhibitor collar wouldn't allow such a thing.

"Enough!"

All four criminals turned to see a door slide open. Amanda Waller walked through the door. She have them a judging look before stepping to the side to let three more figures enter the room. Despite the danger the four criminals held, they couldn't help but be intimidated by the savage looking Silver Banshee, Cinderblock, and Amorpho.

"What's going on?" Deadshot demanded.

Waller smirked at them, "You've been chosen to do some actual good in your lives instead of living as degenerates for the rest of your miserable existences."

"Huh?" Harley Quinn tilted her head in confusion.

"A friend of mine has come up with a wonderful idea," Waller explained, "Take a bunch of criminals with unparalleled skills and make them do some real good. All of you have been chosen. Feel grateful."

"Grateful doesn't really explain it, warden," Captain Boomerang began to pick at his teeth, "What's in it for us, yeah?"

"You get to live."

Kill Frost raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Your last meal was laced with explosive nanobots," Waller basked in their shocked looks, "If you ever step out of line, then boom. No more head."

"Harm sees…" Harm's eyes snapped open, "This is a sign. Harm's redemption is at hand. Count him in."

Deadshot rolled his eyes, "Not like I have a choice."

"Ditto," Killer Frost sighed.

"Wait, wait," Captain Boomerang gave Waller a hard look, "How do we know you ain't lying?"

Waller smiled cruelly, "Please, feel free to test that theory. I don't care. After all, I won't be the one cleaning up the brain matter."

Seeing Waller's look, Boomerang backed down.

"Well, count me out," Harley Quinn noted, "It don't matter if I die anyway. Without Mista J, life has no meaning."

"My friend thought you'd say that," Waller noted, "Unfortunately, you're a special case. He doesn't want you dead. He wants you…cured for some reason. So, you'll cooperate no matter what."

"Oh yeah? And who's gonna make me?"

"I will," Red X stepped into the room making the criminal all move back in surprise, "You four along with these three volunteers will all work under me. Welcome to Task Force X. But just for clarity's sake, I prefer to call us the Suicide Squad."

* * *

(Tuesday-June 10, 2014)

Ace leant back into her medical bed and looked across the room to the mirror. Her reflection looked back unhappily at her bald head, "I liked my hair…It was one of the few things that I kept real…"

"Sorry, Ann," Gizmo noted as he worked at the dozens of different equipment that surrounded her bedside, "But if you want me to work to find a miracle cure, then the hair had to go. The chemo, scans, and laser operations require it."

Lydia leaned over Ace's bedside and gently took her hand, "Don't worry, Ace. We're all here for you. The others are doing more research as we speak."

"Thank you," Ace gave them both a rare small smile, "But…realistically…What are my chances?"

"About 0.01%," Gizmo answered honestly.

Ace's face fell, "I see…How much time do we have then?"

I'd give it…a year. Two at most," Gizmo responded.

Ace nodded. That wasn't a lot of time. Plus, it would be extremely painful. At the very least, though, she would be surrounded by people who cared about her. People actually…loved her. So even if she did die, she would go happy.

* * *

(Tuesday-July 1, 2014)

Donna Troy sat on a simple stone bench. Simple white robes replaced her normal battle attire. She looked out to the ocean. It was calm and peaceful. The retired hero felt calmed by the sound of the gentle waves. Still, the memories of what…who was lost still haunted her mind.

"Donna…" Diana sat down next to the girl, "Are you alright? Mother has stated that you still remain distant and cold."

"I am fine, sister," Donna noted calmly, "I just never expected Man's World to grip me so. Both its horrors and its wonders fill my mind."

"Have you thought about going back?" Wonder Woman questioned, "I know you would be welcomed."

"Maybe someday," Donna stated, "But not any time soon. Jason…I never thought a man could hold such a place in my heart. With him gone, it's too painful for me to be out there. Everything reminds me of him. When the mourning has passed, then maybe I will return."

Diana nodded, "I understand. I remember my first love. Steve Trevor. He was actually a lot like Jason, so I suppose we have similar taste in men. I outlived him of course, but his death was…far more expected than Jason's."

"Does…Does it ever get any easier?"

"It does, but I never forget about him," Diana let out a sigh, "I would give anything to get him back."

"Yeah," Donna suddenly realized something, "I…I'm going to outlive everyone, aren't I? I never thought about that. All my friends will die long before I do."

"Yes. They will."

Donna looked down, "So I will probably go through this again."

"Yes. You will."

"I…I'm starting to think that immortality is a curse."

"Yes. It is."

* * *

(Thursday-July 10, 2014)

Cissie King-Jones let out an angry hiss. She took the bow in her hands and angrily threw it to the ground where it landed with a clatter. Blood both old and new stained the once green bow a permanent red. Looking down at her hands, Cissie scowled as she saw the new cuts in her hands brought about by the constant use of her bow. The new wounds would eventually blend in with the old scars.

"What are you doing, Suzzane?" Bonnie King questioned her daughter.

"I'm giving up, and stop calling me Suzzane. You know I prefer to go by Cissie," Suzzane glared at her mother.

"You're not giving up. You still have another hour of practice left," Bonnie noted.

"Oh, like hell," Cissie snapped.

"Language!"

"I'll talk however I damn well please!" The thirteen year-old gained a hateful look, "I'm sick of training, and I'm sick of you. Dad never would have let you run me to the ground like this."

"Well, your father's not here anymore."

"Oh trust me," Cissie held up her bloodied palms, "I noticed."

"I thought you wanted this? You always went on and on about how you wanted to be like that Artemis girl working with Green Arrow," Bonnie ignored her own outrage at the girl.

"Yeah, four years ago," Cissie shook her head, "For the love of God, Mother, I don't want to be an Olympian level archer. I just want to be a teenager."

"Well, too bad. We've come too far to go back now," Bonnie argued, "Pick up your bow. I'm adding another hour to your training regime."

Cissie's gritted her teeth, "No."

"Don't you say—"

"No! I'm sick of this!" Cissie began to back away, "No more."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the police. I can't stand any more of your abuse."

* * *

(Friday-August 8, 2014)

Virgil watched as the tiny robot followed Richard's commands without any devise to control it, "Rich, that is totally sick."

"I know, right?" Richard pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it to the robot, "Now watch this."

The robot absorbed the phone. Once again, the robot began to walk around the table. Then, it shifted into the phone except with a few upgrades.

"Woah…" Virgil shook his head in awe, "So you control, like, all technology?"

"Basically," Richard nodded, "I don't have the full extent of it or anything, but if it runs on electricity…I have at least a little control over it."

"So cool," Virgil gained a sly look, "So…any of that gas left?"

"Naw, Hotep Ra used all the bit he modified on me and those other two," Richard adjusted his shades, "And he toasted any memory of the ingredients to make the stuff. It could take years, decades even, before they get close to make anything like that again."

"Dang. Having powers would be sweet," Virgil shrugged, "Oh well. So…You gonna be a hero?"

"Naw," Richard shook his head, "I think that thing with Nekron kind of turned me off to the whole thing. I just wanna be a normal guy, you know?"

"I get it, but…" Virgil smiled, "That doesn't mean you can't use your powers. You think you could hack into the school systems and change some things?"

"Dude, you read my mind."

* * *

(Wednesday- August 27, 2014)

Stephanie Brown hummed as she stepped into her apartment and closed the door behind her, "Dad! I'm home!"

Cluemaster looked up from his desk to smile at his daughter, "Stephanie, how was school?"

The ten-year-old blonde girl stepped up to her father's desk, "Boring as usual. And how are…your things?"

"Excellent. I think that I've finally come up with a plan to best Batman!" Cluemaster pointed to his desk, "I will leave a clue at the museum to the next clue at the park where—"

"Okay," Stephanie let out a sigh, "So same old same old?"

"No, no! This time it will work," Cluemaster argued, "I have everything planned out. You see…"

Stephanie zoned out as her father went on and explained his plans. It was stupid really. He was a joke to the criminals of Gotham. Cluemaster didn't really do anything bad by Gotham standards. Sure, he broke into places to leave clues, but he didn't destroy anything or steal anything. He just broke in, left a clue for Batman, and then left.

Hell, most of the time, Batman didn't even bother to arrest him. When he did, Cluemaster was out of jail in the blink of an eye. Gotham police had a lot worse to deal with than the light version of Riddler. For the most part, Stephanie really didn't care about what her dad did. If he was going to be a villain, though, would it kill him to at least be good at it?

"Alright. Enough. Batman's going to figure out all your clues, beat you up, and forget about you. Again," Stephanie shook her head. She loved her father but could hardly stand the embarrassment, "That's a spoiler for you, Dad. So you can quit now because you know how it's going to end."

"Steph…" Cluemaster gained a hurt expression.

Stephanie shook her head and turned, "I just came home to grab my gear. If you need me, I'm going to my self-defense class."

* * *

(Monday-September 1, 2014)

"Shazam!" Box Lunch cried out while flying out around the room, "Beware!"

Box Ghost gave his daughter a fond look before looking to his wife, "It seems like those kids really influenced her."

Lunch Lady nodded, "It's good for her to have some positive role models."

"Daddy! Mommy!" Box Lunch floated over to them excitedly, "I want to be a hero when I grow up!"

Box Ghost looked back to Lunch, "Positive role models, eh?"

Lunch Lady gained a sheepish look, "Maybe she'll grow out of it?"

* * *

(Sunday- September 7, 2014)

Poindexter sat in a comfortable chair reading a thick book. He was surprised that he made it so far with how he used his powers. Perhaps he gained a bit of mercy for his manipulations because he helped save the universe? Or maybe his punishment was just postponed. Either way, though, he was still alive.

That was good. He really wanted to see this story to the very end. There were so many cogs turning to make it work, "And I'm one of them now, aren't I?"

The ghost of black and white let out a chuckle. To think that he'd become such a prominent player in this game called life. Things had changed a lot since his days as a bullied school nerd.

Poindexter looked away from his book, "And things are going to change even more now…Huh, I've been talking to myself a lot. Perhaps I should I go out and socialize more. Or…"

All of the original members of the Council of the Elite were now gone or sleeping in Colossus's case. Perhaps it was time for some new leadership to help guide the Ghost Zone to a better tomorrow? Yes, Poindexter quite liked that idea.

* * *

(Saturday-September 14, 2014)

Asami Koizumi stood in her kendo armor in front of the massive applauding crowd. The ref held her hand up and announced her as the winner of the national tournament. Pride filled her chest at her skill with a sword. She had worked her entire life to get this point. Now the entire country of Japan would recognize her as the best.

But…That wasn't what she really wanted.

Her eyes drifted to the section dedicated for coaching staff and family. Her sensei looked on with pride, but her parents were nowhere to be seen. Just like always, they were too busy for her. Even when she accomplished greatness, they thought more about work than their daughter.

As her hand was lowered, Asami clenched her fists. Why? Why couldn't she earn their attention and love? Why wasn't she good enough for them?

* * *

(Thursday-October 2, 2014)

Garth floated off to the side watching King Kaldur and Frostbite discussing new plans for the city. The two of them worked well together, and Garth was proud of his friend. Kaldur had accomplished a lot since they were kids. It was hard to imagine the time when the two of them first teamed up to save Aquaman from Ocean Master.

Salacia have mercy…So much had changed since then. Those old days hardly seemed real now. Looking at the second Aquaman, Tempest couldn't help but miss those old days. There had never been a time where he envied his friend, and now wasn't any different. He did not envy Kaldur's position. To take over for the dead king without a moment of real training to do so…The stress must be unreal.

Still, Garth would willingly take any stress or pain to undo what had been done.

Looking down to the picture in his hand, Garth felt his heart twist. He had been certain that he and Tula would get married and live the rest of their days together. Now, though, that was gone forever. What was he to do now?

* * *

(Thursday-October 2, 2014)

"Neptune's Beard!" La'gaan gave his tutor and friend a wide eyed look, "You're quitting the team?! Why?"

"It mostly has to do with Tula," Tempest explained to his friend, "I cannot bring myself to concentrate on anything, and I would just drag everyone down."

"No one would think that," La'gaan argued, "They are your friends, Garth. They would want to be there for you."

"And I appreciate that, but it does not change where I am right now," Garth noted, "Donna and Joel had the right of idea of taking some time off. I never really wanted to have this lifestyle in the first place. I only really started to help Tula. Now, though…I lack the motivation I need, and to fight on, I have to find something new to keep myself going."

"I…I understand," La'gaan lowered his head.

Smiling, Garth placed a gentle hand on the other Atlantian's shoulder, "Do not worry. I will come back one day, and if the Team really needs help, I will answer the call. Until then, though, you will be Atlantis's representative on Young Justice."

"Do you really think I can do that?" La'gaan questioned, "I mean…I can be a bit…standoffish."

"La'gaan," Garth smiled, "I cannot think of a better person for the job."

* * *

(Monday-October 6, 2014)

Johnny 13 stepped into a nearly completely destroyed apartment. All the furniture was turned over or destroyed. Deep gashes covered the walls and ceiling. It looked like there had been a great struggle, but Johnny knew better. There was no fight here. There was only slaughter.

"Shadow," Johnny's voice boomed out.

His Bad Luck Shadow jumped up from the ground and began to sniff the walls. It then turned to Johnny and nodded.

Reaching up to stroke the gruff beard that was growing on his face, Johnny nodded, "What was she after?"

Shadow pointed to a spot on the wooden floor.

With narrowed eyed, Johnny walked over to the spot on the floor. After a few seconds of looking, he found a loose board. Pulling it up, Johnny found a bunch of paper clippings and pictures. They were all about the villain Thorn. Most of the clippings were rather old, but there was one thing in the hidden space.

A picture sat a strange angle revealing that it might have been accidentally dropped instead of placed back inside like the other newspaper clippings. The picture showed Rose Forrest holding her child. So the person who owned this apartment had deduced Thorn's identity, but who…

Johnny's eyes snapped to a name on one of the articles, "Lois Lane…The lady Superman always saves. That explains the lack of blood. Shit, now the League's gonna be after her."

* * *

(Wednesday-October 15, 2014)

Raven floated in the middle of a circle of candles. Light shined in through the windows of the temple room to reveal the pure white marble and intricate design of the room. Giving a soft hum, Raven meditated and focused on her inner core.

A soft smile adorned the young woman's face. Her entire being was filled with joy and peace. For the first time in her life, there was no suffocating weight on her shoulders. There was no threat of impending doom hanging over her. For the first time ever, she was at peace.

She had been enjoying life in Azaroth. People no longer looked at her in fear. Now, she was looked at as the defeater of Trigon, even if she wasn't the only one who fought and defeated Trigon. With the populace at least tolerable, Raven finally found herself enjoying her homeland. She spent her days studying, reading, and meditating. Life was perfect.

…Maybe a little too perfect if she was being completely honest.

A big part of her did miss the chaos and wildness that came from being with her friends. When she was with her friends, there was never a day of dullness or peace. Even if she did miss her friends, though, Raven did not regret her choice. This was what she needed in order to grow to her full potential. That was her ultimate goal. She strife every day to learn and grow. Then, when the time was right and the dimensional rifts were opened once more, she would return to the chaotic life around her friends.

Raven looked forward to that day.

* * *

(Saturday-October 18, 2014)

Nyx hated paperwork. It was the bane of her existence. She couldn't even fathom how her mother put up with it while leading the police force in the Ghost Zone. Of course, Pandora didn't have to deal with the ghosts getting antsy from being stuck in the Ghost Zone. That was a pain in the ass.

Pausing in her work, Nyx looked to the picture on her desk. It was of her and her mother. They looked so happy. Damn, she missed her Mom…and she missed being a kid. It was a lot of work taking her mother's spot in the Ghost Zone. Nyx was determined to it, though.

Of course, she could never replace Pandora. Nyx would always do things differently than her mother. That was fine, though. Pandora wouldn't want her to even try that. Nyx would do things the Nyx way and still live up to her mother's memory. She would make Pandora proud.

…If only that didn't involve so much paperwork…

* * *

(Monday-October 20, 2014)

"People of Tamaran!" Blackfire stood on a large balcony overlooking a crowd of people, "I know many of you have been concerned about the recent conflicts we have been in. I just wanted to assure you all that everything is fine."

Starfire stood on the crowd of Tamaranians looking up to her sister and ruler of the planet. She, like many people, had been concerned by the queen's habit of cornering and capturing other planets. It didn't seem right, but Starfire trusted her sister.

"Or rather, I should say that everything will be fine!" Blackfire gained a large grin, "Right now, though, Tamaran is still considered a joke! For too long the universe has looked down on us as savages, barbarians, and…worst of all…troqs!"

Angry mutters spread through the crowd.

"Well, I say that enough is enough!" Blackfire waved her hand. A massive hologram popped up above her castle showing everyone a large map with several large red X's stamped on it, "The only thing this universe acknowledges is power, cunning, and ruthlessness. So, let's show them just that! This map above me shows you the twelve planets under my control!"

A feeling of awe spread over the crowd. How in the world could Blackfire do that so quickly and without getting the Green Lanterns riled up? Starfire could only look on in horror at the thought of actually conquering so many people. How could her sister do that to people?

"Not just that…look at that planet!" Blackfire pointed to the spots on the map, "The world of Mongul!"

Gasps of horror spread through the crowd.

"Do not worry! He shall not be using his War World against us any time soon!" Blackfire laughed, "For I have obtained an even more powerful weapon…"

A giant in black and gold armor appeared beside Blackfire.

"Behold! Imeriex!" Blackfire shouted, "With his power, we are nearly untouchable! What's even better, we are not alone! I have allied us with some of the most powerful people in the universe! With them, Imperiex, and the natural Tamaranian strength that has allowed us to fight off invaders for so long, we shall grow into a force to be feared! Today is the beginning! The beginning of the Tamaranian Empire!"

In the crowd, Starfire could only look up in horror at her sister's declaration, "Sister…What have you done?"

* * *

(Saturday-November 1, 2014)

Ember hummed happily as she strummed her guitar and readied herself for the concert that was only a few minutes away. While her music was once filled with rage and calls for anarchy, it was now filled with a passion for life…afterlife…and hope for the future. Strangely enough, it seemed that her fans had changed as well. She could only assume that the days of teenage angst ended for everyone and morphed into the hope of young adulthood.

She could understand that. Her life was great right now. Everything was going up for her. Trever was now back in her life. Even if they couldn't see each other due to the separation between the Ghost Zone and human world, they could still find ways to communicate. That along with her dream becoming reality filled her with joy. At another time in her life, Ember would have ascended from the completeness she felt.

Not now, though. Ember was more ambitious now. Her obsession had grown. She wanted something else, and she was going to get back what she sacrificed to start her career. Danny had been calling her a lot lately. That was exactly what she wanted.

Ember never intended to try and move in after Danny and Jinx broke up. Normally, she would make the first move, but not this time. No, instead she just made herself available to him. She let Danny come to her so that he could move on from his previous girlfriend. The siren ghost knew that he would. While not a hero, Ember had always been there to support him, just as he supported her.

With how things have changed, that probably seemed pretty tempting for him. It was only a matter of time now. All she had to do was wait a bit longer, and she would get what she wanted. This time, Ember planned to stick by Danny no matter what. She would get everything she wanted.

* * *

(Friday-November 7, 2014)

Herald sighed as Bumblebee glared at him, "I can explain. I had this premonition—"

"Mal, really?" Bumblebee face palmed, "You missed date night again."

"But I saved five people from a rockslide," Mal suggested.

"I know," Bumblebee conceded, "But I wish you told me."

"You didn't last time you had to work late with the Atom," Herald noted, "I know that it was to cure that disease, but I was waiting for a while…"

Bumblebee frowned and looked away, but she didn't argue that, "Okay. So we're both airheads. God, this used to be easy when we were in high school."

"Things change. We changed. A lot," Herald mentioned, "Such is life. As we grow older, we find out true selves. You found your inner scientist, and I found my spiritual side."

"And that's compatible as oil and water," Bumblebee's face fell.

"We're not that bad."

"No, not yet, but we're getting there. Changes in two elements are gradual, but eventually they can become incompatible," Bumblebee gained a determined look, "Mal…I don't want to break up. I love you, but we're drifting apart more each week. If we want to stay together, then we both have to work to make more time for each other."

"Agreed," Herald nodded and pulled Bumblebee into a hug, "It might be hard, but I know we can do it. I love you, Karin."

"I love you too, Mal," Karin hugged him tight but gained a worried look.

* * *

(Tuesday-November 18, 2014)

She slept. For years, she remained in an artificial slumber without stirring. Despite this, she dreamed. They were very simple dreams really. She ran through beautiful fields of grain that shined from the blazing sun above. Familiar voices called out to her. It was her family.

The blonde girl ran out of the fields to see her parents. She ran into their arms and laughed in joy. This was just right. Life was great like this. If only it wasn't a dream. She was so tired of sleeping. All she wanted was to wake up. Her father kept whispering in her ear that it was time to go.

"But Dad, you say that all the time, and we haven't gone yet."

"I'm sorry, sweet. But it's not yet time. Just wait a little longer."

"All I do is wait."

"I know…I know…but you must be patient. Promise me that you'll wait?"

"Okay, Daddy."

"That's my good girl."

In her tiny spaceship, the blonde girl continued to sleep. All around her spacecraft that was only designed for one person was a concentrated space storm that slowed her trek. So, she remained asleep in her force suspended animation and dreamed. One day, she would awake. On that day, she would finally reach her destination and see him.

Kara Zor-El would finally get to see her baby cousin.

* * *

(Thursday-November 20, 2014)

"Hey, morons!" A heavy boot slammed into the bars containing a pre-teen with gray skin, "You really think that this cage can hold the Main Man?! Ha! I laugh in your stupid faces! When the Main Man breaks out of here, I'm going to woop all your weak asses!"

"Hmm…" Granny Goodness tilted her head at the caged child, "From the real Lobo, Granny might consider that a threat. But you, Slobo, don't have a single chance of escaping."

"Just watch me!" Slobo began to bite at the bars holding him.

"Well, it seems like the Earthling's cloning process works pretty well," Granny Goodness noted and turned away, "But Granny doesn't like your attitude, so you get to sit in there for a week without food."

"Ha! The Main Man doesn't need food!" A roar from Slobo's stomach said otherwise.

Granny smirked and walked away, "When you're ready to behave, then Granny will give you some food. Until then, think about what's best, child."

Slobo glared at the woman as she walked away. The fool! He was the Main Man! Even if he was a clone, he was still just that damn good! He would get out of here! Then he would prove that he was better than the original! He'd kick Lobo's ass and then get rid of that terrible name they called him! He was not a weaker version of Lobo!

But…there was another goal he had…The old lady mentioned it before…

"What the hell is Earth?"

* * *

(Saturday-November 22, 2014)

Roy Harper groaned as he returned back to the land of consciousness. He shifted his head slowly across the soft pillow to wake himself up. This action immediately resulted in regret as pain flared through his skull. The archer immediately recognized the pain as a hangover. It was a feeling he had long since gotten used to on his search for the original Roy Harper.

"Gah...damn," Roy forced himself into a sitting position, causing the bed sheets to pool down into his naked lap. He brought a hand up to clutch at his aching head, "I thought I told Jade to keep me away from the whiskey..."

"You did, but I'm not your keeper. Well..." Jade's voice slammed into his ear like a jackhammer, "I wasn't last night at least."

Roy looked over across the hotel room to see his ally stepping out of the bathroom while brushing her hair. She didn't seem to care that she stood naked before him, "God...don't yell..."

Jade chuckled, "I wasn't yelling, Roy."

"Just...whisper...please..."

"Well, traditionally, I'm supposed to honor and respect your wishes..." Jade hummed to herself, "But respecting others was never my strong point. Just ask my parents."

"I hate you..." Roy placed his face in his face and groaned.

"Weird," Jade placed the brush down and walked across the room to get some clothes, "I thought it would be at least six months before my first husband said that to me."

It was then that Roy realized what Jade had been implying since he first saw her, "Wait...what?"

"Figures you wouldn't remember. You were pretty hammered last night," Jade held up her hand to show the wedding ring that shined from it, "You proposed last night. I accepted. We got hitched. Isn't Vegas wonderful?"

"Vegas..." Roy's eyes widened, "W-We got married?"

"Yep~"

"Why did you let that happen?!" Roy winced as his hangover came out to bite him in the ass.

"I always wondered what marriage is like," Jade explained, "And life is short in our line of work. You're the most agreeable guy I know. Complete opposite from my old man so...why not?"

"I can think of fifty reasons why not to off the top of my head, and I'm hungover," Roy grumbled.

"Well it's done, and I won't accept an annulment," Jade noted, "So now you need to avoid taking risks like the last mission. No more getting shot."

"Did you plan this?!"

"What? Plan? Me? Psh...Of course not..."

"Damn it! Jade, did you even have a real lead last night like you promised!?"

"I did, but it was a bust. Who would have thought that the homeless man in the tin hat was unreliable?"

* * *

(Monday-December 1, 2014)

Oracle's fingers danced over a holographic keyboard. She hummed to herself as she waited for Team Alpha to contact her about their current mission. Barbara was alone in the Cave at the moment. Even the almost always present Nightwing was missing today. He couldn't always be by her side after all.

Pausing in her typing, she quickly muted her communication system. She took a quick look around to double check that no one was around the Cave. Taking a deep breath, Oracle brought her hands to the sides of her wheelchair. She then used her above average strength to lift herself up a bit. Barbara then closed her eyes.

"Move."

Her legs just continued to hang below her.

"Mind over matter. Move."

Despite her best efforts, not even her toes wiggled.

"Damn it! Move!"

Nothing.

Oracle's arms gave out on her. She slammed back down into her chair. As soon as this happened, Barbara instantly lowered her head and began to sob. It hurt so much. She had always been a gymnast. Moving was everything to her. Being contained like this hurt so much. Barbara always tried to hide it, but it never went away.

Unfortunately, time and life did not stop for her feelings. Lying around in despair wouldn't help her. She had to keep moving and be a part of the Team. It wasn't in her nature to quit.

Even if it hurt more than she could ever express with words.

* * *

(Saturday-December 6, 2014)

He had been moved a lot. Not that he would know. He hadn't been active in years. There was nothing for him. No dreams. No reality. Roy Harper just floated in his tube as time continued to march on without his notice. This was emphasized by the right arm that had been removed without his notice.

The only upside in this situation was that he wasn't alone. He was stored next to two other high profile projects of the Light. To his left was a similar sized tube that held a distorted version of Superboy. The years had not been kind to the unstable clone. His muscles were bulged in odd places and made him look like a hunchback.

To the original Roy Harper's right was an even more terrifying sight, though. A giant figure with gray, stonish skin. Large spikes covered his form. Overall, he looked like an immovable tank. On the outside of his massive container was a label that read "Project Doomsday."

Together, all three of them floated frozen in their tubes. There they would float for a significant amount of time. Soon, though, all three of them would find their release in a few years times.

* * *

(Thursday-January 1, 2015)

"So this is Earth…" A man covered completely in red spandex looked across the open plains in front of him, "I always wondered why the ruler of Apokolips was so interested in it. I can see why now. It's beautiful."

"Are you sure it's safe here, Scott?" A rather large and muscular woman leaned against him and whispered in his ear, "They're likely to invade here in a few years."

"The same could be said anywhere, Barda," Scott Free looked over to his lover, "But this is the place where the First Prophecy points to."

"You know that's a bunch of bologna!" A tiny aging man approached the duo, "And even if it wasn't, the guy it was supposed to be about is dead."

"True, but Earth is full of people that were made stronger because of him, Oberon," Scott noted.

Oberon just scoffed and walked away.

"Do you truly believe that we can be safe here?" Barda questioned.

"For now. We'll see in the future, and if it shows fortitude, then perhaps we can work with the Earthlings to fight Darkseid."

"And if it doesn't?" Big Barda questioned.

Mister Miracle frowned, "Then we escape like we always do."

* * *

(Sunday-January 11, 2015)

Talia hummed as she gently rocked her babe to sleep. Part of her hated the fact that she had to trick her beloved into having a child with her. That guilt quickly faded away at the sight of the boy, though. He was handsome just like his father. There was no doubt that he would inherit much from her beloved, including his fighting capabilities and inquisitive mind.

She often wondered just how Damien would end up. His place didn't lie in his own hands. It didn't even lie in her hands. Joel had sole say in how Damien's story would be told. The babe could end up being Ra's Al Ghul's successor or a readily trained man free to travel the world. Not to mention all the in between options.

Truth be told, Talia wasn't sure what she wanted for her child. She just wanted him to be happy. Such a desire made her think about Isabelle. The woman had been one of the many lovers that her father had taken over his life, yet also the last. Perhaps her father really loved Isabella. Talia could see why. There were a lot of things about the woman that even she respected. Motherhood was one of them.

Part of Talia wondered if she had the guts to do what Isabella did. Running from Ra's to the unknown just to give her son a small chance at freedom? At the very least, Talia always had the option of taking Damien to Bruce. Supporting a child while desperately hiding from the Shadows…That took guts.

Coincidentally, it was Isabella's choice that led to Talia's biggest worries as a mother. Joel's decisions would change how Damien got to live. Talia could only hope that Joel had grown wise enough to decide on a good future for her boy.

"Don't let me down, brother."

* * *

(Sunday-January 11, 2015)

"Don't let me down, brother."

Nyssa frowned as she watched her sister with Damien. Unlike her half-sister, she didn't believe that their brother would readily choose to be associated with the Shadows. Despite never meeting him, Nyssa had been observing Joel for years. Despite his unrivaled potential, he was too passive to usurp their father.

Many times, Nyssa thought about taking down her father herself. Ra's Al Ghul had ruled the Shadows for too long. His time had come and passed, yet he was still around to make decisions. The only problem was that Nyssa knew that usurping Ra's herself would lead to a civil war that could very well lead to the end of the organization.

There were only three possible candidates based on her father's commands. Batman was barely an option, though, and Nyssa didn't want her precious little nephew to be burdened with such a role at a young age. That only left Joel, but he was unlikely to take the role. Too bad, because he would have been a great leader…

"Maybe he can be," Nyssa mentioned to herself, "Perhaps…yes. It would cause a great change, and a lot of work gaining his trust…"

Perhaps it was time to meet her dear brother.

* * *

(Saturday-February 7, 2015)

Cyborg looked up from his repair work on his arm canon. There were many times that he had to do maintenance on his body. It was a boring and tedious process, yet there were many times that Dani asked to hang around when he did so. Of course, Cyborg always agreed. He enjoyed the company, but…

"You okay?"

Dani looked up from her writing, "Yeah. Why did you ask?"

"You just…haven't said anything in a while."

Dani blinked, "Was I supposed to?"

"No, but that's never stopped you before," Cyborg answered.

"Oh…Sorry," Dani bit her lip, "What did you want to talk about?"

Cyborg quickly thought of different questions. Why have you seemed so distant? Why is that even though that you're next to me, it seems you're so far away. Why do you stick by me so closely? Why don't you smile like you used to?

No, he already knew the answers to those questions. Voicing them wouldn't change anything, "What do you think of the new Robin?"

Just like always, they spoke about the topic relevant to the day. Despite spending so much time together, the couple seemed to know each other less and less every day. Cyborg yearned for the days were Dani smiled for the sake of joy itself instead of just to appease him.

* * *

(Friday-February 20, 2015)

"Mom!"

Helena Sandsmark rushed into the living as soon as she heard her daughter's shout, "Cassie! What's…Oh my God…"

"Look at this!" Cassie Sandsmark was literally lifting the family couch above her head with absolute ease, "I'm so strong! This is so cool! I'm like a superhero!"

"I didn't think that it was supposed to happen so soon…" Helana noted, "It was supposed to happen when you were adult…Wait…Greek times…Thirteen would be near adulthood back then…"

"Greek?" Cassie blinked and put the couch down, "What are you talking about? Did you know that this was going to happen?"

"Yes," Helana sighed, "It has to do with your father. Please, take a seat. You're going to need it."

Cassie obeyed her mother. This was the first time in a long time that her father had been brought up by her mother. In fact, it may well be the first time ever.

"Tell me, Cassie, what do you know about Greek demi-gods?"

"Like the Percy Jackson books?"

Helana sighed, "Yes…like Percy Jackson…Kids these days."

* * *

(Monday-March 16, 2015)

Zatanna jumped when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned from her book to see Constantine standing behind her, "God! You scared me!"

Constantine blinked. Out of habit, he moved to grab a cigarette from his pocket but stopped himself. Zatara would bust a nut if he found out that someone was smoking in a library filled with thousands of years' worth of magical knowledge, especially if that person was his daughter's boyfriend, "You kidding, Z? I was bloody calling over from the door a minute ago. You didn't seem to hear me."

"Oh…Sorry," Zatanna blushed in embarrassment.

"No problem, love," Constantine leaned over to look at what Zatanna was reading, "What's got you so focused?"

"Just some healing magic stuff."

Constantine blanched, "Gah, I don't know how you can study that stuff. It's as dull as the dust on some of these books."

"It is," Zatanna admitted, "But I want to have some more healing magic ready just in case. You never know in our line of work."

Constantine knew there was more but decided not to press further, "Alright. You want to take a break? Remember those theater tickets you wanted?"

Zatanna's eyes widened, "You didn't?"

"I did," Constantine grinned and held up the tickets, "Got 'em from a job as a gift. You want to go?"

"Of course," Zatanna quickly stood, "Can't spend all day studying."

"True, true, before we go, though, best to get business done with" Constantine held out a card, "The info you wanted on Thorn."

Zatanna took the card and slipped it into the book. She'd look at it when she got back.

"Not that it's any of my business, but my curiosity is getting the better of me," Constantine noted, "Why do you care so much about her? As far as I know, she doesn't have any issue with you."

"It's…It's for a friend."

* * *

(Sunday-April 26, 2015)

Wally leaned over the sink to stare at his reflection. His hair was longer than before, and more than a little bit of gruff covered his face. He looked a bit like a bit of an Apocalypse survivor, "Guess I am, though, aren't I, Artemis?"

A ding from his pocket signaled that he received yet another message. Wally just ignored it, though. It was probably Nightwing again…or someone else from the Team. He didn't even want to talk them, right now. They would just go on about the past. No, he needed to focus on the future. If he looked back too often, then he would be tempted to try to change things.

He quickly removed his shirt and activated his greatest speed. Instant, electricity shot off of him. The familiar symbol of Clockwork appeared on his chest. Despite how much happened during the Blackest Night, Kid Flash still remembered the warning that was given to him. He couldn't go back in time to save people. It would only cause more problems.

Even if that person was Artemis.

* * *

(Thursday-April 30, 2015)

Freddie was looking down at his notes, "So, I know you're having trouble remembering the dates, so we're going to have to cram most of the night."

Mary gave him no response.

"Mary?" Freddy looked up to see his girlfriend looking at the news on the television, "You okay?"

"Huh?" Mary turned away from the television, "Oh yeah. Just looking at this. A fire while we were at school."

"Mary…" Freddy spoke softly, "There is literally nothing we could have done."

"I know," Mary slowly nodded, "But I wish we could have."

"Just…" Freddy didn't know what to say to that, "Just come study. We got a test tomorrow."

"Yeah. Back to regular life. Just like always."

* * *

(Friday-May 1, 2015)

Ra's Al Ghul stood by the bedside of his newest projects. It was one of the few projects that he undertook without any input from any other members of the Light. This was far too personal for him. He wanted to keep this to himself.

With a stern look on his face, Ra's looked down to the unmoving body of Jason Todd. As soon as the boy was buried, Ra's had the body switched with a double. He then began to slowly pump the corpse with liquid from the Lazarus Pit to heal the deadly injuries and bring the body back to life. Ra's hoped that doing it this way instead of just dunking the body into the pit would keep the boy sane when he eventually woke. Ra's knew from experience the effect that the pit could have on the mind, and he never had to come back from such tortuous injuries.

The Joker had been a very sick individual.

All the injuries on Jason's body had been healed. There would always be scars on his form, though. The most prominent one would be the J branded onto his face. That would complicate things. With this new method being used, Ra's had no idea how the boy would change or react to his scar.

This was necessary, though. Jason's death had deeply affected both Joel and Batman. Returning him to life was the best way to bring out more sympathy to the Shadow's cause. It didn't hurt that Jason had all the potential in the world.

"In the end, I think this is a win-win situation," Ra's spoke to the unmoving Jason, "What do you think?"

Ra's didn't expect him to answer. Hell, he didn't even expect Jason to even be able to hear him, but what happened next shook those expectations.

Jason's eyes snapped open, "I think I need to know what the hell is going on."

Then, Jason moved. It was not a good night for Ra's Al Ghul as the revived Jason Todd knocked him back and fled from the room. The once dead Robin quickly disappeared before Ra's could call for his assassins to look for the boy.

* * *

(Sunday-May 17, 2015)

Jericho smiled as he ran his fingers down his guitar. Overall things had been calm since the Blackest Night. That was to be expected though things hardly changed in Nirvana, but they were still personal issues with which he had to deal. Despite his decision to return to his peaceful life, his mind often drifted to his sister.

He knew that Rose wouldn't exactly live the best life when he left. It wasn't like he could exactly take her with him, though. The journey to inner peace was never simple, and his sister held an inner darkness that would never allow her to follow the same path as him.

If he did stay, Jericho was sure that he would have died. He was never very good at assassination, stealth, and physical combat skills. Deathstroke was never known known to be merciful to failure even with family...especially with family. A dead Jericho was about as useful to Rose as a missing Jericho.

Still, knowing that this was still the best overall option, guilt still flooded through his chest. Rose had needed him. That much was obvious. He had failed in his duties as an older brother. That was something he had to make up for when he returned to Earth.

Jericho paused. With the paths between dimensions closed…how was he supposed to get out of here? Hmm, perhaps he should meditate on it.

* * *

(Tuesday-May 19, 2015)

"Gah! You imbecile!"

Ronnie Raymond flinched as the man in front of him shouted at him. In his rush and distraction of his finals, he bumped into one of the school's professors. In fact, it was a famous one at that. Not because of his teaching skills, though. It was because the professor was Nobel Prize-winning physicist, "Sorry, Dr. Stein. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Obviously," Martin Stein glared down to the coffee that stained his lab coat. He really hated teaching brats, but it was necessary to use the facility's lab, "What's your name, boy."

"Um…R-Ronnie Raymond, sir."

"Well, Mr. Raymond, you just got detention."

"But sir, it was an accident—"

"An accident that could have been avoided if you weren't running in the halls," Martin adjusted his glasses, "Take this as a lesson, Mr. Raymond. Be more careful."

"Yes, sir…"

As Ronnie walked away, Martin shook his head. He decided to put the boy out of his mind. In the grand scheme of things, Ronnie Raymond was irrelevant to Martin Stein's life.

* * *

(Saturday-May 30, 2015)

The blonde girl dusted herself off. It didn't help much considering that she was in a desert, but it was mostly force of habit. She was always so dirty that constant dusting and cleaning was necessary. Trying to break that habit would only be counterproductive.

"Okay…" The blonde girl nodded to herself, "Another day, another chance. "I'm totally going to get this dow—AAAN!"

As the girl moved her arms, the sand beneath her feet shifted and caused her to trip. Her face slammed into the sand. She pulled her head up and began to spit out stand.

Terra blanched, "Well…that's a good start to the day…"

* * *

(Thursday-June 4, 2015)

Eduardo Dorado Jr. frowned as he held the phone up to his ear, "But, Dad, why can't I move to the US with you?"

" _I wouldn't be around, son. I'm constantly busy with work. It will be better if you stay with your grandfather. You'll have more stability with him."_

"I don't want stability!" Ed argued, "I want to actually be with you! At the very least, can't I come to visit? Or you could come home for a while…"

" _My work is very important, Ed. This is life and death stuff. I can't just take a break whenever I want."_

"I get that. I really do, but there are other scientists. I just…" Ed's face scrunched up in sadness, "Life is short, padre. I get that mama's death—"

" _Don't. I don't want to talk about that."_

"Well, I do!"

" _I'm done with this discussion. Call me when you have something reasonable to say._ "

"Don't run away from this! From me!" Ed shouted, "Please, Dad! I just want my father back—"

Eduardo Dorado Sr. hung up on his son.

"Bastardo!" Ed threw the phone away. It slammed into the wall and shattered, "I'll make you talk to me! Just watch! Even if I have to walk to the US on foot!"

* * *

(Monday-June 15, 2015)

Tye Longshadow clutched at his bleeding nose. He glared up to the much larger man in front of him, "That all you got?"

Maurice Bodaway cracked his knuckles, "You really need to know when to stop talking, little boy."

Shelly Longshadow ran in between her son and her boyfriend, "Stop it! Both of you!"

"I didn't do anything!" Tye exclaimed.

"You're antagonizing him!"

"I can't believe you're taking his side!" Tye snapped, "I'm your son! He's just some guy that you're humping!"

Shelly gasped in horror, "Tye!"

"Don't talk to your mother like that!" Maurice pushed past Shelly so hard that she fell to the ground. He then punched Tye again and knocked him into the wall.

Tye rubbed his sore jaw, "I call it as I see it. You're nothing Maurice. Every bit of power you think you have is an illusion."

"It looks like my power is pretty real to me," Maurice sneered.

"Looks are deceiving," Tye pushed past Maurice and helped his mother up, "You'll get yours one day."

"From who? You?"

"Maybe," Tye glared at his mother, "I'm out of here. Going to stay at Jaime's for tonight. I know that it's pointless to try to talk you into leaving too."

"Tye…"

"I can't help you if you're not willing to help yourself," Tye stormed to the door, "I love you, Mom. But I'm not willing to put up with this like you."

* * *

(Wednesday-June 24, 2015)

Kaldur sat on a throne that he never wanted. It was hard to come to terms with how much things had changed. In a six month timeframe, the entire royal family had been done away with or broken beyond repair, his love had been killed, and he had been crowned king. Truth be told, he had hoped that Mera would recover enough to return to her rightful place on the throne. Each day that passed crushed that hope a little more. Now, over a year later, he knew that there was a good chance that she would never recover.

So he was stuck as not only the new Aquaman but also the ruler of Atlantis. It was overwhelming. If Frostbite didn't stick with him, he was sure that he would have cracked from the pressure. He and the rest of the underwater city would forever be in debt to the yeti ghosts. They provided a stability that wouldn't exist after so much loss. In fact, people had long since accepted the coexistence with the yetis as normal life.

Kaldur had no issue with that. What he did have an issue was how people just accepted him as king now. People praised him as a magnificent ruler and hero. Truth be told, he was just trying to be like the people that used to lead him. He always would view the original Aquaman and Danny Phantom as far better leaders than him, but they were both gone now.

Oh, how he yearned for the days of past. Life was simple even a year ago. Being second-in-command was a role that was far less stressful. He got to spend his days assisting others while enjoying time with his close friends. All that was in the past, though. The days of joy were as dead as his old love. Now there was only his work to make Atlantis and the rest of the world a better place.

* * *

(Friday-July 10, 2015)

Jaime shouted out in shock. He spun around rapidly and clawed at the blue armor that now covered his skin. It had started out as a simple shortcut through a parking lot to get home faster. The next thing he knew was an explosion from a building and a strange blue, metal bug was crawling onto his spine.

"Oh! Dios mio! Ten compassion!" Jaime rushed to a window to look at himself, "Soy el diablo! Please tell me that this a dream!"

" _This is very much real, Jaime Reyes."_

"Dios?" Jaime blinked and looked around wildly when he heard the voice come from nowhere, "Oh no…Mamá was right. Lo siento. I should have prayed more."

" _The Earthling urge to connect everything to the supernatural is illogical. I am not your imaginary sky friend, Jaime Reyes. I am the scarab that connected to your spine."_

"Scarab?" Jaime turned to see the metal on his back, "Wait! You're alive?!"

" _The correct term would be sentient._ "

"Whatever! If you can communicate with me, then listen to this! Get the hell off my back!"

" _I am unable to do that. Once I have bonded with someone, I am programmed to stay connected until the body can no longer function."_

"No longer function…Wait! You mean dead!?"

" _Correct._ "

"Oh Dios…How did this happen?"

" _I suppose that it would be productive to just tell you. Based on what I scanned from your mind, you are aware of the one called Blue Beatle…_ "

* * *

(Sunday-July 19, 2015)

The Joker was dead. That was the first thing Jason thought to look up after his mind cleared. After waking up to see Ra's Al Ghul, Jason had went into a crazed blur. He fled and moved on instinct for weeks. His years of living on the streets and training under Batman kept him alive as the Shadows tracked him. Once his mind finally cleared, Jason remembered everything. Then, there was only rage.

That rage quickly died when Jason learned that the Joker had been beaten and killed. Someone had avenged him. Using old access codes that it seemed no one deleted upon his death, he learned that Danny had disguised himself as Red X to hunt down and kill the Joker.

Jason's respect for the boss man surged when he learned that. He always knew that Danny Phantom looked after his own. That led to the bigger issue, though. A lot had happened after he died. So many members of the Team died not long after he did, and they didn't have the luxury of the Lazarus Pit to revive them. One of them had been Danny, who sacrificed his powers to stop Nekron.

"That's heavy stuff," Jason muttered to the abandoned apartment building. Luckily, he knew where several of his friends emergency safe houses were and could stay there until he figured out his next move, "So much has changed."

He really didn't know what to do. Going back to Gotham didn't seem right, especially considering how Batman probably disapproved of how Danny handled the Joker. Amity Park was an option. Danny would definitely secretly take him in, but it didn't feel right burdening the boss man like that. Young Justice was a no go, they would keep him locked up for his own safety.

Truth be told, he wanted to find a way to Themyscira and tell Donna. He didn't think that the Amazons would be very accepting of him, though. Not to mention how difficult it would be to get there. There was no way for him to track Cassandra without a lot of resources. And Joel…how was he supposed to find a ghost that had no real pattern of movements?

Right now, he was on his own. That was probably for the best. He couldn't go back to being who he was before the Joker killed him. Especially considering the fact that there was already a new Robin. He had to find out who he was now.

Jason's eyes drifted down to the twin pistols that he had at his hips. They were a comfort that Jason never knew that he needed. There was an itch to use them, and with the Shadows tracking him, he was sure that he'd get a chance to use them. Blood would spill.

"I'll need a persona. Something red. It's a pain to wash out the blood," Jason paused, "Oh wait…that's perfect…"

Back before the Joker became famous, he had an original persona. Not a lot of people would remember it, but Batman crammed all the Joker's history into Jason's skull. Now that he was dead, Joker wouldn't care if Jason took it. From now on, he would be known as a feared killer for justice.

The Red Hood.

* * *

(Sunday-August 2, 2015)

Colin Spectra-Wilkes had a secret. It was something that he kept from both his Mommy and Daddy. He knew it wasn't good to lie, but this wasn't technically lying because his parents didn't ask about it. So it had to be okay, right? At least that's what he thought.

It all started during the scary time where the day turned dark and all the adults hid. He and his parents hid in the big lab building. Even when there was a lot of noise, they didn't come out of their hiding spots. Colin did, however, hear voices coming from the vents. Curiosity got the better of him, and he stuck his ear by the vent to hear better.

Then, there was the strange purple gas. He coughed on it for a bit before it disappeared. His mommy quickly came to his aid, but he didn't want to worry her more, so he kept quiet about it. For a while, it wasn't a big deal. He almost forgot about it until one day he grew to the size of a really big adult.

It happened when he scrapped his knee really badly while playing in the park. Colin grew big and strong, strong enough to lift the entire swing set. He quickly panicked when he saw how scary he looked, though. All he wished was to change back…and he did.

That was his secret. Colin hae super powers, but when he used them, he looked like a big monster. So he kept it secret from his parents and everyone else. He didn't want to scare anyone. But there were times when he wanted to use his powers to stop bullies. Colin didn't like when people were mean. Still, he knew that it was best to keep his secret safe right now.

When he got older, then maybe he could stop abuse whenever he saw it.

* * *

(Tuesday-September 8, 2015)

Vision was sitting on the couch when Vlad stepped into the manor. She sat in silence reading her book as her husband stepped into the room. The ghost only looked up to share a quick kiss from her husband before he sat beside her.

"So, how was your day?"

"Busy and complicated," Vlad noted, "Daniel suddenly rushed out the door. I don't know why. Haven't heard from him the rest of the day."

"I know why he disappeared."

Vlad raised an eyebrow, "You do?"

"Yes. I called him," Vision explained, "I wasn't feeling well this morning, and human doctors wouldn't be much help."

Vlad looked at her in alarm, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing major. Just a bit of morning sickness."

"That's good…Morning sickness?"

"Indeed," Vision smiled and put her book down, "It seems like we're going to be having a baby—Mmmh!"

Vlad grabbed Vision and pulled her into a passionate kiss. After a full minute of kissing, Vlad pulled back and smiled, "Thank you."

"No, my beloved husband," Vision reached up and gently brushed her finger tips across his cheek, "Thank you."

* * *

(Friday-November 13, 2015)

M'gann looked desperately to her boyfriend of over five years, "Please, Conner, you can't do this."

"You're telling me that?" Conner glared at her, "That's a bunch of bull, and you know it!"

"Please…" Miss Martian reached out to him.

Superboy just stepped back, "No. You tried to mess with my mind. You tried to _alter_ me."

"Because you wouldn't stop talking about how I'm using my powers!"

"Use? You're abusing powers! You've been mind-raping people!" Superboy clenched his fists, "You know how I feel about abusing telepathy. I can't be with you if you keep doing this."

"I promise I'll stop."

Superboy shook head, "I know when you're lying."

"Please, Conner…" M'gann began to beg, "I already lost Gar. I can't lose you too."

"You didn't lose me. You drove me away," Superboy turned away, "I can work with you, but I can't love you if you act like this. We're over, M'gann."

* * *

(Tuesday-December 1, 2015)

Nightwing rued the day that he ever wanted to be leader of Young Justice. Why did so much have to happen in one day? Two alien invasions in one day. One was a strange crystal being called Kylstar, while the other was an android called the Collector of Worlds. All this on his own birthday while trying to recruit the new Blue Beatle.

He had gained a new respect for Danny. Unlike the halfa, Nightwing didn't have to lead the Team through a bunch of wild events. There had been plenty of incidents, but this was the first time where anything and everything happened on the same day since Danny's retirement.

That put Nightwing on edge more than anything else, though. The Light was still out there, and his attempts at infiltrating them had failed spectacularly. In all, he knew that eventually, the Team's main enemy would return with a vengeance. From what he heard from the whisperings of the underworld, they had long since found one new member and were about to get another two. Soon, they would be complete and ready to take their plans to the next level.

This time, though, Nightwing didn't know how they would defeat them.

* * *

(Wednesday-December 2, 2015)

"But, Father!"

"Enough!" The Highfather glared at his adopted son, "We are done discussing this."

"No! They need our help!" Orion shook his head, "These people of Earth are good people. The Forever People have vouched for their warriors. We cannot not just abandon them to the wrath of Apokolips and the rest of the universe."

"They do not seem so noble to me," Highfather argued, "Not after what their 'Justice League' did on Rimbor."

"That must be some sort of mistake," Orion insisted, "I have monitored the Earthlings. None of them would do that for no reason. We must be missing something."

"These mortals are beneath you, Orion," Highfather noted.

"You say that about everyone," Orion mentioned bitterly, "If every species is beneath us and not worthy of help, then we will be alone in the universe before too long. Our pride will kill a lot of good people."

"You're not one to talk about pride, Orion."

Orion had to concede that, "Fine. You're right on that, but at the very least you have to admit that Earth is a place of notice. Apokolips, the Reach, the Kroloteans, and every other significant force in the galaxy has their eyes on Earth."

"Then that means our own will be safe from their wrath."

"But for how long?" Orion questioned, "If we do not have allies, then we will have to fight alone as well."

"Remember this, Orion. I will never ally New Genesis with a barbaric species that exists so far beneath us."

* * *

(Thursday-December 4, 2015)

General Zod sat on a rock and stared out into the nothingness that was the Phantom Zone. He had been there for many years, ever since that fool Kal-El abandoned his people for the pathetic people of Earth. For years, he rampaged and searched for a way out of the crazed dimension. Despite this, he knew better. He wasn't willing to accept it.

It was only after the tiny opportunity where some stranger entered the Phantom Zone did he calm himself. He realized something important. In the Phantom Zone, he did not age. He did not require sustenance to survive. In reality, he had all the time in the world. So, he decided to wait patiently.

His Kryptonian crew seemed thankful for that. They all praised his decision and finally rested after long years. Zod was satisfied with that. Let them rest. Very soon, they would need all the energy they could get. Eventually, there would be another tear into the Phantom Zone. It was only a matter of time, and when that happened, Zod would not be as merciful as his first attempts to take over both Krypton and Earth. He would not show them mercy, and then…

Everyone would kneel before Zod.

* * *

(Saturday-December 6, 2015)

Atrocitus looked to the small kitten before him, "Did you find out more about this 'Blackest Night,' Dex-Star?"

The sadist kitten covered in a red halo looked up to his master, "Indeed. The foolish humans didn't even bat an eye at me when I acted innocent and dumb. It seems like Earth had its own special Lantern Corp. The Black Lanterns."

Atrocitus slowly nodded, "I see. And what did their power draw on?"

"Death."

"Death?" Atrocitus grinned, "Hahahahahahahaha! The more I hear about this Earth, the more I'm interested in it! Tell me, did you make contact with the Black Lanterns?"

"Unfortunately, the Black Lanterns are no more," Dex-Star explained, "They were defeated despite their great strength. It seems that Earth has formidable warriors."

"That explains why it has THREE of those Green Lantern bastards!" Atrocitus basically spit when he said Green Lanterns, "Now that sounds like a place perfect for war. No wonder it's gaining so much attention."

"What do you want to do, Master?"

"Right now, let's wait and watch," Atrocitus noted, "From what I heard, there are several different groups interested in the world right now. My bet is that there's going to be an all-out war on that ball of dirt between the different groups. And if there is…Well, the Red Lanterns can't be the only ones that don't get in on the fun."

Dex-Star sneered, "And everyone will feel our rage."

* * *

(Monday-December 8, 2015)

Blackfire watched as her sister was dragged into her throne room in chains, "Oh, beloved sister, I'm so glad that you could join me."

Starfire was shoved to the ground in front of her sister. Her hands and feet were chained to prevent her from using her abilities, "Sister! What is going on?!"

"It's very simple," Blackfire smiled cruelly at her, "I'm getting rid of you."

Starfire's eyes widened in horror, "Getting rid of me? Why would you get rid of me?!"

"Why would I get rid of my perfect, innocent, and beloved sister? Why would I get rid of the only threat to my throne? Why would get rid of the person that got to live a life of luxury and fun while I slaved every day to make myself a proper ruler, knowing that everyone would always prefer you?" Blackfire grabbed Starfire by the face, "Because I hate you, Koriand'r."

"H-Hate me?" Tears formed in Starfire's eyes, "I don't…We grew up together, Komand'r. We played together. We cried together when father died. How can you say that you hate me?"

"I was very good at hiding it," Blackfire shoved Starfire's face away, "I've always hated you, sister. I've hated everything about you."

"No…This must be a joke…" Starfire was in denial, "I love you, Komand'r! Please!"

Blackfire viciously slapped Starfire across the face, "Shut up! You sicken me!"

"No…" Starfire sobbed, "I always supported you. Even when you went mad with power…I never once betrayed you!"

"And that was your mistake!" Blackfire sneered. She looked to her guards, "Take her away. Our friends from the Citadel shouldn't be kept waiting."

"The Citadel?! No! Please! Don't send me to those sick fascists! You know what they'll do to me!"

"Yes, but this is the perfect way to conquer them," Blackfire giggled, "They think that this is my offer to ally us with them. Fools. As soon as I get the chance, I'll stab them in the back and take everything that's theirs."

"I can't believe this…This isn't you, Koma!"

"It is now. Take her away."

Starfire was dragged from the throne room. She screamed in rage and betrayal. Blackfire just ignored her sister. Instead, she walked to the window to look out at her kingdom. She took a deep breath.

"It is done."

* * *

(Friday-December 12, 2015)

Sinestro hummed to himself as he reclined on a throne made from the yellow energy of fear. He and his corps had remained relatively quiet over the past few years. Despite his desire to take advantage over the momentary weakness of the Green Lanterns, he paused as he realized why his sworn enemies were injured by a threat from the world in which Hal Jordan originated.

There was definitely something strange about that planet, and everyone was taking notice of that. Striking out against the Green Lanterns too early would only put him in the spot light in the center of a massive war that was coming. Sinestro wasn't so arrogant as to believe that he would survive that. There were too many different threats that were even more powerful than him that were at work.

While people could call Sinestro many different things, no one would call him dumb. He wasn't about to march to his own end. So, he held back. Fear made him cautious. When the war started, he would be in shadows watching and waiting for his time to act. Then, he would take down the Green Lanterns once and for all and take his rightful place as the head of the universe.

And until then…he would enjoy watching Hal Jordan's home world burn.

* * *

(Tuesday-December 16, 2015)

The Collector of Worlds had a lot of work to do. That was something that he was painfully aware of as the tension across the universe increased. War was coming, and it would be bloody and terrifying. Truth be told, he didn't have any real investment on any side. They were all power hungry fools to him, and they were going to destroy everything.

That was where the Collector came in to do his work. Someone had to preserve the knowledge of the universe and the people who created it. This was why he was abducting knowledge and cities from planets that were surely doomed. Sure, the people of the planet cursed him as he did it, but it was for the greater good of the universe.

There was one exception, though. Earth was a strange little planet. It had the attention of so many threats and was surely doomed. Yet at the same time, there was an abundance of strange and powerful beings. Everything about little Earth was a contradiction. It was the exception to the rule. As such, during his abduction of Metropolis, the Collector of Worlds changed his mind for the first time.

He would leave Earth be for now. For the first time, the Collector would go against the statistical analysis and bet on chance. He could only hope that the knowledge that Earth had created would remain intact as he preserved the knowledge of the rest of the doomed planets. Because it would be a shame if Earth was lost forever. They were a strange and creative bunch…

"Brainiac…" The Collector of World remembered the strange nickname that one of the Earthlings gave him, "How interesting…"

* * *

(Saturday-December 19, 2015)

Krolotean were not very well respected in the universe. They were small beings with very little physical strength. They also lacked the incredible intelligence that set some races apart. In fact, the only things that they did have was their cooperation and their will to keep struggling. That wasn't near enough to keep them afloat in the structure of the universe, so they did the only thing they could. They cheated.

For centuries, the Crolotains prospered by stealing, lying, and trafficking illegal tech. Races all across the universe looked down and spat on them for their actions, but that didn't matter to the small creatures. All that mattered was that their race survived. It was never about prospering or being respected, because no matter how the power in the universe shifted, they would still be around to struggle even more.

Their line of work did have its risks, though. Kroloteans often had to work on dangerous planets with dangerous people. Nothing showed that more than their work on Earth. After what happened with Earth's "Justice League," they were well aware how dangerous the "heroes" of Earth were. Not to mention their new partners were likely to turn on them in an instant. In all, Earth was a dangerous endeavor for the Kroloteans.

Great risk meant great reward, though. Earth was the center of a lot of attention right now. They could gain a lot from sapping the resources from the planet before the other races decided to take Earth as their own. When that time came, the small aliens would be out of that solar system in an instant. Until, then, they would continue their work and survive no matter the danger.

* * *

(Sunday-December 20, 2015)

L-Ron looked to his master, "Well done, master! That's your ninety-second star system! Bravo! You are truly the ultimate champion!"

Despero just gave L-Ron a bored look.

"Yes, I know, Master," L-Ron nodded, "No one in the star system could provide you a proper challenge. I apologize, Master, but your greatness was just too much for them to take!"

Despero grunted.

"Yes, yes, I will find you a proper challenge!" L-Ran rubbed his robotic hands together eagerly, "There is a solar system that I have been keeping my scanners on, but there are stranger whisperings about that planet. I must spend the proper amount of time gathering data."

Despero gave his robot an intrigued look.

"Oh? What are the rumors? Well, some say that the DEAD of the planet actually come back in an even more powerful form…"

Despero grinned. Now that sounded interesting.

* * *

(Monday-December 21, 2015)

Starbreaker was in a peaceful sleep. The Sun-Eater had his fill a few millennia ago and was resting ever since. After all, he needed to take breaks. If he continued to gorge himself on different solar systems, then there would eventually be nothing left. The universe needed time to heal, so he slept.

As he slept, though, his hunger continued to grow. The energy vampire would soon need to eat. When that time came, he would have his pick of all the delicious stars across the universe. In his sleep, though, he sensed a very unusual star system, though. Energy from there was…strange. It was nothing like he felt before. His dreams were filled with the strange energy that seemed to defy death.

In his sleep, Starbreaker smiled. He knew where his first stop would be when he woke up.

* * *

(Tuesday-December 22, 2015)

Mongul sat in his War World. Things did not go like he thought that they would. He had long since lost his home world to the Tamaranian Empire. That was a big enough blow to his ego as it was. What made it worse was that there was nothing that he could do about it. Not even his War World would be enough to recapture his world.

The Tamaranian Empire had grown in power far too quickly for Mongul's liking. It had happened out of nowhere really. Even though it hurt his ego, he had to admit that the Tamaran leader was a master strategist. She silently and subtly built up enough power and alliances to become a threat and then acted. The blow she dealt was enough to send the universe reeling.

By the time everything calmed down, the Tamaranian Empire was a real power in the universe…all at the expense of Mongul. What made it worse was that he was the only one affected. The Reach and Apokolips were still growing in power. The different Lantern Corps continued on as if nothing changed. Everyone in the universe just accepted the shift in power like Mongul didn't matter.

He would make them suffer for that.

Mongul was not to be underestimated. He was slowly regaining his power. Each day, he gained more people and planets on his side. Eventually, he would have enough power to go to war and win. Until then, though, he had to make sure the growth of the other great powers of the universe was minimal. If any of them became too powerful, then he would never get his revenge. As such, Mongul knew what he had to do if the power began to shift once more. No race or planet would be underestimated this time.

If any planet popped up on his radar, then there was only two options from there. Conquer or destroy.

* * *

(Thursday-December 24, 2015)

Savage's face looked down to the person that stood in front of the five screens of his allies in the Light, "We have already voted, and it's been decided. You have shown your efficiency and power in every mission we provided for you."

Ra's nodded, "You will make an excellent replacement for our fallen comrade Klarion."

Lex Luthor smirked, "Perhaps this is better. Klarion was far too unpredictable at times."

"And at least we can sympathize with your motives," Queen Bee noted, "That's something that we could never say with a creature that only wanted chaos. At least you understand the need to rebuild the order after the chaos has fallen."

Savage sighed, "Yes. While Klarion was a dear friend of mine, he wasn't exactly easy to work with. You have shown that you'll be better in that regard while providing a very similar service to the one that Klarion provided. With you and the Brain's replacement, the Light will be even more powerful than before."

Lex's eyes drifted to the other new member of their group, "And what is the input of our newest partner?"

The Brain's replacement frowned, "This is a good second step, but we still need to replace Ocean Master. Say what you will about his motives, but his inside info about the movements of Atlantis would be useful as the new king continues to rebuild his city."

Queen Bee agreed, "That shall be our next step. We have a perfect candidate in mind for that."

"Until then, let us celebrate," Ra's raised a glass of wine, "To the revival of the Light."

With a wave of a hand, the replacement of Klarion summoned a glass of wine for herself. Her new friends raised their own drinks. She could only smile at this. This was going to be so much fun.

"To the revival of the Light," Thorn giggled.

* * *

(Friday-December 25, 2015)

Kylstar watched the warriors he gathered from Earth and other solar systems interact and train. It had been pointed out to him that forcing others to fight for him was the exact same thing as slavery. Kylstar hated slavery. His people had suffered that terrible burden for too long, and he wasn't willing to do the same thing to others.

He couldn't just leave his people to suffer, though. So, he decided to offer everyone he came across the chance to fight with him. Luckily, dozens of powerful people accepted his offer. Slowly, he was gaining allies. Soon, he would have enough power to begin his campaign to save his people from the fascists from the Citadel.

And when that time came….He would stop at nothing to free his people. Even if he had to conquer the entire universe.

* * *

(Saturday-December 26, 2015)

Black Beatle looked to the Ambassador of the Reach, "Our time to gain control over the meat of Earth is approaching, correct?"

The Ambassador smiled, "Indeed. The people of Earth have limitless potential. Their addition to the Reach will greatly increase our standing in the universe."

Black Beatle frowned, "True. The meat of Earth will be useful, but what about the other prize from Earth?"

"Ah…the ghosts…" The Ambassador stroked his chin, "From what our allies in the Light have reported, the ghosts have closed passage between their pocket dimension and the physical plane of Earth. Very few ghosts are around the planet anymore, and even fewer are active. I do believe that this will work in our favor, though. We can conquer one plane before moving onto the other without interference from the ghosts."

"And Danny Phantom?" Black Beatle had to ask.

"Oh, yes. I do remember your expressed interest him," The Ambassador sighed, "Unfortunately, it had been confirmed that the strange ghost did in fact die."

"That's a waste," Black Beatle let out a grunt, "His 'Ascended Ectoplasm' would have been a huge asset for our cause. Plus…I would have loved to challenge him myself. That would have been a glorious battle."

"Indeed. He would have been a great asset in many ways. Both as a fighter on our side and as a test subject for our own battle prowess. Unfortunately, there's nothing that we can do about it," The Ambassador let out a smile, "Luckily, there are still bits of Phantom's power available through the forms of his sidekicks and their Legacy research."

* * *

(Sunday-December 27, 2015)

Darkseid was not pleased. While nothing bad was happening directly to him or his forces, one of his greatest prospects was now floating out of his reach. Unlike most of the universe, he had been keeping his eyes on Earth for years. This was especially true after discovering the existence of Danny Phantom, who Darkseid was sure would turn about to be _the Phantom_ that he heard about all of his existence.

This theory was crushed when Danny Phantom died. If Nekron hadn't been erased, Darkseid would have tortured the Reaper until he was begging for death. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option anymore, so Darkseid just took his anger out on some of his servants. Even now, he grew angry at the thought of losing all that power.

This was not the reason that Darkseid was displeased. After all, Earth still had plenty to offer. No, what really angered the New God was how much attention Earth was getting. This is what he got when he tried to be subtle in his takeover. From what his main spy told him, readings from both the Crolotains and the Reach were both on Earth.

How dare those lesser beings even think about taking over his future asset? Well, no matter. This would be a test for how powerful and resourceful the Earthlings really were. If they managed to fight off the threats, then they were worthy of working under him. If not, he would just have to destroy them along with those bugs that crawled into what Darkseid considered his unofficial territory. After all, he couldn't just let Earth go, because there was gold there that he was sure everyone else would have overlooked.

"Perhaps that was the true purpose of the Phantom," Darkseid mentioned to himself, "In the end, he did change the universe. He led me to the key to the Anti-Life Formula, and I won't lose that like Phantom himself. Even if I have to kill everything in that galaxy to get it."

* * *

(Wednesday-January 1, 2042)

Dani looked down at the babe in the cradle before her, "Of course you get dumped on me."

Innocent blue eyes looked up to the halfa woman. The baby gurgled before her eyes flashed green and then pink. A blast of pink energy burst from the babe's fingers and towards Dani's head. The tiny blast of energy was easily knocked away by the experienced heroine.

"God…I hate you…" Dani glared at the baby, hating how much the little girl reminded her of how much she lost, "I hate your mother…I hate everything that led to your cursed existence."

The baby yawned cutely.

"I wish that it could be undone, but it can't," Dani mentioned, "Maybe I should just dump you on someone else…"

Green energy suddenly surged off the babe as she floated into the air.

Sighing, Dani gently pushed the baby down, "That won't work. You're a halfa. I'm literally the only one capable of keeping you, aren't I?"

The baby's response was to yawn.

Dani closed her eyes and let out a sigh, "Fine then. Luna…Your first name is Luna. Of course Jinx would name you that. I can't change your first name in good conscience, but I'm not letting you take that bitch's last name. You get the name of your…father. Danny would want you to have his name. So you're Luna Fenton."

Luna drifted off to sleep.

Dani opened her eyes and shook her head, "Yeah. Rest now, kid. You're gonna need it. Because you've been born into one hellish life. Trust me. I'm the expert on that."

* * *

 **These "Behind" chapters just keep getting bigger. Feels good to finally get all the events leading up to Desperation out of the way...except for Luna Legacy of course. As a reminder, that bonus chapter will be out on January 21, 2017. So it will be out with the new year. Then, we make way for the fourth story.**

 **By the way, my most awesome Beta jaguarspot (who I thank for proofreading this chapter) gave me a fun little comment after reading this monster of a bonus chapter. She said that her first impression was "let's see how many different psychos can we fit on Earth in a single story." I feel that it's fitting...even if there are two stories left instead of one.**

 **Until next time, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas..plus other holidays that you might be celebrating...and a Happy New Year.**

 **Thank you all for reading and please remember to…**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	37. Luna Legacy

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Legacy is not leaving something for people. It's leaving something in people."

Peter Strople

* * *

 **Luna Legacy**

(Saturday-January 27, 2046)

An alarm blared out through a tiny room made of scrap metal. The dirty walls were hard to see, though. Several pictures that looked like they were drawn by a small child were taped over the metal. All the free spaces were covered by different symbols of long dead heroes painted on the wall. The largest symbol on the wall was a familiar DP logo that meant a lot to the owner of the room.

Said owner of the room laid on a mattress with torn blankets. On the rock by the mattress was a broken, barely working alarm clock that looked like it had been put together with spare parts. A slender arm reached from the mattress and tapped the button on top of the clock. The owner of the room then slipped off the mattress and stood up.

The owner appeared to be a fourteen year old girl with long dark hair that reached all the way down to the center of her back. Her still developing form was covered by torn sweatpants and a large, white T-shirt with the same DP logo across the front. Despite this being the start of her day, she didn't walk to the makeshift dresser made out of rotting wood. Instead, she moved to the single window in her tiny room.

As the girl stepped in front of the window, she saw her reflection staring back at her impassively. Her heart shaped face shifted slightly into a frown. Sharp blue eyes that she inherited from her father blinked as the weariness of sleep worn out of them. With a groan, the girl rubbed her face.

"Good morning, Remnant. It's a beautiful day. Weather is exactly the same as every other damn day. Remember to stay discrete and to…" The girl paused, "Crash the mode."

Bart would be proud. She never understood why people used those words. Perhaps it was because people really did give up a long time ago.

A knocking at the door ripped the girl from her thoughts. The pounding against the thin metal was accompanied by the weary voice of her caretaker, "Luna. I know you're up. Get out here. You need to get ready for training."

Luna turned from the window, "Alright. Let me change, though. These clothes smell like Crolotain piss."

A snort came from behind the makeshift door, "You don't even know what that smells like."

"It's an expression. Highfather have mercy…"

"Don't say that," The voice hissed, "You know I hate those pathetic excuses for gods."

"That's an expression too," Luna placed her hand in her face, "Just give me a minute, Grandma."

"Fine. Sixty seconds."

As Luna removed her hand from her face, she rolled her eyes. Well, this morning already sucked. No way was she going to put up with this for the rest of the day. A large white ring appeared above her head. It moved downward and transformed Luna into her ghost form. Once blue eyes were now a neon green. Her black hair had bled white with pink at the end of her long locks. Her sleepwear changed into a skin tight shirt with black covering the torso and white sleeves. Her torn sweat pants then transformed into form fitting white jeans with black seams and pockets. There was a noticeable change in Luna's height as her once bare feet were covered with black shoes with somewhat higher heels.

Knowing that she didn't have much time left, Luna decided to quickly finish her morning routine. She walked over to the large DP logo and placed a hand over her head. She bowed her head in respect for a brief second before raising her head once more to look at the picture she made sure was right by her father's symbol. It was rather crude picture of a tiny Luna holding hands with a man with white hair and a woman with pink hair.

Luna raised her hand from her chest. She softly kissed her palm then placed that hand on the picture. Finally, like every morning, she spoke to her parents, "Wish you were here. I'll make you proud."

With that done, Luna floated into the air. She then phazed through the window into the alley outside of her shack. As she did this, the door to her room opened. Luna didn't even look back to look at her only family. She just flipped off her now shouting caretaker and rocketed into the air.

Once she was high above the square box she called home, Luna took into the torn down and barely put together city of Remnant. Just like the people in it, the city was made from the last remnants of humanity's legacy. With a sigh, Luna turned her gaze upward to see an even uglier sight. A dome covered the city to camouflage it from the outside. The citizens of remnant had a perfect view of the outside, though. So Luna had a perfect view out into space and to a large orb in the distance that looked like it had been burned and torn apart.

"Hello, Earth," Luna pulled a pair of green sunglasses out from her pocket and slipped them on. She frowned up at the planet from which she originated, "You look even uglier than yesterday."

* * *

Remnant was a city of refugees. It was filled with people from Earth that had escaped enslavement from the Reach or slaughter by the other opposing alien forces during Earth's Final War. With the Earth now completely barren and unable to sustain life anymore once the Life Entity was ripped out by the Green Lanterns, humanity had to choose a new home to settle. Unfortunately, Earthlings were illegal and wanted throughout the galaxy. So they only had one choice. They decided to settle on the moon.

Luckily, there had been a giant, readymade crater just the size for a city that had been made by the ancient being Colossus during the feared Black Night. The brightest of humanity had built a special dome around the city to provide protection, camouflage, and air. Once that was done, humans crammed themselves into the dome to create a city made out of scrap. Luckily, their own agriculture and scavenging had provided food. So they would survive. It just wouldn't be a pretty life.

Overall, life was tolerable. It was all Luna had ever really known, and it was pointless to compare this to old stories of the past. So she just accepted it. The biggest issue she had with the situation was how people kept commenting on how a girl named Luna was living on the moon.

If someone called her Moon Girl one more Apokolips forsaken time…

"Hey, Luna!" The voice of Luna's best friend brought Luna out from her thoughts.

"For Highfather's sake, Bart," Luna hissed as she landed by the boy, "Keep it down. We're supposed to be at training right now."

"Oh, right…sorry…I forgot about that…I should stop talking. Don't want to be put on mode…You're glaring at me…I'll shut up now…"

Bart Allen was a young thirteen year old boy with short brown hair. His slim, runners build was covered with a gray shirt, green jacket, and old jeans. Bright green eyes shined with enthusiasm, but there was a deep jadedness hidden in them. Luna didn't blame him. It wasn't even two years ago that he was a slave of the Reach.

Luna sighed, "Just come on. I don't want to get caught."

The two of them slipped through the back alleys of Remnant. The day had already started, so the sounds of people on the main streets going about their own business drifted through the alleyways. As they moved, Luna and Bart saw the different stands selling rather bland fruits and vegetables. Meats and spices were a rarity that no one could obtain anymore. And junk food…that was just a dream…speaking of which…

"Put that away," Luna glared at Bart as the boy basically drooled over an old magazine that showed pictures of a variety of different fancy food from the past, "You're just teasing yourself."

"I know," Bart sighed and put the magazine back into his coat, "But it's a beautiful dream. I'd love to try some of this stuff."

"That stuff's been gone since before we were born," Luna muttered, "Best not to think about it."

"You're one to talk," Bart commented.

"True. Guess we both got a sickness," Luna stopped her trek. She eyed the large wall in front of her, "You remember the paint?"

"Oh…" Bart rubbed the back of his head, "I knew I forgot something."

"Yet you remember the magazine," Luna snorted, "Fine. We're almost out of that crap paint anyway. This gives me a chance to try out a new trick."

Pink light flashed in Luna's hands. She thrusted them forward and covered the wall in pink ectoplasm. The energy shifted until it was a familiar DP logo.

"There," Luna smirked, "Works just as well as paint, and it'll be harder to clean off."

"People will know it was you, though," Bart argued.

"They already do," Luna shrugged, "Who else is obsessed with that logo?"

"True…" Bart bit his lip, "Hey, Luna…Don't you think that this is kind of pointless? I mean, I get that you want to inspire some hope in people, but we've been doing for a while now, and nothing's changed."

"So?" Luna crossed her arms, "People need to remember what people did to make sure that we could live. Next time, I'll do your grandfather's logo."

"That's not the point," Bart argued, "You said it yourself with the magazine. Looking to the past won't change anything. Maybe we should focus on our training and building up humanity again?"

"Bart…I've been training since I was born…All for a war we can't win anymore," Luna rubbed her forehead, "Maybe it is dumb to look back like I am, but—"

"Well, well, well, look who we have here!"

Luna turned to see the owner of the familiar voice calling them out. Bart hissed out the obvious, "Jokerz…"

Even when humanity was its lowest point, there were still troublemakers. The members of Justice League weren't willing to turn away any human, even the Rogues. Most of the old dangerous villains were locked inside Remnant's famous penitentiary. The minor offenders had a more in and out type of relationship with the makeshift prison.

That was basically what the Jokerz gang was. Even after his death, the Joker had an influence on people. The Jokerz worshiped Joker like a deity. Luckily, they were smart enough to not create too much trouble in the city, otherwise a certain member of the Justice League wouldn't treat them as much as an afterthought.

"Ghoul and his flunkies," Luna raised an eyebrow from behind her shades, "I thought you had another week in the penitentiary."

"We busted ourselves out," Ghoul was a rather pale man. He wore a pointed wizard's had over his straw hair. He wore a torn pumpkin shirt that didn't do much to hide the different scars across his body.

Bart snorted, "That's not smart. The League will be after you as soon as they find out."

"I know, but we couldn't wait for our rematch!" Ghoul's right hand shifted until it turned into a spinning saw, "You punks keep ruining our rep! Time for payback."

"Oh, Highfather have mercy," Luna gave them a bored glance. Her eyes looked from Ghoul to his backup that were all dressed up like literal clowns. While strong in their own rights with their own powers and augmentations, none of them could hold a candle to full-blooded meta-humans, "How many times do we have to beat you?"

"One more time!" A somewhat heavier man wearing a smiling mask said. His most discernable feature was the fact that his legs were replaced by a metal rolling ball.

Ghoul used his non weapon hand to smack his face, "Chucko! Do you know how bad thaaaaaaaaat sou…"

Time began to slow down for Bart as his body moved at speeds that none of the Jokerz could follow. He moved behind the group to a pair of twins that were dressed up like ragdolls. He quickly tied their shoe laces together. He then took the jaw of a man that looked like a hyena and placed it on Chucko's arm before moving back to his previous spot by Luna.

"…nds!"

"AAAHHH!" The twins cried as they fell down.

"OWW! Why in the Apokolips are you biting me, Woof!?" Chucko cried out in pain.

Shaking her head, Luna lifted a hand and blasted the large man of the group with some ectoplasm. The energy carried the man to the wall and trapped him there. She then placed her hand on the ground and surged her energy through that, causing the Jokerz to tumble to the ground.

Ghoul was quick to get back up, "Damn it! Stop doing that! Can't you ever fight fair?!"

Luna nonchalantly checked her nails, "Not our fault if you can't keep up."

Ghoul was about to charge forward and attack, but he was stopped when Bart raised a hand, "Wait! Look out for Batman!"

"Oh, like I'd fall for—"

"OOFF!"

A few cracking noises sounded out from behind Ghoul.

"AAAHHH!"

Ghoul whipped around in shock to see a dark figure standing above his now unconscious friends. With a roar, the Jokerz rushed forward with his saw hand raised. The figure quickly caught the arm by the wrist, twisted it around, and smashed Ghoul's face into the ground. He did not get up after that.

Luna smiled, "Nice work, Terry."

The dark figure stepped forward to show a muscular man wearing a full body suit that covered everything but his mouth. Thin ears reached from the top of the man's mask. Everything on the suit was black except or the red bat symbol and the white lenses that covered his eyes.

"I told you to call me Batman when I'm in uniform, Luna," Batman growled.

"Oh please, Terry. Everyone knows that it's you," Luna rolled her eyes, "I don't know why you Leaguers still insist on codenames. No one to hide your identities from."

"It's tradition."

"A very retro tradition," Bart noted, "That's why no one in our class has picked a name yet."

"Speaking of which…" Batman glared at them, "Shouldn't you be in training right now?"

Luna pouted, "Oh, come on, Ter…Batman. We're skipping one day. Matt told us that you used to skip all the time when Bruce Wayne trained you. Wouldn't it be hypocritical for you to bring us in?"

"True…" Batman smirked, "But it wouldn't be for her."

A large figure landed behind Luna and Bart. They both gulped.

"Oh man, not crash," Bart hissed a hand grabbed his collar and lifted him up, "We totally just got put on mode."

* * *

Luna had her arms crossed indignantly as she was carried over the shoulder of her capturer. Bart was being carried under the assailant's other arm. Said kidnapper was an extremely muscular woman wearing apron over thick black body armor. An old gray beanie held her dark hair from view but still allowed the blue skin of her face to show.

"You suck," Luna mumbled just loud enough for the woman to hear her, "You know that, Box Lunch?"

"That's rich coming from the pain in the ass that had me track her down for training…" Box Lunch glare at the girl, "AGAIN!"

"I didn't ask you to," Luna argued.

"Yeah, well Dani did ask me to the day she handed your training over to me and the League," Box Lunch frowned, "Worst decision of my life, I swear."

Bart blurted out without thinking, "Even compared to the decision to marry Colin?"

Box Lunch stopped. She easily moved the speedster from under her arm to right in front of her face, "What was that, boy? You commenting on my choice of a husband? You got a problem with my man?"

"N-No…" Bart was now extremely pale, "I-It was a joke. Colin's the nicest guy I know. He's very forgiving, just like you should be now."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Box Lunch placed the boy back in his previous spot and continued in her trek through Remnant, "Honestly, you two need to grow up. You know that no one has the luxury of slacking off any more. Especially one of the last speedsters alive and the last ghost born in twenty damn years."

Luna rolled her eyes, "And it's not that kind of pressure at all that makes us want a break once in a while."

Box Lunch ignored this and continued to walk through the streets of Remnant. As she carried them, the citizens laughed at the sight of seeing such powerful meta-humans being carried like sacks of food.

"Hey, it's the quick mouth and moony."

"Got caught again?"

"You'd think they would learn by now."

Luna responded to their comments and mocking grins the only way she could. She flipped them off.

After making her way through the city, Box Lunch came to an open area covered in different posts of cracked wood and garbage. She stepped over the white stone of the moon and into the field with several figures in it, "I think I found something you lost."

The largest figure in the field turned and sighed at the sight, "Lose suggests that they showed up to begin with."

Box Lunch nodded. She quickly placed her captives on the ground, "Apologize."

Bart and Luna bowed their heads, "Sorry, Amy."

Box Lunch smacked them upside the head, "It's Bombshell, brats."

"Well, why don't you have a 'codename' then?!" Luna snapped.

"Full ghosts never used codenames," Box Lunch explained, "Those that reborn as ghosts already gained a new name, and newborns like me didn't need to hide our identity. Besides—"

"It's tradition," All the children in the field said out at the same time, "We know."

"Damn right," Box Lunch smirked to the instructor, "I have other work to do. Can I trust them to you?"

"Don't worry," Bombshell was a fit, beautiful woman with pure silver skin. A black tank top with a red symbol of Captain Atom covered her chest while jeans firmly fit the curves of her lower half, "You can trust me."

* * *

"Alright, Allen," Bombshell pointed to the speedster, "We're doing personal demonstrations today. You're up. Show us how you've improved."

Bart saluted, "Will do, miss teacher lady."

Bombshell looked to Luna, "Fenton, you join the others. Be ready, you're after Allen."

"Whatever," Despite her ambivalence, Luna did as her teacher said. She walked over to the other five students in her class and waited her turn. As soon as Bart began to go through the League's course, the others began to speak to her.

"Heard that Batman was the first to catch you," A young man of obvious Asian descent smirked at Luna causing the domino mask on his face to shift. He wore dark red body armor with a utility belt at his waist. A yellow 'R' covered the left pectoral part of his chest.

"That was literally five minutes ago, Matt," Luna gave her friend a side glance, "How did you already hear about it?"

"Family secret…and call me Robin."

"Highfather have mercy," A chocolate skinned girl around Luna's age rolled her eyes. She flicked her almost magical, fiery red hair over her shoulder. Grayish eyes sparkled in a playfully mocking manner as she crossed her arms over her golden armor, "If you're going to pick a dumb codename, can't any of you be original? I mean…Robin? Supergirl? Those names are so _old_. It's gross."

"U-Um…" A stunning, curvatious young woman with short dark hair and stunning blue eyes shifted her dark boot covered feet. A black unitard with the Superman symbol across the front showed off her generous curves. She rubbed her gloved hands together. Despite her incredible strength and nearly unnatural looks, the girl looked very unsure as she spoke, "W-What n-name w-would you pick, A-Anita?"

"Well, Cir-El," Anita smirked, "I would pick something befitting my unparalleled beauty and elegance. Something like Empress."

"Your humility is amazing as always, Anita," Luna muttered dryly.

"I do not believe that you are one to speak, Luna," A floating young man with a shaved head spoke. He was covered in the uniform of a Green Lantern. He was one of the few remaining members of Corps after its destruction. One of the last power rings and power lanterns had chosen him as its owner despite Earth being a dead zone, "Your actions show that you think that you are above training. That shows far more arrogance than Anita's simple boasts."

"Kai-Ro," A thinner woman with long platinum blonde hair chastised the shorter boy. Her swimmer's frame was covered with a smooth green fabric that covered everything except her webbed hands and feet. A small frown marred her toned skin, "You know that is not fair. We all have our own personal issues to deal with."

"Yet our call to duty pushes us through it, Mareena," Kai-Ro argued.

"Hey!" Bombshell shouted over to the trainees, "Are you paying attention."

"Yes," All the youngsters stated dutifully.

Bombshell was skeptical. She pointed to the now floored Bart, "Then tell me what Allen did wrong."

"Um…" Cir-El blushed, "H-He tripped over a-a rock?"

"He was too predictable, and you hit him with an energy blast," Robin suggested.

"His metabolism go the better of him?" Anita shrugged uncaringly.

"…Lucky guesses," Bombshell sighed, "Allen, get up. It's Fenton's turn."

"Yeah…" Bart lifted himself back up and trudged to his friends, "Thanks so much for your help, guys. Totally crash."

"This was not a team exercise," Mareena gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Plus, it is humorous to see you fail," Kai-Ro added.

"Kai-Ro!"

"You all suck," Bart grumbled as he passed Luna. Said halfa girl stood in front of the makeshift training course.

"Alright, now this will be a time trial. Hit as many of the targets as you can in—"

Luna didn't wait for her instructor to finish. She raised her hand and gathered a large ball of pink energy. Multiple blasts shot out of her hand and smashed into the various posts. In seconds, they were all knocked over. As the energy disappeared from her one hand, Luna raised her other hand just as Bombshell sent out a blast of energy at her. The radiation hit her palm and was instantly absorbed into her skin.

Bombshell huffed. The older woman launched herself forward with both her fists glowing. Without even blinking, Luna caught the fists in her own and absorbed the energy. This didn't stop Bombshell as she sent out a blast of energy from her foot. The burst smashed into Luna's stomach and sent her tumbling back. Luna's shades were sent sliding away.

"Don't get too cocky, kid, you're not invincible," Bombshell proclaimed, "I know all your weaknesses."

Luna didn't bother sitting up from her position on her back, "And the enemy will?"

"Don't underestimate alien tech. They can analyze patterns and see weaknesses," Bombshell noted, "Plus, your lack of real battle experience makes your talent and genetics useless."

Luna sat up with a deep frown on her face. One of her eyes had shifted to pink, "I get it. Next time, I'll just absorb all of your energy so you can't take advantage of me being nice."

"Luna…" Bombshell paused. She lifted her hand up to her ear to press her com piece, "Yeah…I see…What do you want me to…Okay, be there in a few minutes."

All the students exchanged confused looks.

"Alright," Bombshell looked to her students, "The League called. I have something to deal with. Class dismissed for now. See you…ALL of you…tomorrow. Same time."

Luna stood up and walked over to her sunglasses. As she placed her shades back on, she muttered, "Yahoo…"

* * *

Cir-El floated over to Luna as they were leaving the training grounds, "W-What do you think Miss Amy had to go do, L-Luna?"

Luna looked back to the last Kryptonian. Unlike the other teenagers who were capable of flight, Luna chose to walk. She wasn't in any hurry, "How would I know?"

"You've been around the League the longest," Anita mentioned, "You would know what it would take for training to be canceled for the first time…ever."

"Probably just a problem with the dome," Luna shrugged.

Matt was frowning, "I don't know. I'm a bit worried. Batman usually contacts me through my com piece with those types of things."

"So it is something more serious?" Kai-Ro gained a contemplative look.

"Then why didn't they ask us for help?" Bart questioned, "They've been training us for a reason."

"It is about the protection of the next generations," Mareena noted, "They want us to avoid danger. After us…There are few children left besides us, and those are the few that have no powers…"

"Ahem," Matt glared at her.

"Or genetic fighter heritage," Mareena conceded.

"Geeze…" Bart gained a sullen look, "That's a depressing thought."

"It's depressing times," Luna sighed, "Speaking of which, I guess there's the implied order to go home…"

"Indeed it is," Kai-Ro began to float away, "I will see you all tomorrow."

"Y-Yeah, s-same…" Cir-El began to leave as well.

The others began to leave as well, leaving only Bart and Luna at the edge of the field. Bart looked to Luna, "Um, Luna, sorry to bail on you, but Dad will probably already freak out on me for this morning. I don't want to double the lecture. He'll probably go slowly on purpose as punishment too. That would be Apokolips…"

"Fine, whatever," Luna bit her lip, "Go. I'll see you tomorrow, Bart."

"Bye, Luna!" Bart rushed off in a blur. Luna was left alone at the edge of the training ground. Her first instinct was to go anywhere but home, but Bart had a point. She'd be in even more trouble if she didn't head home right away.

"Guess it's time to face the music."

* * *

"Oh, if it isn't the drama princess herself."

Luna sighed as this was the first thing she heard as she opened the door to her tiny shack. The main room of the metal shack was a simple room with a single window and plain metal walls. A large desk covered in papers was in the corner farthest from the makeshift bathroom and a broken down cot lie in the other far corner.

"Hi, Grandma…" Luna said unhappily, "How was your day."

"Same as every Goddamn day," A woman with short white hair sat at the desk with her back turned to Luna. While Luna couldn't see the woman's face, she could see the rest of her caretaker. Black and white armor hid the curves of her body. The armor stopped at the elbow and knees at the woman's arms and legs respectively. This allowed the robotic replacements for her right leg and left arm to be seen. The limbs that were still flesh were littered with scars, "And how was your day of ignoring my rules and orders."

"Sucky," Luna closed the door behind her, "Only got five minutes to have fun before Terry and Box Lunch showed up."

"Good," Dani Masters turned away from her desk to look at Luna. A thick, curved scar ran from the left side of her nose down over her lips. Burns on the right side of her face caused the halfa woman to continuously squint with her right eye, "You keep proving that you constantly need someone to keep an eye on you. Next time you pull that shit, I'm tearing down your door and dragging you out of your room every damn morning."

Luna rolled her eyes, "You say that every time I do anything you don't like, Grandma."

"Because I'm too Goddamn nice," Dani huffed, "Always treated you too kindly. Made you think that you can get away with anything."

"Too kindly?" Luna glared at the older woman, "When have you ever been nice to me? When have you ever SAID anything nice to me?"

"Never, because we don't live in a nice universe," Dani hissed at Luna, "You might not realize it, brat, but you've had it pretty Goddamn good here. You got food and a roof over your head. Outside of here, there is war and death. I've seen it all. I've lost everything. And it's all because of your damn mother's group. This is the best humanity will ever get again, and a lot of people gave a hell of a lot to get you here. And you parade around like you own the place and you know best. Here's your wake up call. Luna, you don't know shit."

"I've heard every story there is to tell, Grandma," Luna argued, "I know everything there is to know about what happened out there."

"Oh, but you didn't live through it. I did, though, so I know what's best. There's a reason I lead the League, so you need to get over your own wants and do what's best for humanity for once, instead of painting graffiti of a logo that lost all its meaning forty-two years ago," Dani growled.

Luna rolled her eyes at this old argument, "Someone has to remind people that there's still hope in the universe. Everyone knows what my father's logo means. They just need a reminder."

"No one cares—"

"Shut up! Highfather! You always say the damn same thing!" Luna snapped, "At least I do something to lift people's spirits instead of wallowing in pity like you! You say that you 'lead the League,' but I always see you at that damn table every day!"

"I coordinate their movements," Dani stated, "And I'm working on a very important project. The most important one in human history."

"If you say so," Luna shook her head and crossed her arms.

Dani raised her real hand and rubbed her temple, "God…I'm tired. Too tired to deal with this. Just go to your room, and don't leave it. I'll think of punishment for you later."

"Whatever," Luna walked over to the door to her room, "All you seem to do is think of punishments for you."

"Because all you do is disobey me. You got too much of your damn mother in you," Dani turned away, "Danny would have been ashamed."

Luna paused as she opened her door. Slowly, she turned her head around to look at the woman that had taken care of her all her life, "Grandma…"

"I'm not your Grandma!" Dani shouted without turning around, "You're not funny making fun of my age like that. I'm your genetic sister, and even that's tainted. Both of us are illegitimate as it gets, but at least Danny had the chance to accept me."

The implied 'unlike you' was left hanging in the air. Tears filled Luna's eyes. With a small whimper, she entered her room and slammed the door behind her, leaving Dani alone. Unlike the younger halfa, Dani did not make any noise as she cried and remembered how she lost everyone she had ever loved.

* * *

Luna in her human form sat on her mattress and hugged her knees to her chest. She quietly sobbed into her knees. All she wanted to do was leave her little room and scream at her adopted grandmother that everything Dani said was wrong. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to do it, because Dani was right in everything she said. It was the painful truth.

Still quietly crying, Luna stood and walked over to the same picture that was beside the large DP logo. She stared at the picture that she drew years ago as a small child. It was fantasy that never happened. She hadn't ever been around her father, and she hadn't seen her mother since the day she was born. All the drawing could ever be was a dream she held in her heart. Luna had always dreamed of her parents lovingly holding her hands like that, but it would never be for many different reasons other than the fact that both her parents were dead.

Wiping her eyes, Luna moved to her makeshift dresser and pulled out a thick file that she hid away years ago. It took a lot of effort to sneak into the League's headquarters and copy this down, but it was worth it to know the truth. She opened it up to see the translated version of the Reach's notes on Project Legacy.

 _In the Earthling calendar on December 31, 2010, the Reach's old allies the Light gained control over the entire Justice League and Danny Phantom. While their control over the meat's League gave the Reach the opportunity to gain control over the Earth, their control over Phantom gave birth to Project Legacy. In between the time from when the Light first gained control over Phantom to the time that he fought against the young heroes, the Light ordered him to submit sperm samples._

 _While the Light did nothing with the sperm samples for years, they did extensive research in the best possible ways to use them. Unfortunately, cloning and test tube offspring proved to be ineffectual. There needed to be a physical woman to birth the offspring. Several candidates were considered, but none of them were compatible. There was only one woman that test proved that was a proper match to the requirements needed to birth a child…Jenifer Savage AKA Jinx._

 _Unfortunately, Savage was unwilling to use his kin as a breeder without her permission. Once the Light was conquered and the Reach gained control over all of the group's assets, Savage was no longer an issue. It took a few years and all the sperm samples, but finally we were able to impregnate Jinx. All signs were good with the child until we had a lapse of security. Jinx took advantage of the guards underestimating a pregnant woman and escaped using an escape pod. The Reach tried to track her, but the trail went cold once the escape pod was found on Earth._

Luna stopped in her reading. That was all she really cared about in the documents. The Reach didn't even know that Jenifer died giving birth to her. This was data that the League managed to get in their last attempts to rescue human slaves from the Reach. That was the same time they managed to save Bart and his father. So, Luna had this knowledge for almost two years now.

With a sigh, Luna put the file away once more. This is why Dani was right and why Luna's picture was an impossible even if her parents were alive. She was born a child that neither of her parents consented to at all. Both of them had been violated multiple times in order for her to be conceived. Jenifer must have died cursing her, and Danny died long ago never knowing that she would ever exist.

"But he probably would have hated me," Luna fought off tears as they tried to return, "Hell, I would if I was him."

Taking a deep breath, she looked back to the logo on her wall. She heard so many stories about Danny Phantom. He was a legend, a person that did great things while being a kind and forgiving man. Luna borderline worshiped him after hearing all the stories about him, and she was his only child not born out of cloning. All she wanted was to live up to his legacy and make humanity great again, but…

"We're fooling ourselves," Luna walked over to the logo, "There's no hope anymore. We're humanity's last generation. There's no way to fix—"

BOOM!

Luna was thrown off balance as the loud explosion rocked the entire hut. She slammed into the wall and slid to the ground. After the shaking stopped, Luna jumped back to her feet and transformed back to her ghost form, "What the Apokolips was that!?"

Luna heard glass shatter in the next room. It was quickly followed by the sounds of shouts and fighting. With wide eyes, she rushed from her room to help her caretaker.

* * *

As Luna flung the door open, she saw her adopted grandmother stab her real arm through the chest of a blue skinned alien wearing red armor. She then flung the corpse to the side with swing of that arm. The older halfa then raised her fake arm as the metal shifted from a simple limb into an energy cannon that increased the power of her own attacks. With a roar, the now forced out of retirement Spirit opened fire through the window to the other attackers on the outside.

Luna quickly jumped in front of her caretaker and blocked the incoming energy attacks with her palms. She absorbed the energy and added it to her own core before sending out an ectoplasm ball attack with both the combined power of the blasts. The ball flew out through the window and rammed into several attackers, knocking them out. With the attackers dealt with, Spirit turned her energy canon back to its original form.

"What the Apokolips was that?" Luna questioned.

"The Reach," Dani hissed, "They found us."

Luna looked at her caretaker in alarm, "How?"

"I don't know. Perhaps they upgraded their energy sensors or some scouts saw some unusual activity around here," Dani sighed and looked to the side. When she had dealt with the first attack, some of the fool's blood got on a few of her papers, "Whatever it was, this place isn't safe anymore."

Dani walked to her desk and moved all the papers, binders, and books into the drawers. She then pressed a button on the side which activated a panel behind the desk. With a grunt, the older halfa pushed the desk inside and closed the panel. She pulled out a key from a compartment in her fake leg and locked the compartment before shifting the metal to hide the keyhole.

"Here," Dani handed the key to Luna, "Keep that safe no matter what."

"O-Okay…" Luna slid the key into her pocket.

Dani moved to look out the window, "More will come soon. They can't know what's in there, and we don't have time to properly pack those papers. If they get damaged, then the whole plan is ruined. You need to give that key to Batman. Once this is over, he's the only one with the stealth skills to get in and out without the Reach noticing."

"Grandma…" Luna had a confused look.

"Luna," Dani turned to the younger halfa, "I need you to go to the evacuation site as quickly as you can. No stopping, even to save other people. Do you understand me?"

"What? I can't just—"

"You can, and you will!" Dani snapped.

Luna paled.

Dani stepped up to Luna and placed her hands on the girl's shoulders, "Luna, for once in your life, obey me. This is bigger than me…or you…or anyone in Remnant. This is about fixing everything. The fate of humanity is in your pocket right now. So I want you to promise me on that Goddamn logo that you love so much that you will go straight to the evacuation site and give that key to Batman."

Luna was shocked by how desperate her caretaker looked, "I-I swear."

"On what?"

"On…on the Phantom Family's symbol."

Dani's eyes became misty for a seconds as if she was remembering something from the past. That look quickly faded away, "Good girl. Now go and don't look back."

Luna stumbled as Dani pushed her towards the door. On instinct, she rushed out the door and took off to the sky. As she did this, more Reach soldiers stormed the area. They raised energy spears and tried to shoot at her. The girl was forced to dodge the blasts of energy before Dani jumped out the window and tore through them with the combinations of her Spectral Claw and sonic cannon.

Despite the order to not look back, Luna looked back to Dani killing her enemies until the sight was only dots in her vision. Gaining a determined look, Luna turned her head away and rushed to the evacuation site. She had a mission to fulfill.

* * *

"Luna!" Bart rushed to meet Luna as the halfa touched down next to him in the evacuation area. She saw the weaker and younger citizens of Remnant piling down into a secret cavern to an escape ship. While the majority of the citizens of the city had some form of power from the Reach's experiments, not all of the powers were battle appropriate, "I'm so glad you're safe. Come on, the others are waiting—"

"Where's Batman?" Luna demanded with a completely serious look on her face.

Bart was surprised by her directness, "W-With the others…"

"Come on," Luna grabbed Bart and had him direct her to the Dark Knight. As she moved, she ignored the distractions around her. The crowd rushed past her. Fighting between the League and the Reach blared in the city. Space ships flew above them, firing down at the energy dome. Luckily, the dome had been designed to be sturdy on the outside to protect the city while allowing their own attacks to pass through the dome on the inside.

Luna and Bart soon came up to Batman who was glaring at their classmates, "I don't care what you want. Get into the evac ship."

"But Luna…" Anita looked over to see Luna and Bart approaching, "LUNA!"

Luna waved off her friends and pushed through to Batman. She pulled out the key and held it out for Batman, "Grandma told me to give this to you."

Batman eyed the key, "Good job, Luna. That's very important. Give it—"

Bang!

Despite the war raging above them and in the city, everything suddenly went silent for Luna. She pulled the key back in shock. Her jaw dropped, and her eyes widened. Batman now had a gaping, smoking hole in his chest. With a gag noise, he collapsed to the ground. He was dead before he could even hit the ground.

Bombshell stood right behind where Batman just stood. A glowing hand was raised right at Luna. The female Leaguer had a distant look on her face as she eyed the key and the meta-humans, "All targets present. Enacting mission to return the meat property back to the Reach."

Bart went pale as he recognized the slave look that Bombshell had, "She's on mode!"

* * *

Dani flew through the streets of Remnant, cutting through the Reach soldiers with practiced ease. After years of fighting against the tougher aliens, the foot soldiers lie like cockroaches being stomped. As she left a trail of bleeding bodies behind her, the heroine of old came across Reach soldiers capturing a few civilians that had been left behind in the rush out of the city.

Frowning, Spirit rushed forward to help the citizens. As she flew, a blade extended from her artificial foot. Before the first soldier could even realize what was happening, the halfa woman kicked at his head and decapitated him. Blood splattered against the other soldiers, temporarily blinding them. Spirit made them suffer for their weakness. They were cut down and blasted into pieces without a second thought.

Spirit quickly used her blades to cut the captives free, "Get to the evac area and stick to the shadows. You won't get lucky a second time."

The citizens quickly did as the ghost told them to do. Spirit watched as they rushed off. Without a word, she raised her real hand to send out a blast of energy to them. The blast stopped right before it hit them and transformed into a shield that stopped a blast of energy from knocking them off balance.

Once the citizens were gone, Spirit turned to the attacker, "Should have known that you would be the one to lead the attack. The Reach loves their irony. But…why not attack me?"

"You'd know that it was coming before I did anything. At least with that move, I had a chance to stop the meat," The large figure in front of her explained.

"True, I guess we've fought enough for you to know the limits of my power by now, Jaime," Spirit noted.

The one called Jaime was an extremely tall man with the muscles of a body builder. Blue armor in the shape of a beetle covered his entire body, "There is no Jaime, anymore. There is only Blue Beetle, Warrior of the Reach."

"Oh, trust me," Spirit rubbed the scars across her face, "I know, but old habits die hard. Even now, I see the skinny boy trying to impress me. The real Jaime sucked at hiding his attraction to me. Luckily, Victor was understanding."

Blue Beetle just stood there listening.

Spirit took a deep breath, "Before we fight for the last time, and I kill you…Why did you do it? Why kill Victor? Your masters would have benefited from keeping him alive."

"Does it matter?"

Spirit shook her head, "I suppose not. Goodbye, Jaime. For what it's worth, I hate what the Reach did to you…not you yourself."

"Hate is still hate."

"Heh…True. And I know a lot about hate," Spirit's eyes suddenly began to shift from their normal neon green to a deep purple. Her once normally shaped eyes shifted into a swirling vortex of ever shifting lines.

"Ah, that power. The Reach could never quite figure out a perfect strategy for that."

Spirit nodded. Vision's Premonition was the ultimate evolution of her abilities. While once she could only read the intentions of her opponents, she could now completely predict everything that her opponent would do until she attacked herself. That was how she knew that Blue Beetle was going to use his sonic cannon. The image of his next moves disappeared as she sent out an energy blast of her own. No time to waste waiting for a perfect opening. The last remnant of humanity was being cut away with each second that this fight dragged on. She had to end this as quickly as possible.

* * *

It was Bart's superhuman reaction speeds that ultimately saved Luna from Bombshell's follow-up attack. The girl was still numb at the realization that her trusted teacher had been a Reach mole the entire time and had just killed one of the few people Luna completely trusted and respected. Bart managed to drag her away just as Bombshell's glowing fist was right about to ram into her head.

As Luna was dragged away, she saw that a few of her friends had the opposite reaction to Bombshell's betrayal. In a rage at the death of his brother, Robin lunged forward with his staff ready to strike. He was quickly followed by coolheaded Anita and pragmatic Kai-Ro. After landing a few blows on the traitorous Leaguer, Robin flipped away and allowed his companions to attack their now ex-teacher. Anita muttered a spell to slow Bombshell's movements as Kai-Ro formed a bubbled around the woman to try to contain her.

Neither of these tactics proved effectual. Bombshell used her extreme power advantage to blow the shields away with a burst of radioactive energy. The force of energy knocked all the young fighters off their feet, except the ever overpowered Kryptonian in their group. Forcing her meekness down, Cir-El flew towards Bombshell at full speed to try and knock the woman out without really causing permanent damage. It was this mindset that allowed Bombshell to smack the less experienced girl around with ease.

Luna felt blood run from her split lip as she forced herself up. Still in a daze, she looked to her once trusted instructor. She couldn't understand how the Reach managed to bypass the League's security measures. Bombshell had been in the League for a long time now. Were the Reach planning and preparing for this the entire time?

"Luna!" Bart drew Luna's attention away from the fight, "LUNA! You need to get up!"

"I…Okay…" Luna forced herself up.

Mareena was quickly by the halfa's side, "Are you injured?"

"N-No…"

"Good, because we need you," Mareena pointed at Bombshell, "You are the only one who has the advantage over her. You need to lead this fight."

"But…

"Now is not the time for doubt," Mareena looked to the panicking citizens behind them, "If you do not fight right now, a lot of people are going to die. No time to think. No time to doubt."

"I…okay…No doubts," Luna said to herself. Her eyes suddenly flashed pink, "I-I got this."

* * *

Blue Beetle's armored hands shifted into curved beetle blades. Spirit dodged each of Blue Beetle's swings with ease. She then danced around a blast of plasma energy from an energy cannon from Blue's chest. As she moved, the halfa flipped over with the blade from her false leg sticking out ready to stab her enemy in the neck. Unfortunately for her, Blue's armor was thicker than she remembered. Despite cutting through the metal on his armor, she only left a thin cut on his flesh.

Her work was quickly undone as the armor worked to fix the hole. Blue Beetle confidently rushed forward to counter attack with sonic cannons. Spirit kicked one of the canons away with her real foot as her real arm blocked the other weapon. The sound waves that came out of the arm cannons tore through the nearby scrap buildings with ease, but Spirit wasn't concerned with that. Her focus was completely on her current and perhaps last fight.

Spirit's artificial arm shifted into its own weapon form. She swung it in front of the taller man and unleashed a concentrated blast of energy straight into Blue's faces. Although the warrior's armor protected him from damage, he was forced off balance. The halfa woman immediately took advantage of his weakness. She spun around with her Spectral Claw activated and cut across his ribs.

This time, she understood the thickness of the man's armor and managed to cut right through the metal. As she spun away, she grinned in satisfaction at the shout of pain and the spray of blood from her former friend. Once she was a safe distance from Jaime, she pointed her arm cannon at the weakened side of Blue Beetle with the intent to attack it again before the armor could heal. She was forced to abort the attack as she heard the familiar beeping sound coming from beside her head. Spirit tried to move, but she was too slow. An explosion occurred right beside her head.

With a grunt, Spirit flew out of the smoke and fire with her left side covered in burns. Blue Beetle must have deployed a bomb while she was attacking. The scarab must have predicted her ending point and placed the bomb accordingly. That damn A.I. was what was always the hard part about fighting a Reach warrior.

'There goes the idea of finishing this quickly,' Spirit thought to herself.

* * *

Luna had never been in a real fight before where her enemy went all out. She had, however, had more hours of training and intense sparring in her short life than most of the Leaguers had throughout their careers. It was this reason and her knowledge of every power Bombshell had which motivated her to rush in and save Cir- El from their brainwashed mentor. As Bombshell choked the Kryptonian girl, Luna rushed in and punched her target square in the jaw with a fist covered in glowing pink energy.

Bombshell stumbled back and clutched at her smoking face. Despite her desire to make sure her friend was okay, Luna made sure to follow up with another attack on her enemy. The halfa girl sent out a barrage of energy blasts towards the Reach controlled member of the League. Each blast smashed into the older woman and forced her to stumble back even further. Eventually, Bombshell had enough of the attacks and thrusted both of her hands out to send out a massive wave of energy that would have covered all of her students in radiation.

Luna wasn't about to let the attack make it to her friends, though. She held her hands out and let the giant wave hit her palms. As soon as the radiation hit her palms, Luna absorbed the energy into her arms and then into her own core. In mere seconds, the wave disappeared, leaving a further empowered Luna to fight against Bombshell.

In the time that Luna had absorbed the attack, Bombshell had managed to recover from the previous attacks. The older woman rushed forward with glowing fists ready to strike the girl down. It seemed that even a mind controlled Bombshell knew that far range energy combat was useless against the halfa. Instead, she tried to use her superior reach and battle experience to defeat Luna using close hand combat.

Quiet curses left Luna's lips. She had a hard time keeping up with Bombshell in hand-to-hand combat when Bombshell was holding back. Luna managed to block the first couple of blows by absorbing the combination of radioactive energy and kinetic energy with her hands. Eventually, Bombshell's superior combat prowess proved too much for her, though, and Luna was smashed backward just like how she did with Bombshell previously.

Luckily, Luna wasn't alone in this fight. Bart rushed behind Bombshell and kicked her behind the knees. This forced Bombshell to tumble to the ground. Mareena then jumped onto Bombshell's back and wrapped her arms around the Leaguer's neck. Suddenly, black eel tattoos appeared on Mareena's arms from beneath her long sleeved shirt. Electricity surged out and electrocuted Bombshell. Said woman screamed out in pain and shook in agony.

Once Bombshell was properly stunned, Mareena jumped away. The stunned Bombshell wasn't allowed to collapse, though. Kai-Ro and Anita caught the woman with chains of willpower and magic respectively. This held the recovering Bombshell up so that she was right in the way of Luna who was gathering a large ball of pink energy in front of her. With a roar, the halfa flung the ball of ectoplasm at the Leaguer and sent her flying back into a building which collapsed under the force.

Despite the appearance that Bombshell had been defeated, none of the young fighters let their guard down. They were about to chase the Leaguer through the rubble, but they were stopped when dozens of Reach soldiers flooded into the area. They were being led by a figure that looked very similar to Blue Beetle. The only difference was that the warrior's armor was black instead of blue.

With their attention on the now attacking Reach soldiers, none of the young fighters realized that Bombshell had recovered. The on mode Leaguer rushed to Mareena and grabbed her by the throat. The last Atlantian gasped and grabbed at Bombshell's hands. Before any of Mareena's friends could act or even say any words of comfort to their friend, Bombshell squeezed her hand with as much force as possible. The snap that followed nearly made the young heroes vomit and break out into sobbing fits.

"The Reach has already conducted all possible research on the Atlantians," Bombshell noted with a dull tone in her voice, "This meat was expendable."

* * *

Spirit danced around the twin blasts of concentrated sound that came out of Blue Beetle's arm cannons. As Spirit moved, she created two different orbs of energy around her like satellites. After ducking under Blue Beetle's attacks one more time, she phazed through the moon rock floor below her. The energy balls remained above ground, though. They began to fly towards Blue Beetle at rapid speeds.

Snarling, the Reach puppet tried to knock down the orbs with his sound attacks. Like their owners, the balls of energy danced around the beams of sound. Once the orbs were close to Blue Beetle, they went downward and rammed into the man's knees. The force of the following explosions knocked him off balance so that he fell down straight to the ground. As he fell, Spirit's hand popped out below his head and created a Spectral Claw to stab the warrior through the eyes.

Before Blue Beetle's head made contact with the ectoplasmic nails, wings burst from his back and stopped him. He quickly rose to avoid Spirit bursting from the ground to follow through with her attack. Spirit made sure to keep him on the defensive. A metal blade burst from her artificial arm to give all her limbs a deadlier edge. She flawlessly flowed through her attacks to cut the larger man. Through her combos, she managed to cut a few different parts of his body.

Eventually, Blue Beatle's chest blaster formed again and fired a beam of energy at his attacker. Spirit managed to create an energy shield, but she was immediately forced back. After skidding back a dozen feet, Spirit felt the attack fade so she dismissed her shield. Once the ectoplasm was gone, though, she saw that Blue Beetle had brought his arms together to create a battering ram.

Just as the ram was about to hit her, Spirit extended her arms forward and caught the battering ram. She managed to stop her enemy's momentum and get into a pushing contest with him. They were quickly forced to a standstill. Both of them decided to up their force. A jetpack formed in Blue Beatle's back to replace his wings as energy burst from Spirit's feet. This continued for a few moments before Spirit smirked and stopped her moment. Still holding the man, she flipped him over tossed him over his head. Just as she let go of him, Spirit swung her legs over and went for her enemy's arms.

Blue Beetle only grunted as he was sent flying. Once he skipped a few times off the ground, he immediately tried to push himself up. To his surprise, though, his vision was now extremely blurry. The Reach puppet looked to see his arm covered in bits of blood from his smaller cuts. Not only that, the inside of his forearms had extremely deep gashes that had blood pouring out of them. Disoriented, Blue Beetle couldn't keep himself from collapsing.

"Even if you have Reach tech, your body is still a normal human's," Spirit's smirked at the downed fighter, "You can only lose so much blood before your body shuts down. It helps that I know the exact places that bleed the most. Death by a thousand cuts. You Reach scum never did look in too deep to Earth sayings, did you?"

* * *

As Bombshell dropped Mareena, she got a perfect view of the Atlantian's broken neck. It was disgusting in its unnatural curve and sick points. What was worse was Mareena's eyes, though. Once bright orbs were now dull and full of horror. Mareena gasped and gagged while trying to move a body that refused to respond. In mere seconds, her eyes glazed over as the peace of death soothed her suffering.

Luna's lack of hardened battle experience proved to be her undoing. Unlike the veteran Leaguers, she could not just fight through seeing multiple loved ones killed before her eyes. Her entire mind shut down despite the danger around her. The others were not much different. Stress and grief overcame even the most stubborn of the children. They didn't even try to stop the Reach soldiers from capturing them.

Through the fog, Luna realized that Black Beatle had grabbed her and was holding her, "Main target acquired. Well done, meat. Disposing of the useless one was the best way to defeat the Earthlings."

"Thank you, sir," Bombshell bowed her head in respect.

As the shock faded, Luna's friends tried to struggle. Power inhibiting collars had already been placed around their necks, so none of the meta-humans could fight back. Even the non-powered Robin could do nothing as three different Reach soldiers held him down. Luna also tried to struggle, but despite not having a collar on her, she could not fight free of Black Beatle.

Black Beetle laughed, "I learned a lot about how to fight ghosts over the years, girl. None of your powers will get you free. Someone get me an inhibitor collar."

One of the soldiers obeyed their commander's orders. The soldier tried to put the collar on her, but Luna struggled and made the task more difficult. Frowning, Black Beatle increased the force of his hold, "Stop it, Project Legacy. You're only making it worse for you later. There's no—"

"Luna! Palms out!" A familiar voice sounded out.

Luna's eyes widened as she recognized the voice. She obeyed the command and turned her palms out. Electricity smashed into her palm. The power rushed through her body, allowing her to temporally use the electricity to her advantage. She surged the electricity out to shock Black Beatle and the surrounding Reach soldiers. They all shouted out in agony. Black Beetle was even forced to let go of her.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Box Lunch shouted out in a rage. She flew into the scene with her fists raised. Small dense cubes of energy appeared on her knuckles. The ghost hit Black Beatle with such force that he was sent was sent flying back into a rock wall. The cubes that had hit him quickly grew and covered his arms and head to hold him into place.

As Box Lunch did this, two men knocked the Reach soldiers away. One of them was a dark skinned man with graying dreadlocks. Dark shades covered his eyes while a large blue and yellow coat covered his body. The other man had his entire body covered in silver armor, except for the pair of wings that sprung from his back.

"Static and Warhawk," Bombshell pointed a glowing hand at the heroes, "You shall not—OOF!"

A giant of a man rammed into the woman and knocked her back into the rubble. His large form was covered in a torn trench coat, but his unnaturally large muscles were shown in the opening of the coat for all to see. Crimson hair burst from his squared head like fire, "Damn it. Can't believe she got through the cracks. I thought my mom evaluated her before she passed?"

"She did, Abuse," Static noted as he sent a surge of electricity to the young heroes collars to free them.

"S-Static," Bart rubbed his sore neck, "M-My dad…"

"He's fine. Helping the others in the city," Static explained, "He wanted to come when Batman's death alarm went off, but we needed him to help the civilians. And to think that I used to make fun of Terry's stupid heart monitor project…"

"Shit…Batman…Mareena," Warhawk looked to the corpses, "Kaldur made me promise to take care of her…"

"No time to mourn right now. You too, kids," Box Lunch watched as Black Beetle and Bombshell recovered, "Revenge comes first."

* * *

Blue Beetle's eyes suddenly shined red. Once again, wings burst from his back. Despite the blood running down his body, the former hero flew up into the air, " **Direct control on mode.** "

"Oh, the scarab. First time I've heard you in a while. Ever since you figured out to hide from my Premonition," Spirit examined Blue Beatles strange new eyes, "Didn't know that you could function that well when your meat is injured like that."

" **Extreme measures necessary. Current host close to ceasing. Once that happens, the mode will be crashed. Directive is now to take all surrounding enemies with him** ," Blue Beetle's scarab shifted his arm into blade form once.

"Not gonna happen," Spirit took a defensive stance, "I don't need to win now. I just need to waste time, and you know that you don't have a strategy I can't get around as long as I focus on defending."

" **There is one**." Blue Beetle rushed forward with his blades ready. His metal shifted as different egg shaped pieces of metal appeared across his body.

Vision's Premonition flared in Spirit's mind. Her eyes widened in horror. She desperately tried to move back, but Blue Beetle had a head with his jetpack. He was quickly in range for his plan. It was a plan that was near impossible to counter. Cursing, Spirit knew that her only chance to avoid what came next was to attack first. A beam of energy rammed into Blue Beetle's face, but the scarab didn't care as its host was blinded, concussed, and knocked off balance. After all, the meat would soon be dead. No need for self-preservation.

Spirit knew that she could only spit out profanities at this point, "Son of a—"

BOOM!

An explosion rocked the area as the bombs scarab had created went off. The energy that burst from the explosion completely consumed the ghost and the Reach warrior. The surrounding block went up into flames. Everything was reduced to rubble in an instant.

Once the smoke and flames died down, Spirit and Blue Beetle were actually shown to still be standing. Both of them were covered in first degree burns. Skin was blown off in different places. Spirit's artificial limbs had been completely blown away. They both looked like the walking dead. Despite everything, though, they were alive. That wouldn't be for long, though.

Spirit's one remaining eye looked down to her chest where Blue Beetle's blades were stabbed into her and shining in green blood.

"…bitch."

* * *

With the combined effort of the Justice League and the young heroes, Bombshell and Black Beetle were pretty much overwhelmed. The Reach fighters were quickly pushed back and beaten down. It only took a few seconds for the Earthlings to gain the advantage. That was until a large chunk of the city behind them blew up, that is.

Everyone turned as the explosion rang out. They could only watch as the fire danced. All the residents of Remnant had looks of horror across their faces. Luna was especially affected, though. For some reason, her heart twisted in her chest. Her instincts went haywire. A single thought popped into her mind.

"Grandma…" Luna whispered in horror. She didn't know how she knew, but there was no doubt in her mind that her caretaker was at the center of that disaster. Without another word, she rushed off toward the burning city.

"LUNA!" Box Lunch shouted out angrily, "COME BACK!"

With his enemies distracted, Black Beetle took in the situation. He was outnumbered by the meta-humans. One-on-one, he could beat any of them. But the numbers game was against him. Not only that, but the prime target had escaped with a low probability of returning. This mission was a failure. There was only one solution. The Earthlings belonged to the Reach, but if they wouldn't obey, then it was time for the final option.

Black Beetle smirked. His brother warrior had the right idea.

* * *

"So…" Spirit whispered out, "This is it…"

Blue Beetle was silent.

"Forgot how the Reach operates. Can't do much to avoid a kamikaze attack," Spirit grumbled bitterly.

Blue Beatle tried to remove the blades from Spirit's chest. To his surprise, though, Spirit reached up and held them in place with her remaining arm. He tried to force the blade out, but the halfa woman wouldn't let go.

" **What…are you…doing….** " It was obvious that Blue Beatle's body was giving out.

"Waiting…" Spirit explained, "She'll come. Never obeyed me before. No reason to start now."

" **She—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Without hesitation, Luna had come down from her flight and latched herself onto Blue Beetle's back. She immediately placed her hands onto the Beetle's scarab. With an angry roar, she began to suck in the energy from the scarab into her own body. With his weakened body and his arms trapped by Spirit, Blue Beetle could only scream out in agony as its life was sucked out of it. The armor covering the man began to fade away as the scarab died. All that was left was the body of Jaime Reyes.

With the armor gone, the blades faded away as well. Blood poured from Spirit's chest wound. Unlike a normal human, though, she could push through such blood loss. She moved in with her remaining hand covered with her last Spectral Claw. The halfa woman tackled Jaime to the ground, forcing Luna to let go and float back.

Roaring in rage that had built up over the past forty years, Spirit repeatedly stabbed the dying Jaime in every spot she could reach. Even when Jaime had clearly died and was a bloody paste, Spirit didn't stop until her body completely gave out on her and forced her to collapse to the ground beside Jaime's corpse.

* * *

Black Beetle took advantage of the heroes' distraction. He rushed to Bombshell with his blades ready. With a roar that drew the attention of his enemies back to him, he thrusted his blades into Bombshell's back. Everyone gasped in horror. None was more horrified than the stabbed woman herself.

"W-Why?" Bombshell questioned.

"The Reach has spent far too long investing on Earth's meat," Black Beetle droned out, "The 'humanity' of Earth has proven not worth the effort. You will never fully obey. The Reach may never have the Earthling meat, but at least I will get the satisfaction of ending all of your pathetic lives."

The other fighters rushed to Black Beetle, but the Reach warrior was too fast for them. He pulled his blades from Bombshell's chest and rocketed into the air towards the ships above them. It was time to leave the remains of the solar system once and for all.

Static was instantly by Bombshell's side, "Damn it. Can the damage be repaired?"

"No…Too much damage…" Bombshell closed her eyes, "The Reach has spoken. Humanity dies today."

Warhawk looked to Box Lunch, "Can you heal her?"

"Her body isn't flesh anymore," Box Lunch noted, "Can't manipulate it."

Abuse turned to the younger heroes, "Can any of you contain a nuclear explosion?"

Kai-Ro raised an eyebrow, "You cannot be serious."

"I-I can t-throw her," Cir-El stepped forward to do the task.

"No," Bombshell forced energy from her chest wound and forced everyone back, "The Reach has spoken. I will not allow interference."

Seeing that the woman wouldn't let them mess with her, Box Lunch looked to the other heroes, "Evacuate! Our only chance is to run!"

Static looked to the unstable opening in Bombshell's chest, "No way we can get out of range in time!"

"We have to try!"

* * *

 _Luna quickly moved by her caretaker's side. She flinched as she saw Spirit's hideous wounds, "Highfather have mercy…Grandma…"_

 _Spirit hazily looked up to her kin, "Luna…thank you for that…I needed that before I died…"_

" _Don't talk like that!" Hot tears streamed down Luna's face, "I'll got get Box Lunch. She can heal your wounds. You won't—"_

" _Hush," Spirit silenced the girl, "I'll be gone….before you get back. Just…stay with me…I don't want to die alone…"_

" _Grandma," Luna sobbed out. For the first time in a long time, Luna did as her caretaker ordered without question. She sat down next to the woman and gently lifted up the older halfa's head into her lap._

" _Good girl," Spirit allowed a ring to appear around her waist and transform her back to her normal form. She instantly coughed out, "Gack! Ah! Been a while...since I took this form…But I'd prefer to die like this…It'll prove that I lasted this long…"_

 _Luna's lips trembled._

" _Hey…Do I get a last request? Bury me…on Earth…" Dani stated, "I want to be…with the others…and be buried…on my home planet…"_

" _O-Okay…" Luna's tears fell from her chin and onto Dani's face._

" _Thank you…" Dani closed her eyes, "Luna…I'm sorry…"_

" _F-For what?"_

" _For what I said earlier…For how cold I've been your entire life…For being a terrible Grandma…" Dani gasped out as her lungs filled with blood, "I was…too hurt…Lost so many…didn't want to get close…didn't deserve you…"_

" _No! I'm sorry! I was such a brat! I should have listened to you more!" Luna sobbed hysterically, "I was so bad! You're right! My parents would have hated me!"_

" _No…no…Jinx died loving you, and Danny…" Dani's became weaker with each word, "He would be so proud…Be strong, Luna…You are our Legacy…desk…fix…everything."_

 _Dani said no more. Luna didn't even try to awaken her. It would be pointless. Her most precious person was dead. She gently placed Dani's head back down onto the ground. Leaning down, Luna gently kissed Dani on the forehead, "I will. I promise. I'll do everything you asked. But first I need to do something. I'll be back for you, Grandma."_

* * *

Everyone was in a panic. They were desperately trying to enter the cavern and get to the escape ship, but the ship had been damaged in the invasion. They were trapped. From his spot at the entrance of the cave, Bart could only shake his head. While the others panicked, he had other plans. Even if he had only a few seconds left, he had to find his dad. If he was going to die, it would be with family.

Before he could, though, he noticed Luna flying back towards where Bombshell was radiating off different surges of energy, "Luna!"

Bart's shout drew the attention of the other heroes from the damaged escape ship. They ran to the entrance of the cave and watched as Luna flew in close to the downed Bombshell. She flew in close with her palms out to absorb the energy blasting off the brainwashed Leaguer. Seeing the approaching girl, Bombshell tried to push out more surges of radiation push Luna back. This didn't slow the girl down at all. In fact, she sped up.

Snarling in rage, Luna jumped on top of Bombshell and placed her hands over the cut in the woman's suit. Bombshell could only look up in fear at Luna's hate filled look, "You…"

Luna hissed at her, "I did promise that I would absorb all your energy next time didn't I?"

"Wait. Have mercy—AAHH!"

Luna began to pull energy out of Bombshell. All the radioactive power ran up Luna's arms and into her body. Bombshell twitched and shouted in agony as the life was literally sucked out of her. In seconds, the Reach slave was drained to the point that her suit was completely flat. Luna didn't stop there. She continued to absorb the woman until there was literally nothing left.

Now filled with energy to the point that it was overflowing, Luna stood up. She was now covered in a complete halo of pink energy. Looking up, Luna saw the Reach ships retreating in the distance. Luna raised a hand towards the ships and sent out a giant beam of energy that shot up through the dome and towards the Reach ships. The burst of ectoplasm and radiation that followed completely disintegrated the Reach ships into ash.

Luna's venomous look didn't fade in the slightest as she watched the energy dance in the distance. She kept her hand up but turned it around so that she could properly flip the Reach off, "I don't do mercy."

"Luna! Luna!" Bart rushed over to the halfa in a blur, "That was crash…"

Bart flinched when Luna looked to him. He had never seen Luna look so angry before, "Yeah, it was."

"Y-You okay?" Bart questioned.

"No. I'm not," Luna turned away and flew back down to the city where the previous explosion had rang out. Without hesitating, Bart ran after her. Exchanging looks with the other heroes, Box Lunch also followed after the girl despite knowing that she wouldn't like what she found in the city.

* * *

As soon as he saw Dani's corpse, Bart vomited. He didn't even try to stop it. Perhaps it was everything that happened that day finally crashing in on him, but he just knelt and let everything in his stomach flow out. Luna didn't blame him. She would have done the same is she wasn't so mad.

"Oh Jesus," Box Lunch noted as she landed beside the children, "Dani…"

"It was Blue Beatle," Luna spit on the corpse by her cartaker's body, "He did this."

"B-Blue B-Beatle?" Bart eyed the bloody mush in disgust, "That's Blue? I can't believe that he's dead. When my dad and I were being held by the Reach, he seemed so invincible…"

"No one is invincible," Box Lunch noted.

"That's something I'm grateful for," A new man rushed to the scene in a blur. He was a tall man wearing a more armored version of the Flash's uniform, "Always wanted to see that bastard dead."

"Dad!" Bart rushed to his father and hugged him. The actions were immediately reciprocated.

"Flash…" Box Lunch sighed. She didn't have the energy for tradition right now, "How is it? How many did we lose?"

"Too many," Flash shook his head, "I did a quick sweep of the city. Couldn't keep track of how many dead there were. Didn't find anyone hiding either. Most likely, everyone at the escape ship is what's left.

"Damn…That has to be more than half," Box Lunch rubbed her face in grief and exhaustion, "We just about lost everything today."

"Not everything," Luna spoke out. Everyone looked as the girl gently picked up Dani's corpse, "I'm going to take Grandma home and wrap her up. Say my last goodbyes. Then…I'm gonna bury her."

"Luna, you don't have to—" Box Lunch was quickly interrupted.

"I do," Luna turned and began to fly away, "I need some time alone with her. Come get me when you absolutely need me."

* * *

Fortunately for the last remaining halfa, her home had been outside the blast radius. Luna had quickly wrapped Dani's body in any clean cloth she could find and laid the body onto the mattress in her room. Once that was dealt with, Luna wiped the tears from her eyes. All she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry, but she had things to do and not a whole lot of time to do it. Turning from the corpse, Luna walked back to the logo on her wall. She carefully pulled her favorite picture down from the wall, folded it up, and kissed it before slipping it into a pocket.

The halfa then pressed her fist against the logo before leaving her room. Once in the other room, she immediately unlocked the hiding place and pulled out the desk. With the desk now out for her to see, Luna went to work pulling out all the books and papers.

"Obsession…Absolution…Conviction…and her memoirs…" Luna mumbled to herself. Frowning, Luna did the only thing she could. She began to read.

* * *

 _And so ended the story of the Phantom Family. We weren't all together for long, but I think it was one of the most memorable times in history. It definitely was one of the most influential, because everything that happened after that was a result of our actions…and our disbanding._

 _For years, people asked why we drifted apart. All I can say is that Nekron's Blackest Night took its toll on all of us. In many ways, we lost what made us so strong in the first place. Danny never worked on the hope for a better future. Joel couldn't endure the hero lifestyle anymore. And I…I just lost the joy in my life. That's something that Luna tells me all the time…She's not wrong._

 _It didn't help that things didn't get any better. Just as things were about to calm down and heal, the Light recovered in a big way. Although it took a while to find a suitable replacement for Ocean Master, the Brain and Klarion quickly got replacements that were even worse than they were. The Team felt that in a big way not too long after the dust settled after the Blackest Night._

 _Then there were the threats from the heavens. The Reach. The Tamaranian Empire. Apocalypse…God, Apocalypse. I remember the first time I saw Darkseid. I get a permanent reminder of it every time I look at this blasted fake arm of mine._

 _In the end, though, it was Dark Dan that brought the end to everything. He was always the Ultimate Enemy, perhaps even more than Nekron. Not in raw power, mind you, but he always had bigger goals in mind that killing everything. After all, there are far worse fates than death._

 _You can trust me on that._

-From the personal memoirs of Danielle Masters

"Yeah," A small sigh came from soft pink lips, "I can't argue with you there, Grandma."

Neon green eyes with slits down the middle turned from the crumpled page to the binder that was currently being used to hold all the pages of the memoires. Once the final page was placed with the others, Luna reached to brush an extremely long strand of white hair with pink highlighted tips behind her ear. Her heart shaped face was set in a fixed frown as she stared at the memoirs along with the different books that Danielle Masters had written about her adventures up to the events of Nekron's Blackest Night.

A hand covered by fingerless gloves moved the four books to the side. She had already read all of them at length and had a good understanding of how things were before….before everything fell apart. With the books read and memoirs put back together, Luna turned her attention to the other papers on the desk.

…A long list of all known meta-humans and potential heroes…

…A base outline of the events of 2016…

…And blueprints to a very special machine…

"Ah…" Luna bit her lip, "So that's what you wanted to do…"

"Luna! Luna!"

Luna didn't react as a brown haired boy zipped into the room at amazing speeds, "Yeah, Bart?"

"I was worried. You were gone for a long time," Bart noted, "Come on, Box Lunch says that we need to get going."

"No."

"Um…No? You're planning on telling Box Lunch no?"

"Of course I am. Not like I ever listened to her before anyway," Luna began stacking all the papers on the desk, "I have a plan, Bart."

"Oh God…" Bart's face fell, "Every time you say that, we end up on mode with the League…"

"This is different. We're not going to deal with our crappy version of the League…" Luna nodded to herself as she thought, "We're going to need someone who remembers that time…Someone who would go along with this…Neutron. We need to bust him out of the penitentiary. Shouldn't be too hard now…"

Bart's eyes widened, "Are you insane?!"

"No. Just ambitious," Luna took a deep breath, "We're going to change everything, Bart. Make sure everything turns out good for as many people as we can. We'll save everyone…reunite the Phantom Family…stop Young Justice from falling…and prevent the Great War from happening on Earth. We'll just need to stop the Reach before they get a foothold and make us vulnerable to Dark Dan."

"And how do we do that, Luna?"

Luna grabbed the blueprints from the desk. She turned around and held them up for Bart, "Don't call me that. Every half-ghost needs a second name. Call me Legacy. We'll need to think of a codename for you too."

Bart looked at the blueprints. His eyes went wide as he read the name of the machine Luna planned to build. The Fenton Time Machine.

* * *

 **First off...yes, I understand the issue of having so many new characters. I tried to limit the time they got in the chapter so that it wouldn't be too annoying. FYI, Luna is the only OC in this chapter. If you can actually name all of the cameos in Luna Legacy, I will very much be impressed.**

 **Second...If you think that Luna's a bit of a brat with authority issues, you're right on the money. She was designed that way. If you really think of how she was brought up, though, you'll understand why.**

 **Finally...IMPORTANT AN: Okay...I've decided to go on hiatus. *hides as rotten fruit is thrown* Wait! Wait! Let me explain! Okay...I'm dedicating myself to write my first real original novel. I tried before back in Absolution, but I wasn't experienced enough as a writer to get it done. Now, after Conviction, I feel that my skills are tolerable enough to portray my visions in an acceptable light. But I can't completely dedicate myself to getting the book done if I'm trying to work on Desperation at the same time...not to mention my other story. So, I've decided to put a break on my fanfiction pastime until the book is finished. Already about a quarter of the way done with the first draft. Of course, second drafts aren't really my style. I more...edit my work until my eyes bleed.**

 **So...my overall goals right now...Finish first draft by beginning April. Finishing editing by mid-May. Get the book published by the end of 2017. In case you're wondering, the book is going to be titled Caged Demons: Entrapment. If you want to know more, feel free to PM me about it.**

 **So this is the last time you will see me for a while. I'm going to try to start posting again in June if all things work out. Which I really hope it does. When I do come back, I'll post a heads up at the end of this story. Then, when the next Monday comes around, I will take down the heads up and replace it with the preview chapter "Our Desperation." Then, I will post the very first chapter of Desperation which will be available through my author's page or on the YJ/DP crossover page.**

 **As a final treat for the last real chapter in Conviction (and in the series for a while), I would like to share a song with you that my most awesome Beta jaguarspot (who proofread this very chapter) made once she read this. Enjoy:**

 **...**

 **Young Luna Fenton, she was just fourteen,**

 **when her grandma drew a very strange machine.**

 **It was designed to view the world once seen.**

 **(She's gonna save them all, cause she is from the future)**

 **When she built it up, her best friend came in,**

 **and they both took their place inside of it.**

 **There was a great big flash, everything just changed.**

 **The time stream got all rearranged.**

 **(Phantom's Daughter)**

 **When they first arrived they realized,**

 **that long dead heroes were all around.**

 **The world was still safe, sound and free**

 **They alone could prevent calamity**

 **It was then that she knew what she had to do**

 **She had to stop all the evil from pulling through**

 **She's here to fight for me and you!**

 **She's gonna change it all**

 **Cause she's Luna Fenton**

 **Gonna bring us hope**

 **Cause she's Phantom's daughter**

 **Gonna save us all**

 **Cause she (is Legacy)**

 **...**

 **Until we meet again, I want to thank you all so much for reading and encouraging me to chase my crazy desire to be an author. The Struggling Warrior will return.**


	38. Our Desperation

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"If falling into desperation worked to make things better, then I would say, 'Let's all jump into despair.' But it doesn't help. The only way to truly find meaning and fulfillment is to look at the disaster, the pain, the difficulty, and know with complete certainty that good can come from this."

Yehuda Berg

* * *

 **Fourth in the** _ **Obsession**_ **series**

 **The Struggling Warrior presents…**

 _When I was very young, I often heard about the golden age. The time where the greatest of heroes stood tall. Together, they fought off evil and brought peace to the world._

 _In this period, no group shined greater than the Phantom Family. Completely united, they faced against foes and challenges that would have made every other family crack and fall apart._

 _For so long, they stood tall. They inspired and gave hope to keep living through the most troubling of circumstances. Even to this day, the symbol of the Phantom Family is synonymous with hope._

* * *

Dusk's enemy knelt before him defeated. Soul Shredder was pointed right at the strange fighter's neck. The ghoul didn't dare move his blade away from his foe's neck. The previous fight had been one of the strangest, most chaotic, and dangerous conflicts he'd had in a long time. If he gave the prisoner any room to move, it might very well be his end.

That's what he thought, at least, before he looked to his foe's eyes. While the alien's appearance had thrown him off during the fight, the strange look in his enemy's eyes made him think twice about his usual tactics.

"I see…" Dusk muttered to himself because he wasn't sure if the strange being in front of him could even understand him, "Causing all this destruction while having eyes like those…"

He instantly knew what he needed to do. Another second of thought wasn't even necessary. Dusk quickly removed his sword from his foe's throat and brought it above his head. Then, with a roar, he brought the Fright Knight's legacy down to the defeated enemy before anyone could react. Unlike his previous swings of Soul Shredder, though, he didn't intend use the weapon's special ability. No, this time, he was aiming for one clean cut.

Soul Shredder cut its target in half with ease.

* * *

 _Eventually, though, the time and challenges took their toll. With each new enemy that arose, a member of this family would fall._

 _Still, they did not give up. They persevered and used the memory of their fallen as motivation, and the enemies always fell before their might._

 _Unfortunately, this could not last forever. There are only so many people in one family, after all. Soon, their numbers began to dwindle until only a few were left. But they remained tall under the banner of the head of the family, Danny Phantom._

* * *

Spirit felt warm nervous sweat roll down her body. Her Premonition was screaming at her from dozens of different intentions all at once. She had never experienced such a strange mix of intentions from a voice that were all so similar. While her mental power was being assaulted, her body was trapped by different knives pointing at her all across her body and a long thorned whip that was wrapped around her.

"Why hello there~"

A mature adult woman's body draped itself across Spirit's back, ignoring the blades and whips. Spirit felt a lump grow in her throat as hot breath hit her ear. The intentions dancing off the woman behind her were too wild to understand.

"How rude…You're supposed to say hello back, sweety~"

Spirit flinched as manicured hands began to grope her body. A wet tongue moved across her jaw and left a trail of saliva in its wake.

"How rude, but I'll forgive you," Thorn worked her way around to make eye contact with Spirit, "After all…you are the woman my son loved enough to give his life up for, right?"

* * *

 _Phantom was the cornerstone of the family. As long as he stood strong, the Family and their allies would always remain strong. With so much pressure and cracks, however, the cornerstone eventually will shatter._

 _The day came where the Phantom was asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. He did so without hesitation. All of his power, his dreams, and his obsession were all sacrificed to defeat Nekron the Reaper. He sacrificed himself to give the world one last chance._

 _This sacrifice would ultimately be in vain. For without him, the Phantom Family could no longer exist. Broken and full of despair, they separated and chose vastly different paths. This was when the golden age ended._

* * *

Dusk felt the cold metal of the gun press against his forehead. Even if he wanted to use his intangibility, it wouldn't work in this instance. All he could do was look forward to the person threatening his life.

"No…"

The image of the gun holder suddenly became blurry. It was at that moment that Dusk realized that he was crying. His legs suddenly gave out on him. Soon, the ghost was kneeling. Yet the gun continued to be pressed against his head.

With his body numb and his mind blown, Dusk could only let his tears fall. He tried to speak, but his words only came out in an incomprehensible sob. This continued several times before he finally managed to get his words out.

"I…I don't…"

"What's wrong, Joel? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"J-Jason…I-It c-can't b-be…I…I saw your body…"

The unmasked Red Hood glared down at the defenseless ghoul. Shaking his head, he did the only thing he could in this situation. He pulled the trigger.

* * *

 _The world didn't stop on their accounts, though. Problems continued to pop up. Old enemies regained power while new enemies arrived. Slowly, the world began to burn as the heroes failed to rise to the challenge of fighting against the heavens._

 _Eventually, it got so bad that the world had to call out for the Phantom Family once more. They begged and pleaded for help against foes and situations that they couldn't possibly beat. None of their cries were answered._

 _The Phantom Family was no more. They had given everything they possibly could give. No secret hero was there to save the day as the world burned from the alien invaders._

* * *

Spirit was desperately clutching at her head. She had never felt that before. There was so much pain. It was an agonizing pain that seemed to stab into her very soul. The only thing that existed around that was the deep desire for the pain to come to an end.

But then…there was nothing…

As a ghost, Spirit was very well acquainted with death. This was different, though. There was peace in death. There was comfort. All that existed now was a lingering cry of complete suffering. Then, nothing. It was the pain of being completely erased into nonexistence.

Tears ran down her face. She clenched her fists so hard that her nails pierced her skin. A low hiss escaped her lips. This was sin. This was unforgivable. This needed to be punished. Dark thoughts ran through her mind. Images of cutting off limbs flashed through her mind. That was right. This didn't call for death…

She was going make the person responsible for this wish for death.

* * *

 _The world burned as different species raged war against each other. Earth was the prize everyone wanted, and in their violence to obtain it, they destroyed it. All that's left is decaying rock and the moon that orbits around it._

 _It was on that moon that I lived most of my life watching as the planet my ancestors called home continued to fall apart. I felt shame and despair each day knowing that I could do nothing to help like my family did. For I was the last remaining member of the Phantom Family._

 _I am their Legacy. I am all that is left of their hopes, dreams, and sacrifices. Each day I tried my best to uphold their memories, but it couldn't last. Humanity was holding on by a string as it was, and when that string was finally cut, I knew what I had to do. I had to go back. Back to the time where the fires first began to rage, and answer the calls for help._

* * *

The sound of her hand smacking his face sounded throughout the area. In her rage, she moved without thinking. Dani's fingers tingled from the force of the blow but her target was a lot worse. His pale cheek was now an injured red filled with shame and regret.

"How dare you…" Dani felt tears pool in her eyes, "You should have been here! If you were here, then none of this would have happened! Why?! Why did you have to run off for so long?! We needed you! He needed you!"

Joel did not turn to look at her. His face stayed pointed where she slapped it. His dull eyes looked forward to the object of the day's despair.

"You! You…" Dani chocked out a sob as she collapsed onto her adopted brother. He caught her protectively in his arms, "I should have been here. I should have done something. We…We're terrible siblings. We should have helped him. He was weak, and we just abandoned him. He…He never would have done that…"

Tears began to leak from Joel's own eyes, "No…He wouldn't have…"

"We…We need to fix this…Somehow…"

"We will," Joel's eyes never left their target. It hurt him more than anything he had ever experienced. No wound or loss could compare to this. His family's hope was gone in an instant, and the stone before him was just a terrible reminder of that.

 _Daniel Fenton_

 _April 19, 1995 – March 26, 2016_

 _A Hero_

* * *

 _Dusk. Spirit. Phantom. Plasmius. Four halfas about to be made five._

 _My name is Luna Fenton._

 _I will go back._

 _I will save the world._

 _I will prevent the dark future the only way I possibly can._

 _I will rebuild my family, and together we will do whatever is needed to save the world. Even if we have to become the villains that this world will curse._

* * *

 _Because this is my…our…the world's…_

"I understand now. Sometimes, people must die for the world to be made better."

"He can't be dead! He…He just can't be!"

"When was it exactly? When was it that I started hating being a superhero?"

"What do I want? That's easy. I want to make my father proud of me."

"We're just a bunch of freaks and losers, aren't we? Just a bunch of outcasts that no one cares for anymore…"

"Oh, please keep screaming. It just makes this so much more enjoyable."

"You…You're a monster! A monster with no pity! How can a man once called a hero be so cruel?!"

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't just want to give up and die."

"Traitor is a strong word. Just because you're all a bunch of sheep doesn't mean I have to be."

"It's all for the betterment of mankind."

 **DESPERATION**


End file.
